A quote I heard today.... The world owes you nothing. Sounds kind of harsh and maybe it is. But it is true. Over your life you will find that there are some people that get things handed to them, or things may seem to come easier to others than yourself. Do not compare or get frustrated. It is a waste of your energy and time and makes you look like a negative or pessimistic person. You do not know the background or the complete story. Take ownership of your goals and what you want to accomplish and you will ALWAYS come out ahead even though it may not seem like it, because you accomplished it YOURSELF.
onward
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Monday, April 4, 2016
What is inspiring.....
My family just returned from vacation. We went to Florida to see family. It is important to me to "create moments" that my kids will remember. As I look at past experiences that we have planned for the family, many revolve around nature (National / State Parks) and Technology (mostly Space / Aviation).
During this trip we visited Huntsville and the US Space and Rocket Center.
Space Camp is hosted here and as a kid I wanted nothing more than to attend Space Camp. For lots of reasons that was not in the cards for me. Though they do offer adult camps......
The visit was good and there was a fair amount for the kids to do... simulators, rock climbing, rides, etc. which they all liked. Overall I felt that the exhibits were a bit dated and were not being maintained. I visited the location in 1997 and some things have changed (i.e. they added a Saturn V rocket exhibit similar to Kennedy) which was interesting.
We took the bus tour and the highlight of the entire visit was touring the payload operations center. There we got to see the team working with the International Space Station. The ISS had just received a shipment of supplies that morning and one of the engineers came out to discuss the mission. He mentioned that once the supplies are removed the capsule is filled with trash that is then burned up in the atmosphere. On this particular mission, they are going to do experiments with flames in the vacuum of space before reentry. Had we not toured, we would not have known about this exciting experiment. We also learned about NASA Mars mission and the SLS or Space Launch System. We plan to land on an asteroid in 2025 and Mars in the 2030s.
Is it that we take this for granted, or are just so consumed with life on our planet that we are not more interested? In the 1960's we all rallied around the program and it was the worlds success. Everyone knew the astronauts, the missions and watched it on TV. It was shown in school and discussed as a class.
I got to witness two space shuttle launches and it was awe inspiring. Space X and Blue Orion are making things very exciting, why are we not tracking this? Huntsville and Kennedy were more of a celebration of accomplishments 40+ years ago than a look to the future of space exploration and what lies ahead. We are going to lose a generation if we cannot find a way to get our children (and their parents) interested in space.
My family just returned from vacation. We went to Florida to see family. It is important to me to "create moments" that my kids will remember. As I look at past experiences that we have planned for the family, many revolve around nature (National / State Parks) and Technology (mostly Space / Aviation).
During this trip we visited Huntsville and the US Space and Rocket Center.
Space Camp is hosted here and as a kid I wanted nothing more than to attend Space Camp. For lots of reasons that was not in the cards for me. Though they do offer adult camps......
The visit was good and there was a fair amount for the kids to do... simulators, rock climbing, rides, etc. which they all liked. Overall I felt that the exhibits were a bit dated and were not being maintained. I visited the location in 1997 and some things have changed (i.e. they added a Saturn V rocket exhibit similar to Kennedy) which was interesting.
We took the bus tour and the highlight of the entire visit was touring the payload operations center. There we got to see the team working with the International Space Station. The ISS had just received a shipment of supplies that morning and one of the engineers came out to discuss the mission. He mentioned that once the supplies are removed the capsule is filled with trash that is then burned up in the atmosphere. On this particular mission, they are going to do experiments with flames in the vacuum of space before reentry. Had we not toured, we would not have known about this exciting experiment. We also learned about NASA Mars mission and the SLS or Space Launch System. We plan to land on an asteroid in 2025 and Mars in the 2030s.
Is it that we take this for granted, or are just so consumed with life on our planet that we are not more interested? In the 1960's we all rallied around the program and it was the worlds success. Everyone knew the astronauts, the missions and watched it on TV. It was shown in school and discussed as a class.
I got to witness two space shuttle launches and it was awe inspiring. Space X and Blue Orion are making things very exciting, why are we not tracking this? Huntsville and Kennedy were more of a celebration of accomplishments 40+ years ago than a look to the future of space exploration and what lies ahead. We are going to lose a generation if we cannot find a way to get our children (and their parents) interested in space.
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Knocking the dust off of this thing. Hope to dedicate more time to using this going forward.
Thought during my commute: Our mobile devices and access to information are amazing indeed. It is easy to be a "consumer" of information: Facebook, LinkedIn, youtube, podcasts, etc. but not an "active participant". There is a richness in the dialog between individuals that is lost by sitting back and consuming information. You may be motivated, inspired or feel a call to action but there is no accountability or sustained growth. I recently saw a statistic that said 97% of online class attendees drop the course before completion. Many give the reason that it just go too hard. They drop out because there is no social accountability or built in support-network either through the instructor or more importantly a classmate. If you are inspired by something you have "consumed", if you truly want to own, improve, adopt or create something, take that idea and share it with someone. Talk about what it means to you, be vulnerable and ask for their thoughts on how to improve / shape the idea. Appreciate that it will not be perfect, change is a product of incremental improvement not step or quantum change. Do not be afraid to fail. Enjoy the journey, use it as an excuse to reach out to a friend that you have not spoken to in a while, it is a great excuse.... (I read this and though of you.....) Then make a date to continue the conversation. You are keeping in touch with a friend, learning from someone, pressure testing your idea and ACTING on your inspiration. This will greatly improve your level of happiness and in turn your quality of life.
Onward....
Thought during my commute: Our mobile devices and access to information are amazing indeed. It is easy to be a "consumer" of information: Facebook, LinkedIn, youtube, podcasts, etc. but not an "active participant". There is a richness in the dialog between individuals that is lost by sitting back and consuming information. You may be motivated, inspired or feel a call to action but there is no accountability or sustained growth. I recently saw a statistic that said 97% of online class attendees drop the course before completion. Many give the reason that it just go too hard. They drop out because there is no social accountability or built in support-network either through the instructor or more importantly a classmate. If you are inspired by something you have "consumed", if you truly want to own, improve, adopt or create something, take that idea and share it with someone. Talk about what it means to you, be vulnerable and ask for their thoughts on how to improve / shape the idea. Appreciate that it will not be perfect, change is a product of incremental improvement not step or quantum change. Do not be afraid to fail. Enjoy the journey, use it as an excuse to reach out to a friend that you have not spoken to in a while, it is a great excuse.... (I read this and though of you.....) Then make a date to continue the conversation. You are keeping in touch with a friend, learning from someone, pressure testing your idea and ACTING on your inspiration. This will greatly improve your level of happiness and in turn your quality of life.
Onward....
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