Who are you most like. Eeyore or Tigger? A. A. Milne’s beloved characters are certainly at the opposite end of the spectrum. Eeyore the glum gray donkey who looks at life through sludge-colored glasses is the archetypical pessimist. Tigger on the other hand is bouncy and optimistic and just generally happy. I recently watched an amazing video online that asked this question. There is a tradition in academe called the “Last Lecture,” in which professors are asked to imagine that they have only one more time to communicate their students and are given the opportunity to show what would be their final words of wisdom. Randy Pausch a professor from Carnegie Mellon University is dying of a very aggressive cancer and has been given mere months to live. He gave his last lecture entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” on September 18th. 2007. It was recorded and posted online and has spread virally the way internet videos tend to do. (If you are curious here is a link: ). Dr. Pausch can only be described as Tigger-esque as he gives his presentation – joking doing push-ups to demonstrate his good health and talking about how he actually experienced zero gravity. He is the epitome of “looking on the bright side.”I am not certain that I would be able to face my own imminent death with such acceptance and good gratify. I like to think that I am more desire bouncy pouncy Tigger than mopey Eeyore these days although it hasn’t always been that way. Being optimistic isn’t something that we are born with. The human condition tends to be angst-ridden and fearful. So what is it that gives some people that ability to see the best in their situations? Being an optimist is the ability to see opportunities when everyone else sees threats or weakness. As Pausch states in his lecture. “We can’t change the cards we are dealt just how we play the hand.” So then if I face obstacles purposefully I empower myself to decide how I will deal with them. And therein lies the fundamental difference between the optimist and the pessimist.
Some lessons from Randy Pausch’s last lecture that especially moved me:1. Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.2. Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.3. Never lose the child-like wonder.4. If we do something which is pioneering we will get arrows in the back. But at the end of the day a whole lot of people will have a whole lot of fun.5. Be good at something; it makes you valuable.6. If you live your life the right way the karma ordain take compassionate of itself and the dreams will come to you. Check out the tribute quiz on the lecture at www mystudiyo com : you can add your own questions at the end of the quiz http://www mystudiyo com/activity php?act=558
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http://cardoneratcreighton.blogspot.com/2007/10/wonderful-thing-about-tigger.html
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