96 - Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life
This episode explores how to stop living by default and start choosing your life with intention. Inspired by Steve Jobs, it reframes how we trade time and challenges you to stop waiting for permission.
If You’re Waiting for Permission, You’ve Already Given It Away.
Every day, we make trades.
We trade time for meetings, to-do lists, expectations, emails, content, errands.
And most of it, we never consciously chose.
In this episode of Pattern Cognition, we explore one of the most powerful and personal ideas from Steve Jobs:
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
It’s a well-known quote. But it hits differently when you ask yourself honestly:
Am I choosing my life? Or just reacting to it?
• Most people operate on inherited scripts. Career paths, lifestyle goals, and success metrics are often chosen by others and repeated by default.
• Time is your most valuable leverage. You can always earn more money. You can’t earn back time.
• Living intentionally means making harder decisions. Choosing what you want might cost approval, comfort, or perceived security, but the alternative is regret.
• Steve Jobs didn’t follow the paths he designed. And he didn’t wait for permission to do it. He trusted his intuition and moved toward what felt aligned.
• The biggest trade is the one you don’t even notice. When you let autopilot define your life, you hand over the steering wheel quietly and permanently.
This episode is your reminder that clarity doesn’t come later. It comes from making one small, intentional choice now.
Listen to this episode of Pattern Cognition to learn how to navigate these challenges and invest wisely.
Highlights:
00:00 Introduction: The Value of Time
00:18 Living by Default vs. Living by Design
00:26 Embracing Intuition and Taking Risks
00:34 The Ultimate Question: Whose Life Are You Living?
00:38 Conclusion: Seize Your Own Path
Links:
Website: https://www.sidmofya.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidmofya/
Transcript:
Your time is limited, so don't waste it. Living someone else's life. Think about it this way. Every day we trade our time for something, work obligations, distractions, family. But are we trading it for what actually matters to us? Most people live by default, following paths laid by others. Jobs built his legacy by rejecting that. He trusted his intuition, took risks, made choices. That aligned with his vision. So here's the question for you and me. Are you living your life or someone else's? Because if you're waiting for permission to do what you truly want, it will not be given.