Randy Pausch: Just want the Doctor ordered…
Motivational, Uncategorized September 25th, 2007
During a recent routine annual physical, my doctor noticed some swelling in my stomach. That led to x-rays, a sonogram, and then last Friday a HIDA scan. It looks like a pretty good possiblity that I will be selling my gall blader on ebay.
When doctors start having to look carefully in places inside your body, one can’t help but wonder. I am NOT a worrier but the earlier findings did cause me a moment to pause and ponder my mortality (you can imagine my wife thought about it a little too). It’s reassuring that my doctor isn’t worried, so I’m not. If even it was something serious and I was looking at a shorter life than planned, I really have no regrets. Life has been good. I have experienced lots of love, laughter, and living and thankfully the gall blander just doesn’t seem to really be necessary.
I like to think that IF I were looking a the end of life (and I’m NOT!), I’d handle it with the grace, dignity, and humor of Carnigie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch who has cancer is only expected to live a few months. He gave his last lecture last week. It’s worth more than a quick watch. It’s worth a lifetime semester. His ”last lecture” was delivered without the sad tone one might expect. In fact, Pausch is quite funny and totally gets what this blog is all about…Living Rich. He values what is important and has lived a live with passion, meaning, and purpose.
Both Wall Street Journal and ABC news covered it. There are two versions below:
1) WSJ version - about five minutes
2) ABC News Version - about 18 minutes
What would you say if you were giving your last lecture?
Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com
Some lessons from Randy Pausch’s last lecture that especially moved me:
1. Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.
2. Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
3. Never lose the child-like wonder.
4. If we do something which is pioneering, we will get arrows in the back. But at the end of the day, a whole lot of people will have a whole lot of fun.
5. Be good at something; it makes you valuable.
6. If you live your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself, and the dreams will come to you.
Check out the tribute quiz on the lecture at http://www.mystudiyo.com : you can add your own questions at the end of the quiz.
http://www.mystudiyo.com/activity.php?act=558
[...] minutes later, I learned that the author of that book and former Carnegie Mellon died today. His Last Lecture, for which I wrote about last fall, had a great impact on me. In fact, I think he wrote about [...]