I'm paraphrasing here, but President Kennedy said we should hurl a few guys strapped into a metal box into the stratosphere and aim for a tiny hunk of cheese in the sky not because it would be easy, but because it would be hard.
He said it would force us to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills. He said it would be a challenge, but one that we intended to win.
I read this the other day as we approach the 40th anniversary, and was struck about the application to my life and the challenges I face every day. Sometimes I get freaked out about not knowing how to do something. Like tackling the challenges in a short sale, or helping a friend who is losing their home figure out a new budget that will work. Or taking on new computer software. (Criminy, now there's a dilly!) I balk at the challenge... I don't know how to do it.
But Kennedy said to do it because it WILL be hard. Hmmm. Do it to figure out what you DO know... to assess the skills you DO have. That rang so true to me. Every major accomplishment I've done, I didn't know how to do when I started. Like my honkin huge videos I do. But in the process of figuring it out, of learning the stuff I didn't know, of pushing myself into the unknown, I have taken the knowledge I learned and the feeling of accomplishment and propelled myself into... knowing. And success. And ability. And pride.
Our nation did the same.
Kennedy was pretty smart.
Here's what he said....
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