Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture:

   Dr. Randy Pausch was a man of ultimate character. Since my first encounter with one of his lectures earlier in the semester, I have been intrigued by this gentleman. After watching "The Last Lecture," I again was reminded of why I was touched by his words the first time I heard him speak. He wasn't only a man with tips about time management skills, he was brilliant in the way he used words to inspire and motivate people to better their position, whatever that may be. I can only imagine what it would have been like to be present in the Carnegie Mellon University's McConomy Auditorium then night of his last lecture. I'm sure it was thrilling, especially knowing the fact that Dr. Pausch was on his last leg so to say with his health problems. He was very quickly approaching a premature death and still had the intentions of hopefully, helping other people with his words. This man is a hero who had life figured out, unfortunately, things he couldn't control took his life.
   Getting away from the emotional side, his message was, and is, genius. He began by talking about achieving personal dreams and enabling others to achieve their dreams as well. He believed he had achieved all of his childhood dreams and that sometimes enabling others to do the same is even more fun. Anything is possible and I think he didn't want us to lose sight of that. The inspiration and permission to dream is huge in his mind, and I think should be a key aspect of everyone. His points about playing on sports teams, experiencing new things, and trying your best all intervene into something bigger than a singular act or subject. If you play on a sports team or join some type of club, you will learn things like teamwork, leadership, responsibility, discipline, and other helpful attributes that you will want to be polished in later on in life. Of course everybody wants to be the star of the team but he used a quote that summed up the greater principle which stated, "experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted." He calls this Indirect Learning or Headfakes where even though you may not be physically successful you still gain positive attributes as you go after them. In summary of goal achieving, you may not achieve every single one of your goals but you will come away from pursuing them with something very valuable.
   Dr. Pausch speaks of adversity as a "brick wall." Says they are there not to stop us, but to show us how badly we want something. This makes sense because if you want something bad enough, you will do anything possible to get what you desire. If you still don't get what you desire even though giving it your all, I would think that person could be content about his/her efforts and move on positively from there. I know if I give something my absolute "all" and I still don't come out exactly where I want to be, I can still live with the fact that I tried my best! Most of the time when you do give your all to something you end up on the right path anyway.
   There is a lot to learn from this video and I am glad that I was able to get the chance to watch it. Dr. Pausch made me realize that not only should you break through the "brick walls" that try and bound you way from success, but also try and help others do the same! Especially after you have reached all of your goals in life. I hope that one day I am able to say, as he was, that I captured all of my childhood dreams and also found comfort in helping another person or multiple people do the same!