Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving talk, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.

So the glass if half empty. The glass is half full. Blah Blah Blah…

A miraculous mindset is not about being happy. It’s not about being ‘positive’. It’s not about Pollyanna positioning.

So what is a miraculous mindset?

It is what sets you apart from the rest of the herd. It can create unheard of opportunities. It can create what some would say are . . . miracles.

So how can you achieve such a mindset?

Great question:
 
In order to get to the miraculous mindset, you’ve got to start now and with extreme focus.

Success and achievement requires work, patience and motivation. Motivation can be viewed by some as a temporary solution to a permanent problem. What that means is, there is always something to do when it comes to success.

We need to succeed at better grades. We need to succeed at becoming more profitable in business. We need to succeed in our family life – being a better parent or spouse. We need to succeed financially – be it personally or business. We need to succeed physically. Maybe we need to drop a few pounds or add some muscle mass.

Motivation is simply the reason behind a particular set of action. If you want to be accepted for a job, what steps do you take? Of course, the most obvious one is to see if you are qualified for the job, then apply if you are.

If you would like to be considered for a promotion for the job that you already have, what steps would you take? First, you need to make sure that all your hard work is noticed so that you can at least qualify for the position.

Pain may sometimes be the reason why people change. Getting flunked grades make us realize that we need to study. Debts remind us of our inability to look for a source of income. Being humiliated gives us the ‘push’ to speak up and fight for ourselves to save our face from the next embarrassments. It may be a bitter experience, a friend’s tragic story, a great movie, or an inspiring book that will help us get up and get just the right amount of motivation we need in order to improve ourselves.