When we decide to start something new, the beginning is always the hardest part, the first run, your first gym class, or just getting your foot out of the door. I am sure that there are heaps of psychological explanations and theories for this but for the next couple of minutes let's forget these and talk about space. That's right, space, not my favourite dance floor hit space cowboy but actually space. You know the place above our planet where there is no air to breath. Great, you're with me.
Have you ever been lucky enough to witness a space shuttle taking off into space? I haven’t IRL either don't worry but I have been to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, which if you ever find yourself with your kids in Disneyland with your autograph book searching for Mickey Mouse, you must take a detour to the Space Centre. It is a fantastic and very, very humbling experience. I have always been fascinated with space but even more so with the shuttles and how in fact they can even take off in the first place The energy expenditure must be absolutely enormous, so like all scientists do, I did some exiguous research. Let me hit you with the facts. Did you know that there are three main engines used in conjunction with the solid rocket boosters in a shuttle to aid the thrust to lift the orbiter off the ground for the initial ascent? Unless you're Tim Peake or Jay Cartwright from The Inbetweeners, I don’t think so. But I am not done there. These engines provide thrust which accelerates the shuttle from 4,828 kph to over 27,358 kph in just a mere six minutes (6!!). The combined maximum thrust is more than 1.2 million pounds. The engine's exhaust is primarily the elements hydrogen and oxygen which create water vapour as they combine. As the shuttle pushes toward the orbit the engines consume fuel at a rate that would in under 25 seconds drain an average family size swimming pool, generating over 37 million horsepower, all while the turbines spin at almost 13 times as fast as a car engine spins at top speed.
All that energy, power, and force is used to get the shuttle off the ground and into orbit. That’s the hard part, the part that requires the most energy; the beginning. And I haven't even spoken about how they engineer all of this. So, imagine if the scientists and the astronauts just gave up because of all the energy and resources needed just get the shuttle off the ground. Countless scientific breakthroughs would never have been made, let alone sending the astronauts to the moon.
So was the hard beginning worth it? All the resources, energy, and thrust? Of course it was. So it got me thinking, maybe when we are starting something new, whether it be taking up running, sewing, getting up when that 6am alarm goes off for a pre-work workout, or hell, even starting this blog; maybe it’s meant to be hard. That’s what makes the greatness worth it. The struggles at the beginnings, the hard times, and the maximum effort put in, it's in these hustles that they are projecting us to the moon.
Deciding to start this blog was hard, the thoughts of people hating it, not being able to create enough content, then came the technical side of the blog, creating a website, which if you know me, I have absolutely zero skills in (hopefully no one who has ever looked at my CV is reading this because I’m definitely also not proficient at excel either). But all that hard work, and reading about how to create a website, spending hours staring at a blank word document praying some inspiration would emanate from me.
Be under no illusions, creating this blog was hard although everything I have ever done in my life was hard before it was easy.
So the next time you are thinking about throwing in the towel when you’ve started something new just remember the space shuttle, or other rockets like Apollo 11, and how much effort that was required for them to just get off the ground before landing on the moon. You might have to use a little more energy, a little more resilience and perseverance, but if we push hard and refuse to give up it'll be so worth it. J.F Kennedy said when asked about America’s space missions, ‘we choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard’.
3..2..1.. liftoff