Recommended Reading: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow

THE LAST LECTURE by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow

"Don't Complain, Just Work Harder: Too many people go through life complaining about their problems. I've always believed that if you took one-tenth the energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you'd be surprised by how well things can work out."

"Don't Obsess Over What People Think: I've found that a substantial fraction of many people's days is spent worrying about what others think of then. If nobody ever worried about what was in other people's heads, we'd all be 33 percent more effective in our lives and on our jobs."

"The Lost Art of Thank-You Notes: Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other. And despite my love of efficiency, I think that thank-you notes are best done the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper."

"Treat the Disease, Not the Symptom: Years ago, I dated a lovely young woman who was a few thousand dollars in debt. She was completely stressed out about this. Every month, more interest would be added to her debts. "To deal with her stress, she would go every Tuesday night to a meditation and yoga class. This was her one free night, and she said it seemed to be helping her. She would breathe in, imagining that she was finding ways to deal with her debts. She would breathe out, telling herself that her money problems would one day be behind her. "It went on like this, Tuesday after Tuesday. "Finally, one day I looked through her finances with her. I figured out that if she spent four or five months working a part-time job on Tuesday nights, she could actually pay off all the money she owed. "I told her I had nothing against yoga or meditation. But I think it's always best to try to treat the disease first. Her symptoms were stress and anxiety. Her disease was the money she owed."