Yesterday I finished reading The Last Lecture. The book is based around a talk given by Randy Pausch (The Last lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams). Randy was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2006 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and despite a number of attempts to halt the cancer’s progress, Randy passed away on July 25th 2008.
Randy’s talk inspired millions. It made people question how they were living their lives.
Something that Randy spoke about in his talk was that we should view our time as currency. This simple idea has been bouncing around my head for the past few days. It’s made me question what I’m spending my time on.
Unlike money, you can’t get more time. It doesn’t matter how hard you work, once it’s gone it’s gone.
Your time is limited, be careful how you spend it.
We don’t beat the reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well, and living fully. For the Reaper will come for all of us. The question is what we will do between the time we’re born and the time he shows up, because when he shows up it’s too late to do all the things that you always [wanted] to.