Sol Barrera Watters - Web Developer, Language Expert, Artist and more...

Randy Pausch has been all over TV and the Internet sharing his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon (Complete version - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo  Abridged report - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQtwEKlUutA), which was truly written for his children.  It is an inspiring and heart wrenching talk all at the same time.

Diane Sawyer did a one hour special on his life since that moment when he told everyone about his illness, a terminal type of cancer.  His enthusiasm has been diminished, because of the treatments (Here is a day by day blog), but he is fighting it with all his might.

What I love the most about Randy Pausch is not his energized outlook for life in spite of his illness, it is that he had such outlook BEFORE getting sick and actually lived his life by it.  He continuously challenged his students, making them thrive, so much so that sometimes even their parents attended his classes.

What is it about death that sometimes compels us to do those things we are most afraid of? Is it because of the reminder that life is the one thing we cannot buy? That once our time is up there is no going back? No do-overs.

By my own experience, I can tell you that living life “today” for today is not as easy as it seems.  When my mother passed at the young age of 55 I had to rethink my entire philosophy about life.  Waiting for things to be perfect or for things to magically appear wastes valuable time, time you can spend living and experiencing things today.

Still, some habits are hard to break.  It’s easier to ignore that old lady trying to cross the street when you are late for work;  it’s easier to remain silent than to confront a family member or a friend on what you think they are doing wrong; it’s easier to go with the flow instead of going the extra mile.

Randy Pausch is by no means the only person to inspire a change in one’s lifestyle.  There are many more people that struggle through life yet keep moving forward towards what they know they want out of life (E.G. Stephen Hawking - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_hawking, Christopher Reeve R.I.P. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Reeve).

If you are not certain about what that true “calling” is for you, the best thing you can do, is give your ALL in every single thing you do today. I don’t care if it’s washing the dishes, checking your children’s homework, or turning in a simple weekly report to your boss.  Greatness is built on a daily basis, by giving the best you can at the time, and remember your own definition of greatness is what matters, not somebody else’s.