What does it mean to have a well lived life?
Is it Success? Wealth? Fame? Achievements? A happy family? These are just few things that we work so hard to acquire in this life, personal goals and earthly worries occupies most of our time that we tend to forget that our lifetime is limited. Death is an inevitable fate that all of us must face. The death of a loved one is by far one of most enlightening life experiences that reminds us of what truly matters.
My grandfather passed away last April of 2021. Back then, as me and my family are walking my grandfather to his grave, I had an epiphany. I wanted to write about the sorrow, guilt, and regret that I felt in that moment. As I was dealing with grief, I stumbled upon the book The Last Lecture written by Randy Pausch, he is a computer science professor who delivered his last lecture while suffering pancreatic cancer. A final lecture is supposedly a hypothetical “final talk” where academics present what wisdom they want to share to the world if it were their last chance to do so. In his lecture, Pausch shared his inspirational life lessons and fatherly wisdom with humor, optimism, and wit. Here are few of the valuable lessons from Pausch that I believe are worth sharing.
12 Lessons from The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
- We cannot change the cards we are dealt with, just how we play the hand.
- Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. Oftentimes, experience is the most valuable thing you have to offer.
- Have specific dreams. And if you want it bad enough, never give up.
- Listen to feedbacks. Learn how to judge yourself, or else how can you tell if you’re getting better or worse?
- Arrogance will limit what you’re going to be able to accomplish in life.
- Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.
- The best shortcut is the long way. Work hard. Try things and don’t worry about failing. If you work hard enough today, there will be things you can do tomorrow that you cannot do today.
- Admit when you don’t know something. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t stop until you understand.
- It’s not what you say it’s how you say it.
- Time must be explicitly managed like money. Are you spending your time on the right things?
- No material possessions can make up for a missing parent.
- Always have fun.
On July 25, 2008, Randy Pausch passed away due to pancreatic cancer. Years later, his lecture is still one of the most inspiring and impactful videos to date. I highly recommend reading the book The Last Lecture or watch the actual lecture in this link. To answer the question, what does it mean to have a well lived life? For Pausch, “it’s not about how to achieve your childhood dreams, it’s about how you lead your life, if you lead your life the right way the karma will take care of itself, and the dreams will come to you.”
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Thank you for reading. See you on the next blog post.
The Glow Up Diet 