Reach for the Moon

In September of 1962, on the campus of Rice University, President John F. Kennedy shared his vision for the future of America. Civil strife and international crises faced the nation, but Kennedy had decided America needed to put a man on the moon — adding more work to an already busy agenda.

“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?” Kennedy asked.

“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.”

Every one of us faces challenges daily — we face hard work, we face busy agendas, and we face not having enough time to accomplish what we want. And often, there are times when we are not successful, when the light we think we see at the end of our hard-work tunnel is actually another train coming to derail our progress.

We must fight through, we must keep believing in our talents, in our desires, and never give in to the path of least resistance.

The word "persistent" comes from the Latin verb "perstare." To persevere and to be persistent are synonyms. It's about stubbornly sticking with something despite difficulty, opposition and discouragement. These feelings remind us that what we’re doing is never going to be easy — that we embarked on this journey because it was hard — and defeating hard is what we set out to accomplish.

Next time we have these feelings, let’s look at this little chart and know the only way to defeat hard lies within, not with more time or more help. Climb that ladder and follow President Kennedy’s advice.

Reach for the moon.