Recently, I was recommended this book "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch by my sister Caroline. It is based on his talk which was modelled after an ongoing series of lectures to an consider their demise and to talk on what matters to most of them. However, the author didn't have to imagine as if his last, as it is truly his last, as he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He just died on 25 July 2008. The lecture he gave wasn't really about dying but about the importance of overcoming obstacles and of enabling of dreams.
His last lecture on "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" can be found on YouTube. Here, I have linked his short 10 minutes overview and his full 1 hour 20 mins long lecture.
I have watched the video clips and am almost finishing the last bit of the book. It has been inspirational and yet humourous. I was reading it on the bus journey and I couldn't help nodding my head to some of his sharings, which are very real and I can even identify with some of them. Occasionally, I was smiling like an idiot to myself that all these are so very true -- of what life has installed for us and what would be our response. Do we want to walk a life of victory or simply dwell in our own circumstances?
Below are just 2 very practical lessons that I've picked up from the book.
- When you are screwing up and nobody tells you anything to you anymore, that means they have given up on you. When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody is bothering to tell you anymore, that's a bad place to be. You may not want to hear it, but your critics are often the ones telling you that they still love you and care for you and want to make you better.
- The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something.
There are plenty of other interesting life lessons, and I strongly recommend this book to you.
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