4 speeches everyone should watch

Some of my favorite inspirational, moving, and personal philosophy shaping speeches

As a generally sarcastic, cynical curmudgeon, it can be difficult for my broken brain to turn off its desire to make fun of things, and I have a very hard time connecting to things that don’t feel authentic to me.

The four talks that I want to highlight here, though, all share something in common - genuine authenticity. These four speeches helped shape my life philosophy and consider things in a different perspective than I had previously, which makes them easy for me to recommend.

1. Jimmy Valvano’s 1993 ESPY Speech

I watched Jimmy V’s iconic speech at a very young age did not yet understand the gravity of it, but it is something that stuck with me ever since. He had been diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer less than a year before this speech, and unfortunately passed away 2 months after making this speech. He was a larger than life personality, a coach of underdogs who was able to inspire his teams to overachieve, and it’s easy to understand why he was able to inspire when listening to him speak.

What stuck with me the strongest was the quote “If you laugh, you think, you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day.” I was a pretty sensitive, emotional kid - I still am, really - and I would cry quite a bit and get easily hurt, and felt a lot of shame from having so many strong emotions. But those words put it into perspective, that it’s okay and even something to embrace, because to be passionate about things is living a fulfilling life.

It’s something I always come back to when going through life’s difficulties - it’s okay to be emotional. Laugh, think, and cry. That’s a full day.

2. David Foster Wallace - “This Is Water”

Empathy is hard. Life can be quite annoying, and it’s easy to get wrapped up in your own perspectives and problems and dismiss what others are going to. In this 2005 commencement speech, David Foster Wallace encourages us to be more mindful, self-aware, and recognize how we do have a choice of how we view things and react to things. How we should question our built-in assumptions and be less arrogant that our experiences are the highest truth.

“Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute centre of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence.”

What I enjoy about this speech is it isn’t preachy about this subject, it’s honest. It recognizes that it’s quite difficult to fight against our innate natures, and doesn’t cast judgement on right and wrong. We don’t have to morally grandstand about empathy, it’s not going to be something we have the energy to give all the time, particularly when we are all going through hardships ourselves. But it is available to us - it’s a choice we can make.

3. Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talk - Your Elusive Creative Genius

I personally feel at my best when I am creating - whether it is writing music, making video games, programming, putting together videos, writing, etc. - but I’ve always found the process to be hard to maintain. I tend to get random bursts of inspiration and energy and can create things that I am really proud of in that state, but then other times I feel like my “creative battery” is running on empty, like I simply don’t have it in me.

The way Elizabeth Gilbert is able to express that feeling in this TED Talk - in her words, “explaining the utter maddening capriciousness of the creative process,” resonated so strongly with me. She is the author of the very well-known and successful novel “Eat Pray Love,” and was more or less talking about her emotions and thoughts when trying to write a second novel after being so successful the first time.

And it gave me a mental construct to deal with it - instead of stewing in the misery that can come with a lack of creative energy, to relax more about it, let the spark come when it comes, and ride it out until it dissipates. That has helped me a great deal with my mental state when pursuing creative endeavours.

4. The “Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch was a professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. The context for this speech was a thought exercise of giving a hypothetical final lecture - the wisdom you would try to impart on the world if you knew it was your last chance to do so, but it wasn’t exactly hypothetical - he was told by his doctors that he had about 3-6 months left of good health after undergoing a procedure to try to fight pancreatic cancer.

This lecture is packed with nuggets of wisdom that have stuck with me ever since.

”Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.”

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the game.”

“Never lose the childlike wonder. Show gratitude. Don’t complain, just work harder.”

It’s quite easy for me to get wrapped up in self-pity when things don’t go my way, but we all have the power to change our perspectives and find a way to move forward. Randy Pausch was dealt the ultimate bad hand at only 47 years old, but instead of self-pity, chose to be greatful for the life he lived, and share his wisdom to all of us.