Sunday, March 6, 2011

Blog Post # 7

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams



Wow! This video truley makes you think. First off, to know that someone who knows they are facing a near future of unhealthiness and possible death to be so positive in a lecture is amazing. makes me think about my life and how blessed I am right now and how there is someone always worse off than me. Dr Randy Pausch should be an inspiration to all of us. This video, his last leture, was the longest video yet that we have had to watch as an assignment for this class. Although lengthy, at the end you felt like you were listening to someone you knew personally.

I think he made several great points throughout his speech. He truly believes that everyone should follow their childhood dreams and anable others to follow theirs in order to live a happy fulfilling life. As a future educator, I hope that I to will enable children to know that their childhood dreams are not out of reach. Just because one dream is not reached does not mean that you did not get anything out of it. My favorite line of Dr. Pausch was "experience is what you get when you don't get what you want." This is a lesson that I will now carry with me forever.

He talked alot about brick walls. Alot of times in life when we are striving to accomplish something we run into what seems like this dreadful brick wall. I love how he turned something which can be viewed so negatively into something positive. Most importantly, not to let these brick walls discourage us, instead know that they give us a chance to show our dedication to what we want and just how bad we want it. This is also a life lesson that I plan to carry on to my future students.

I love the fact that the final part of his speech he through a curve ball. He said at the beginning that he was not going to talk about his wife or children, yet at the end was thoughtful enough not to have everyone focus their attention on him, but to sing Happy Birthday to his wife. What a GREAT birthday present! He showed how much love he had for his wife with just those few seconds of this lecture. I also loved the fact that he had not onw, but two head fakes. The first being that this talk was not about how to achieve your dreams, but how to lead your life. If you live your life the right way, everything else will seem to fall into place. His second head fake and my personal favorite part of the video, was that this last lecture was not for us, but for his three precious children.

All in all I would recommend everyone to take the time to watch Dr. Pausch as he talks about achieveing your dreams, enabling other to achieve theirs, and lessons learned along the way. He gave several great tips to help everyone out along the way which I just would not feel right without leaving for you, so here they are....

*The key to success is FREEDOM
*Don't complain, instead work harder
*Never do away with child-like wonder
*Help others
*Loyalty is a two way street
*Never give up
*Get a feedback loop & listen to it
*Show gratitude
*Decide rather you are a Tigger or a Eeyore
*Be good at something, it makes you valuable
*Find the best in everybody
*Be prepared

Most importantly...... HAVE FUN!!!

Follow Your Dreams

2 comments:

  1. Hey Abby! I am glad you enjoyed this lecture as much as I did. It truly left a mark on my heart. You are right about there is always someone who has it worse than we do. I think it is important for us to keep that in mind whenever life throws circumstances at us. I am sure you will encourage children to chase their dreams, and I wish you the best of luck as a future educator!

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  2. Randy Puasch's attitude is what I want every teach to have about education and life! He has been such a great influence on me, and I hope he will be to you also.

    Stephen Akins

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