I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you’re emotions going.

Jim Valvano, the celebrated college basketball coach and 1983 NCAA champion at NC State, delivered this sentiment during his final public address: the ESPY Awards speech in 1993. By then he was gravely ill with metastatic cancer and used the nationally televised moment to speak about gratitude, resilience, and how to live fully despite hardship. In the speech he urged people to “enjoy your life” by filling each day with laughter, thought, and emotion—an appeal shaped by his awareness that his own time was limited. The address helped galvanize public attention around cancer research and is closely associated with the founding of the V Foundation.

Valvano’s line frames a philosophy of deliberate living: treat time as precious and make each day emotionally and intellectually complete. “Laughter” suggests joy and human connection; “thought” implies reflection and purpose; and “get your emotions going” encourages openness to feeling—being moved by art, friendship, struggle, or compassion—rather than drifting through life numb or distracted. Coming from a man confronting death, the advice carries moral urgency: meaning is not postponed to some later success but practiced daily. The quote also reflects Valvano’s broader message that courage and hope are sustained by ordinary, repeated acts of living well.

1) “To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our life. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears.”
2) “If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day.”
3) “Enjoy your life, the precious moments you have.”