dlovell, Mon, May 12th, 2008
Randy Pausch is a dying man. I don't know him. We've never met or talked on the phone. But I know a lot about Randy, his family, the cancer that's choking the life from him all too early, and the way he's chosen to live and die.
Randy has an aggressive form of cancer, and he was recently given three to six months before his health would deteriorate drastically. So, on Sept. 18, Randy gave his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon, a talk entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." It's a striking and brutally honest address. It's funny, insightful, and filled with amazingly simple tips on how to live life.
Throughout the lecture, Randy leads you through his life, and the satisfaction and pride he has in achieving so much in such a short time. This is not a person who finds out he's got six months to live and decides to cram as much life as he can into half a year, but one who finds he has six months to live and says, "Okay. I've done more than I could have wished for."
I saw the video of Pausch's speech for the first time a couple of months ago. It was touching and brilliant then. Now, the video has been viewed more than 7 million times and is inspiring people all over the globe. Randy now has a book published and a website dedicated to following him from one day to the next. He's sharing his philosophy of putting everything you can into life with the world.
I'm not going to be a spoiler, because I really think you should watch this video. But one point the really resonated with me was that you should never put off your future. Sieze the life you want today, put everything you can into it, and recognize that you may not have a tomorrow.
Please watch and enjoy.
