Monday
Jul282008
Inspiration comes in many different forms
A timely reminder today about not wasting time. Some time ago I was fortunate enough to see a lecture. The lecture was entitled - The Last Lecture - normally a hypothetical one. What would you talk about if you knew you had one last chance to speak to your "students". Well the person who delivered the real Last Lecture, Professor Randy Pausch had terminal Pancreatic Cancer. I found out today Professor Pausch died last Friday.
Millions of people have watched the last lecture. Millions more have watched the reprised version on the Oprah Winfrey show, and quite a few people bought the book that was based on the lecture. If you have absolutely no idea what I am talking about - you need to watch the video - http://www.motivateme.info/motivational-movies - please it's important.
Some of you have asked what inspired Motivateme, well helping a friend who was in trouble. But what keeps on inspiring me to make a difference, is this man, and people like him. People who have overcome so much to do what they do. One of the reasons I read biographies and autobiographies is to meet people I would have never been able to meet, to read their stories, to find out what inspired them to do what they did.
But I am also fortunate to know an incredible person (well I know lots of incredible people) but James Wood is different. Yes James I'm talking about you today....
James is the first to admit he made one or two mistakes, and the biggest one landed him in hospital and unable to walk again. Given we are a few days away from the 2008 Beijing Olympics it is also a timely message. You see James chanelled the frustration at not being able to do what he used to be able to do, and after many years of training and competing, wore the green and gold for Australia, and has the medals to prove it. You see what follows the "normal" olympic games is the "special" olympics - and thousands of people who have had to overcome so many difficulties will be there, for themselves, for their team mates, for their families and for their countries. But fewer people will watch those games - but they're the ones we should be watching. Am I discounting the incredible hard work that able-bodied athletes put into their training? No, but there are two stories on the front page of Yahoo today that I would like to mention - one stated that over 60% of Australian athletes are expecting other competitors to "enhance" their performance somewhat. The other interesting bit of news, was the fact that someone failed a gender test and had his/her medal taken away...and gender testing is back for Beijing....
So - do all that you can, be an inspiration to others - you never know who's watching your "performance".
We who have so much, yet don't do all that we can still have a few lessons to learn - http://www.motivateme.info/motivational-movies
With love and light
Elle
Millions of people have watched the last lecture. Millions more have watched the reprised version on the Oprah Winfrey show, and quite a few people bought the book that was based on the lecture. If you have absolutely no idea what I am talking about - you need to watch the video - http://www.motivateme.info/motivational-movies - please it's important.
Some of you have asked what inspired Motivateme, well helping a friend who was in trouble. But what keeps on inspiring me to make a difference, is this man, and people like him. People who have overcome so much to do what they do. One of the reasons I read biographies and autobiographies is to meet people I would have never been able to meet, to read their stories, to find out what inspired them to do what they did.
But I am also fortunate to know an incredible person (well I know lots of incredible people) but James Wood is different. Yes James I'm talking about you today....
James is the first to admit he made one or two mistakes, and the biggest one landed him in hospital and unable to walk again. Given we are a few days away from the 2008 Beijing Olympics it is also a timely message. You see James chanelled the frustration at not being able to do what he used to be able to do, and after many years of training and competing, wore the green and gold for Australia, and has the medals to prove it. You see what follows the "normal" olympic games is the "special" olympics - and thousands of people who have had to overcome so many difficulties will be there, for themselves, for their team mates, for their families and for their countries. But fewer people will watch those games - but they're the ones we should be watching. Am I discounting the incredible hard work that able-bodied athletes put into their training? No, but there are two stories on the front page of Yahoo today that I would like to mention - one stated that over 60% of Australian athletes are expecting other competitors to "enhance" their performance somewhat. The other interesting bit of news, was the fact that someone failed a gender test and had his/her medal taken away...and gender testing is back for Beijing....
So - do all that you can, be an inspiration to others - you never know who's watching your "performance".
We who have so much, yet don't do all that we can still have a few lessons to learn - http://www.motivateme.info/motivational-movies
With love and light
Elle
July 28, 2008 at 18:31
Reader Comments