This Speech Brought Me to Tears... Again.
It works every time
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.
Because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”
I used to listen to John F. Kennedy’s “We Choose to Go to The Moon” speech to get myself pumped to write college essays.
It never fails to give me chills.
“Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
I want to write that on my ceiling so that I see it first thing when I get up in the morning.
The scale of what was necessary to accomplish the task he laid out in that speech always blows my mind.
He was calling for technologies yet to be invented to accomplish a task that no one knew was possible.
After that speech, we as a nation got to work. Seven years later, men were standing on the moon.
Since returning from Alaska, I’ve been fighting to reinvent myself.
If I want to live the kind of life I say I want, I have to become the person who deserves that life!
It’s daunting, but I’m learning to love the work.
I want to be proud of the body I live in, so I need to work out every day. I want to be self-employed, so I need to attract and then do great work for clients. I want to have a great partnership, so I need to show up for the woman I love.
Confidence without evidence is delusion. Living an extraordinary life requires putting in extraordinary effort.
Coming face to face with that fact is daunting because there’s SO FAR TO GO. The gap between where I am and where I want to be is HUGE.
You know what else was a huge gap?
The gap engineers faced in 1962 between not knowing how to get people into space, and then putting men on the moon seven years later, armed only with giant loud bricks that we today wouldn’t even recognize as computers.
I teared up last week when I listened to JFK’s speech, even though I’ve heard it a hundred times.
“There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all.
Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again.
But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon.”
If you’re unfamiliar, here is JFK’s iconic speech:
Why did I cry listening to this inspiring speech? Things are scary right now, in my own life and in the larger world.
Many things that we took for granted are up in the air.
High interest rates.
An uncertain economy
New wars breaking out.
Is it scary? Absolutely!
But guess what? Life has been uncertain and scary for billions of people throughout all of human history.
What have we always done? We’ve persevered!
This, more than anything, is why I’m optimistic about the future.
Human beings are amazing at struggle. It’s one of the things we’re conditioned to do best.
“Hard times create strong people. Strong people create good times. Good times create weak people. Weak people create hard times.”
-Gender-neutral paraphrasing of a famous quote
If you haven’t heard this sentiment, it’s one of my favorites.
What better example of “good times create weak people, weak people create hard times” could there be than the era we’re entering into?
Ever since 2011, we in the US enjoyed an economic boom the likes of which were never before seen in human history, with a speed of technological advancement baffling to someone who grew up just fifty years ago.
We are surrounded by devices designed to make our lives easier that would blow the mind of someone born just 100 years ago.
And we’ve never been more miserable. Mental health issues are at an all-time high.
Politically, we spent most of that last decade of prosperity yelling at each other about why these good times weren’t perfect for everyone involved.
If you remove purposeful struggle from the path of a human being, they stagnate. Purposeful struggle creates purpose. If a human being doesn’t feel that they have a purpose, they will create misery.
This may feel counterintuitive and silly, but here we are.
This time of uncertainty makes me wildly optimistic.
I am so excited to fight through the challenges we’re facing. If hard times are on the horizon, we’re about to create strong people.
If we’re about to create strong people, good times won’t be far behind them.
Hi Aaron. It’s great to see you here again and I hope all is well. This was a great motivational piece and you are spot on with the world being a scary place right now. But, as you say, struggles make us stronger and having a purpose in life is what motivates us to get out of bed each morning and face our day head on. I have had so many challenges and sadness in my life but now, I have never been happier. Writing is definitely the reason I get out of bed each day with a spring in my step and a glint in my eye. It keeps me strong and focused. Thanks for making me appreciate what I have achieved.