Insightful, pointed, funny quotes from Steve Jobs are flying over the web (many through Apple inventions). The ones I keep coming back to: Do what you love. Do what’s truly interesting to you.

I can only imagine what some said when he quit college and took a calligraphy class. Ten years later, he has Apple create fonts.

But even if he didn’t, would it matter? Does everything we do have to have something to show for it, a concrete result, a high return on our investment? What’s so bad about “wasting time?” I doubt, had he never sparked fonts, that Steve Jobs regretted taking that class. I doubt that every interest he followed led to a spectacular innovation. And the world is better for his diversions…certainly his life was.

I am far from perfect at this. Hearing him speak was a wake-up call for me. I just came back from a marvelous trip overseas, and promptly put myself to the grindstone to make up the “lost time.” I realized that I was making my own world more…narrow. So this week is about connecting with friends, gardening in our summer-like weather, and yes, getting work done—but with a focus on the work I love, making the best contribution I can make, not the grindstone.

Are you doing what fascinates you? Causes you to smile? Quickens your heart?

What are you waiting for?