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How You’re Like Neil Armstrong

You may never visit the moon, but you could have more in common with Neil Armstrong than you think. Even if that’s only partly true, when you consider how far he went, it might be worth looking into.

Change On Purpose - How You're Like Neil Armstrong
Photo by Beverly O’Malley, courtesy of FreeRangeStock.com

The events leading up to Neil Armstrong’s footprints on the moon played a big part in shaping my world view. My father worked on the Apollo program, so it was something I heard about a lot, whether I wanted to or not. In July of 1969 my parents and I were glued to the little black and white TV set our apartment kitchen.

There are disadvantages to assigning “role model” status to people:

  1. We tend to project “super human” qualities on them that they don’t really have.
  2. We mistakenly underrate our own abilities by making incomplete comparisons.
  3. We assume they have advantages that let us off the hook for finding our own edge.

Most of what we THINK we know about Neil’s 82 years on earth comes from the eight-plus days he spent in space. He was a fiercely private person and I think it’s disrespectful and pointless to draw too many conclusions about what he thought or felt about things. Still…

Here are some fairly safe assumptions:

  • He took visible steps to find and extend his personal edge.
  • He appeared to make a consistent effort to keep his ego in check.
  • He seemed to care a lot about how his accomplishments would benefit others.
  • He showed discipline in putting his energy and effort into a couple of key strengths.

Even Hobbits pay attention to this, so it must be important.

What’s the farthest you’ve ever been from home? Our idea of distance might be just as relative as Einstein’s concept of time. Here’s proof. When I was in Cape Town, South Africa, I was 9,976 miles from home. It was only 5,472 miles from my house to Tokyo, Japan and just 3,385 miles to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Even though they were physically closer, I’ve never FELT further away from my IDEA of home than I did in those two places.

The moon landing is not Neil’s legacy – it’s the billboard that points to it.

When I started researching this, it surprised me to see how much ink was wasted on the “controversy” over whether he said one small step “for man” or “for a man.” Have the grammarians forgotten that he was 238,900 miles from home when he said it? The profound insight enfolded in those few first words spoken from Tranquility Base is the transcendent power of small steps in every human life. The “giant leap” he took us on was ALL small steps. Just like the ones you’ve been taking all along. So, relax. You don’t have to go all the way to the moon to be a worthwhile person.

Here are three ways that you’re already like Neil Armstrong:

  1. Whether or not they were recognized or nurtured from birth, you have innate gifts that will carry you much further in life than focusing on your shortcomings. Okay, Neil found his early. He had a pilot’s license before he could drive. The point is that he stuck to his twin passions of flying and engineering no matter what his job description was. It is never too late to start focusing on your gifts.
  2. Every choice you make carries the potential for a high impact result. That doesn’t mean you’re going to see it immediately. There wasn’t a single defining moment that led to Neil’s becoming an astronaut. It happened because he did small things every day to be in position when the time came.
  3. Not everything Neil did was successful. By taking small steps, over and over again, he learned where his true edge was and ultimately accomplished something that was once considered science fiction. No matter what spills we take along the way, we can always ask more from ourselves next time.

Neil Armstrong didn’t get to the moon in one giant leap. He got there one small step at a time. Like the rest of us, he likely took many internal journeys without ever leaving Ohio. It’s not such a stretch to imagine that some left him feeling farther from “home” than he was in July of 1969. How far are you willing to go to do what you were born to do?

Questions: What personal victories, no matter how small, have you experienced in finding and extending your personal edge? Are you celebrating them regularly?

2 replies on “How You’re Like Neil Armstrong”

Thanks for the comment! It must have been comforting to the Apollo astronauts that one of the Nasa mission statements was “to the moon…and back.” Sometimes I really like the “and back” part on certain baby steps. With many goals, is feels like application can often be a more lasting reward than pure attainment.

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