You can do hard things
And ambition can get you there
On September 12, 1962, U.S. President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech at Rice University, in which he said:
When he said that NASA had pretty much no idea if they could actually do it.
I was thinking of this as Artemis II returned to Earth on the weekend.
It was Saturday morning Australian time and I was driving my 16-year-old Son to an AFL game.
While we were doing 100km/h on the freeway he was watching the official live feed from NASA on his phone along with over 2 million other people.
Stop and think about that for a second.
1962 - JFK challenges NASA publicly… ‘to infinity and beyond!’
1969 - people huddled around Television sets watching the grainy footage of Neil Armstrong being beamed back to Earth… “one small step for man…”
2026 - Kid on mobile phone watching live stream while driving in a car…. “Dad, they just splashed down”.
Amazing progress in just over 6 decades.
I’ve always felt that ambition is the rocket fuel required for progress.
We’re way too timid in our aspirations.
Many of us are just trying to ‘get through the week’.
I doubt you’re planning a lunar mission this week, but what if you could push your existing ambition out a little further?
Maybe that project you’re working on progresses to a more advanced milestone.
Maybe the presentation you haven’t started writing yet is presented to stakeholders a day earlier for feedback.
Or could you adjust a regular weekly task or goal to squeeze out 10% more achievement?
Whatever the task, having greater ambition can propel you further forward.
All you have to do is try.
