Decide for Yourself: Are you a Tigger or an Eeyore?

Now here's a progressive question for the day...

Are you a Tigger or an Eeyore?

This is a question that Randy Pausch presents to us in his farewell lecture at Carnegie Mellon University. The reason why this professor is giving his final lecture? Because he has incurable pancreatic cancer -- and doctors told him he had only months to live.

"I can't do anything about the fact that I'm gonna die. I'm pursuing medical treatments, but I pretty much know how this movie's gonna end. And I can't control the cards I'm dealt, just how I play the hands. Now if i'm not morose enough for you, I'm sorry to disappoint. I don't choose to be an object of pity."

The first time I watched Randy Pausch's lecture was on a segment of The Oprah Winfrey show in ethics class this past week. I was not only moved, but inspired by this dying man's last words. What stuck with me the most was the two minutes in the presentation where he told the audience to decide early on to choose to be a Tigger or an Eeyore. Obviously, Randy Pausch chose to be a Tigger -- to remain optimist, energetic, and choose to have fun even though he knew for a fact that he was going to die.

Now, you may be wondering to yourself how Randy Pausch or the characters of Winnie the Pooh have anything progressive-related about them -- but if you think about it, they are the examples of the very spirit of progression.

If we all chose to be Eeyores -- with characteristic attributes such as moping around, complaining, being pessimistic, moping, and the like -- then nothing progressive would come about. We'd all be complaining, whining, and moping around instead of actually doing something about. We would accept the things that we cannot change and choose to sit there and sulk about them.

I feel that progress is obtained not only by a need or desire for change, but that hope is essential and plays a bigger part in progress than we think. I feel so discouraged when people think that just because there are things in our world or society (i.e. hatred, racism, stereotypes, etc.) that we really inevitably cannot change, they automatically say "well, we can't do anything about it since it's always going to exist" or "it happens, and it always will happen -- things like that exist and we need to start accepting that instead of being so naive and optimistic about it."

That's the type of attitude that I get so annoyed with because if everyone felt that way, then there would be no such thing as "progress." In order for us to achieve progress and change things in our world, not only do we need to recognize or desire change but we also need to hope for change. If there is no hope, no optimism -- then I feel that change cannot happen because we become so jaded and discouraged that change seems unattainable. How can progress be achieved then if all we do is sulk like Eeyore?

We need to be more like Tiggers, more optimistic, more hopeful. That yes, even though it may seem like a long shot, we are capable of change in the world -- and even if it may not be the drastic change that we need, any little change is significant and contributes to progress made.

So decide for yourselves: Are you a Tigger or an Eeyore?

As for me, I choose to be a Tigger.

Please take 10 minutes of your time and watch Dr. Randy Pausch's lecture segment on Oprah HERE or his original full-length lecture at Carnegie Mellon University HERE.