Life Lessons from a Renowned Professor with only Months to Live
By Mike Krsticevic | February 16, 2008
It has often been said, “you can not truly live life until you conquer your fear of death“.
One professor who knows exactly what that statement means is Professor Randy Pausch.
Professor Pausch gave his “Last Lecture” entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA on 18 September 2007.
The “Last Lecture” concept is an invitation given to top academics who are asked to give a hypothetical “final talk”, i.e., “what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?” Professor Pausch’s “last lecture” had extra special significance.
At the age of only 45 (in Sept 2006), Professor Pausch was told that only 4% of pancreatic cancer sufferers (of which he was now diagnosed as one) lived for 5 years after their diagnosis. At the time of the “Last Lecture”, due to his deteriorating medical condition, Professor Pausch was told his odds had reduced to 3 to 6 months of good health left (at best).
Although Pausch “accepted” his imminent fate, his approach to life both before and after learning of his cancer, and the magical way he tells his story, holds some incredibly valuable lessons for all of us.
The lessons are, in my opinion, so valuable I have ‘mind mapped’ the main points of his ‘last lecture’ and share them with you here. CLICK HERE to download the 1 page PDF mind map (537 kb).
I have spent 3 hours preparing the mind map for you (including the time spent re-watching the video) and I have learnt so much more by being actively involved. For this reason I strongly recommend that you take the time to read and study the mind map after you watch the video. I believe it will be well worth your time.
The video below is the full 1hr 16 min speech that is worthy of viewing in its entirety.
Grab yourself a nice cup of coffee, snuggle up with someone you love, and listen to the words of wisdom espoused by Professor Ralf Pausch (keep a box of tissues nearby as some parts are quite moving).
In summary, as Professor Pausch says, “We can not change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand”.
Note: if the embedded video is not visible below, click “Refresh” on your browser.
Professor Pausch is still doing very well medically. He has outlasted his doctor’s predictions of a maximum of 3 to 6 months of good health left. Mentally, they don’t come much stronger than Professor Pausch.
If you’d like to keep up to date on his medical and day-to-day news, click on the following link to go to his personal website at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/index.html.
Topics: Life Lessons |
One Response to “Life Lessons from a Renowned Professor with only Months to Live”
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February 25th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Thanks for all the effort. Great mind map to an inspiring video.