Life Altering Words

I happened to tune into Good Morning American this morning as my kids were getting ready for school. I am so glad I tuned in!!!! They interviewed an amazing man. His name is Randy Pausch. Randy Pausch, is a 46-year-old Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor, who has terminal cancer and expects to live for just a few more months. The Wall Street Journal recently wrote about Pausch's awe-inspiring final lecture "How to Live Your Childhood Dreams." What an inspirational, uplifting, thought-provoking speech. As for Randy Pausch, he is an amazing man. PLEASE, PLEASE do yourself the favor of watching his speech. It is shown in entirety on http://www.abcnews.com/. I believe the speech is approx. two hours long....but SO, SO worth it. If you have NO time, at least play the clip of his interview with Diane Sawyer.

I want to briefly point out some of the "finer" points that were shown on Good Morning America.

1) "Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls aren't there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want things. The brick walls stop the people who don't want it badly enough."

2) "Find the best in everybody. It sounds trite, but if you wait long enough, other people will show you their good side. If there's anything I've [learned] that is absolutely true. Sometimes it takes a lot longer than you might like. But the onus is on you to keep the hope and keep waiting."

3) "We cannot change the cards we are delt, just how we play the hand."

4) As you grow, you may discover your real friends will surprise you. When you are screwing up and nobody is saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up. "When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody is bothering to tell you anymore, that is a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones telling you they still love you and care."

5) "Don't complain, just work harder."

6) "It's not about how to achieve your dreams, it's about how to live your life."

Please know, this is not a spiritual speech, but there are lots of good things to learn. There seems to be a certain clarity that comes when people are facing death. And this gentleman has alot to teach us all.