Randy Pausch - Points on How to Improve your Life

This is amazing, he died of pancreatic cancer in 2008, but wrote a book ‘The last lecture” before then, one of the bestsellers in 2007. What a legacy to leave behind… 

In a letter to his wife Jai and his children, Dylan, Logan, and Chloe, he wrote this beautiful "guide to a better life" for his wife and children to follow. May you be blessed by his insight.

POINTS ON HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE

Personality:
1. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
2. Don't have negative thoughts of things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment
3. Don't over do; keep your limits
4. Don't take yourself so seriously; no one else does
5. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip
6. Dream more while you are awake
7. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..
8. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner of his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
9. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
10. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present
11. No one is in charge of your happiness except you
12. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn.
Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
13. Smile and laugh more
14. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Community:
15. Call your family often
16. Each day give something good to others
17. Forgive everyone for everything
18. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6
19. Try to make at least three people smile each day
20. What other people think of you is none of your business
21. Your job will not take care of you when you are sick. Your family and friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
22. Put GOD first in anything and everything that you think, say and do.
23. GOD heals everything
24. Do the right things
25. However good or bad a situation is, it will change
26. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up
27. The best is yet to come
28. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful
29. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it
30. If you know GOD you will always be happy. So, be happy.

While you practice all of the above, share this knowledge with the people you love, people you school with, people you play with, people you work with and people you live with. Not only will it enrich YOUR life, but also that of those around you.

Model you can use

7s Model was developed in the 1980s and is still valuable as a management model today.

It can be used in situations where you are trying to align various aspects of your business,especially where you are going through rapid and uncertain change.

Developed by the McKinsey Group, the 7S model involves seven factors which can be categorized as either “hard” or“soft” elements:

Hard Elements would include your strategy for change, the structure of the organization and the systems you use. 

Soft elements would be the shared values that you and your team employ, the skill-sets that you need, the style you adopt and the knowledge and abilities of your staff

“Hard” elements can be identified and influenced more easily:
They would be driven by the organization charts and reporting lines within the business and they may include the systems you use to get work done.

“Soft” elements are, by their very nature, more difficult to manage and may be affected by the culture of the organization.
But you have to apply yourself to these as much as the hard elements, as they provide the support structure for the successful implementation of any change, and they are all interdependent on each other.

You need to ask yourself where you are now and where you want to be in the future. The model will help you assess these elements with these searching questions:

Strategy:

* What is our strategy, in real terms?
* What are our strategic objectives?
* What will we do about the competition?
* What will our customers demand from us in the future?

Structure:

* How is the company set up?
* What is the organizational structure?
* How do the teams work together to achieve goals?
* How do the team members work together?
* What is the quality of communication?

Systems:

* What are the main systems we use in the company?
* How do we monitor and measure the systems?
* What processes do we currently use?

Shared Values:

* What are the values we keep to within the business?
* What is the corporate culture?
* What is the strength of these values?
* How are we communicating those values?

Style:

* What style does the management team adopt?
* How effective is it?
* How would we rate the teamwork among our staff?

Staff:

* How do our teams specialize in their roles or are they more general in their responsibilities?
* Have we the right people in the right places?
* What development do they need?

Skills:

* What are the strongest skills we have in the company?
* What skill gaps are there?
* Do we have staff who can do the job competently?
* How do we measure and reward success?

The McKinsey 7Ss model can be applied to almost any issue at work. If there are any inconsistencies in some of the above elements, maybe your team or company isn’t working effectively enough. The model can help reveal these inconsistencies, and you can work to ensure these elements are matched up to help you share values and objectives with your teams that are responsible for making it happen.