Inspiration: The Last Lecture
This is a writing about a video from a computer science professor from Carnegie Mellon University US, Randy Pausch. The video is titled ‘The Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams’, it is an ironic title because at the time the lecture delivered the professor was chronically sick and given a terminal diagnosis that he would only be able to live for a short amount of time. He passed away in 2008 around ten months after he gave the lecture.
The first time I watched the video was around 2010 when working on my undergraduate final project. There are a lot of lessons that can be learned from the video. I will write some quotes from the video that I think resonate well with my own life so far. As I believe different people would derive different lessons depending on their own experiences.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo[/embed]
“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”
There are a lot of goals and dreams that one may want to achieve, each of them have their own set of challenges. These challenges are the brick walls that need to be overcome by anyone who wants to accomplish their goals. Every phase of living has their own brick walls whether it is from oneself or from others. The ones who can leap over the brick walls are the ones who have the greatest determination toward their goals.
“When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care.”
As man, we often do wrong things in our life. Some of us fortunate enough to meet with peoples who want to remind us of our mistakes, whether they are teachers, families, friends or colleagues. These reminders or critics are the compasses that can give us a guidance towards a well-lived life. These criticisms are some of the most valuable gifts that anyone can receive.
“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.”
Some goals can elude from us, because of unsuitable conditions or lack of requirements. But these missed goals often times are more valuable when they are not achieved, because they give experiences. These experiences can be utilized for a bigger goals or into something different entirely.
This video also made me ponder. What will I do when I am in his shoe? will I be as positive as him? or the opposite? Will I be able to leave a good legacy as what he has done with Alice, ETC, Lectures, books, etc? or the reverse?
These are some of the lessons and questions that really resonate with me. There are others that I think are very valuable. Maybe next time when I have the time to rewatch it I will have a different perspective and different lessons that I can learn.
