I’m reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I’m a little late to the game on this one, but better late than never. The book comes recommended to me by my boss, Hunter, who is a brilliant mind, beautiful soul and an inspiring leader to our team. My work team recently attended the Global Leadership Conference simulcast, and everyone came back super revved up and motivated! (I had just returned from my honeymoon with Aaron, so we were not able to join them.) The Last Lecture was one of the dozens of book recommendations from the conference that Hunter took upon himself to purchase and create a library with for us to read and share with each other.
The Last Lecture is written by a professor at Carnegie Mellon who is diagnosed with terminal cancer. With the gravity of knowing that he now only has a short amount of time to live, he is compelled to take the task of giving a “last lecture” even more serious, and his book touchingly chronicles a blessed life of lessons and truths and love. The advice and reflections drawn from his life are delivered in his final speech and this book as his legacy.
The book is hardly morbid or focusing on “the end”, but rather full of life! I LOVE his inspirational, motivational, positive advice on life. It’s reaffirming to read inarguable, positive views on life from a person who is stricken with an untimely death. It teaches me again to realize daily that life is so short, time is finite, and to gleam the importance of prioritizing people, love and true happiness from relationships, as well as wisdom and service to others, not materials and selfish needs.
One of the greatest takeaways from this book is this concept of the brick wall. What a positive spin on the challenges that life dishes out!
“The brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something”
My dreams revolve around this question: how can I serve my partner, family, work team and community better? This is a question that I’m working to answer daily. There are so many false barriers to serving others better. I realize that I am doing the best I can with what I have daily. I realize the good in my dreams, and a “brick wall” on the path to achieving those dreams is just a chance for me to prove how badly I want to serve others through my life daily as I work to achieve my dreams. There is no need to get discouraged, only the need to keep going, and to remain positive and helpful to those around me as well as myself.
I start school tomorrow to pursue a new dream of becoming an architect. I am starting slow and steady with a couple of classes in GIS and History of Architecture. I anticipate many brick walls along the way (no pun intended–Yes, I’m the worst.), but I hope to return back to this truth, that brick walls are just wanting us to prove how bad we truly want something.
x.G
Love Like Voyager 