Focus.

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” – Steve Jobs, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal (1993)

Upon Steve Jobs’ passing this week, I have been thinking a lot about things like 

innovation, drive, goals, achievement.  

What did Steve Jobs have that many people do not?  

What contributed to his ability achieve creative productivity  
at an extraordinary level?  

A main theme within my dissertation is creative productivity, so I spend lots of time reading, writing, and thinking about the concept lately. Basically, creative productivity is an individual’s creation of a product which somehow solves a problem or makes a positive impact.  In gifted ed, we talk lots about this concept, because it’s exactly what we want our students to do with their advanced abilities and talents - develop their potential to the fullest in order to become productive members of society by learning and applying real world skills to solve real world problems.  

Within my thoughts, I’ve also pondered Steve Jobs’ faith and eternity.  I do not presuppose anything about his personal faith, nor will I make a judgement on his eternity, simply because I don’t believe that’s the job of any human - I’ll leave that up to God.  Having not known Steve personally, I know very little of his faith and religious beliefs.  I did hear a portion of a graduation address he gave a few years back at Stanford, and while he talked a lot about death and its motivating influences on his life, drive, and achievement, I was disappointed that God nor eternity was mentioned.  I am not faulting him in any way, just stating my view of one snippet of some words he spoke during one point in his life.  My husband and I are both planning to read his biography when it's released, and as my husband said, "I'm hoping to find something in there that surprises me."

Just this week, I was reminded that due to my Myers-Briggs personality style of INFP, I filter everything through my personal value system - so I can't help but think very deeply and strongly about the values and beliefs of others - and how those things drive them. I also have to wonder... Was the Truth ever shared with him?  Did he have a chance to hear about Jesus Christ?  That is another post all in itself, but it really frustrates me when Christians become super judgemental about other people's faith or lack thereof, while being very blase about sharing their own faith on a daily basis.  Perhaps the world would have more Christians if the current ones were not quite so lazy/distracted/hypocritical... but I digress.  

These ponderings have led me to the following question:  Should/can Christians look up nonbelievers as inspiring influences in their own lives?  I believe the answer is yes.  Steve Jobs, like many others before him, attained extraordinary success in his earthly life - in his thinking, relationships, and leadership.  We would be well served to observe the positive traits in his personality and apply them to our own lives, in order to better ourselves in many different ways - including our faith and witness.  

This week, I have thought long and hard about what exactly it is that sets extraordinary people apart.  It is very tough to pinpoint one specific quality, but  

FOCUS is definitely in the top 3.  

Across the board, successful people have clear focus.  They have delineated a set of goals, or even a singular goal, which has become their life’s directional compass.  Everything they do somehow relates back to that goal.  Steve Jobs had clear focus, as did many, many others who have made lasting impacts upon our world, both large and small.  One news reporter commented that he achieved every goal he set for himself.  Now, I find this a little hard to believe, but based upon his achievements, I’m sure he did achieve the majority and came very close on the rest.  

What stops the rest of us from achieving our goal(s)?  

Distractions!  We live in such a fast-paced world, with abounding opportunities, activities, and technologies pulling us in so many directions.  Some distractions are necessary and even good for us - i.e. An unexpected illness may serve to redirect your focus to what really matters - but the majority of our distractions are simply good things that are not the best for us but that we keep around for a variety of reasons - usually because we have always done things a certain way and are unwilling to change, or because we overcommit ourselves too often.  Things that are not helping us to achieve our goals, not making us better people, but things that are not necessarily harming us either.  Things that are just facilitating our maintenance of “ordinary,” “status quo.”  

This week, Steve Jobs has inspired me:  To reevaluate and redefine my goals.  And to examine and filter out the unnecessary distractions in my life which are keeping from attaining those goals.


Many people have had goals - worthy, creative, lofty, and practical goals.  Few have achieved them.  Even fewer have truly achieved what we academics like to refer to as “creative productivity.”  I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be included in that camp.  Like Steve, I’d like to be remembered as “thinking different” and being extraordinary - in my faith, as a wife and mother, and in my teaching and research.  Last New Year's Day, I reevaluated and reset goals for myself through a challenge from one of my favorite bloggers, Kat, an amazing Christian lady with admirable focus who inspires women and mothers daily through her writing at Inspired to Action.  If you've never set goals for yourself or haven't revisited them in awhile, I strongly encourage you to get on it today!

Here’s to renewed focus.   
To new and redefined goals.   
To thinking differently.  

And to living today fully and without regret.  

Because none of us are promised tomorrow.