He has been called a dying hero. As Time magazine put it, “Randy Pausch is dying. But in the process, he’s teaching millions of people about living. Some colleges have adopted the idea of a “last lecture” to teach students life lessons that aren’t necessarily included on a syllabus.”

Meet Prof. Randy Pausch, computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) who has become an inspiration for millions of people. Prof. Pausch has terminal cancer and is making time to share his thoughts on how to get the best out of your life. In this rat race that we call life, we often loose sight of what really matters. It is only when the reaper arrives at your doorstep that it hits you that this is it and there is no second chance to leading a life as you want, imagined, desired or dreamed. That chance is lost forever when the reapers is knocking on your door. But, what you can do however is to take stock of your life and what you want to do with it starting now and see if you can do something about it. Can you find that passion, that true love and minimize the regret in your life?

Yesterday Prof. Paush gave the 111th commencement speech at CMU along with Al Gore. The essence of his message was don’t lead a life of regret, but find that passion and true love and lead a quality life. This is stuff that no school, college or business teaches you. This is the stuff that you learn on your own or once in a gret while from someone like Prof. Pausch, who has clearly spent time thinking on the quality of life he wants to lead.

Prof. Pausch’s inspiring commencement speech has quickly proliferated and is making its usual rounds to various people’s email box. If you have not seen the video clip, do see it because what Prof. Pausch shares is unalloyed wisdom about life. What is it that you need to do from the time you are born to the time the reaper shows up? It is not often that you get a clear-eyed and crystal clear vision of what really matters with what you do with your life.

The three things he shared in his commencement speech were: finding your passion, your true love and living without regret. Those three basic ingredients are common whether you are a teacher, entrepreneurs, software engineers, student, home maker, hospital administrator or whatever it is that you do.

Passion. “You will need to find your passion…but, don’t give up on finding it. You will not find passion in things and money…that passion must come from you that fuels you from the inside.” What a beautiful and wonderful way to put it: that passion must fulfill you from the inside. If you think about it nobody can teach you to be passionate, you need to feel strongly for what you are doing from within and that is when you will find that elusive ingredient called happiness.

Finally, he stressed upon finding true love and how he found his true love at the age of 39.

What a wonderful and beautiful way to highlight what we really need to do with our lives on this earth.

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