As I See It / March 2006
Foot Steps
When asked if she didn’t consider it amazing that she became an oceanographer and an astronaut, Kathy Sullivan replied, “No, not really. If you are the person who keeps putting one foot in front of the other every day, doing the work, it isn’t amazing when you get somewhere.”
She didn’t say it was easy. She didn’t say there weren’t fears and obstacles to overcome. But, she kept being the person who put one foot in front of the other every day, doing the work, and her life unfolded into a profoundly purposeful, gloriously adventurous odyssey.
Not everyone has a dream. They are perhaps, a fortunate few. The rest of us are lucky if we can settle on a vague plan. Kathy Sullivan didn’t dream of being the first woman to walk in space. She just wanted to see a little of the world. But even a vague plan takes putting one foot in front of the other every day. It takes doing the work.
It is convenient to think Kathy Sullivan started with all the advantages. But she didn’t. Her family wasn’t wealthy, she knew she would have to pay her own way to see the world. It might be natural to think Kathy Sullivan got lucky, to credit her success with good timing. The first astronaut class to accept women was forming just as she was completing her doctoral studies in oceanography. But it was her work, the physically demanding, mentally challenging work, on shore, in the water and on board research ships, that made her stand out among the other 6000 applicants.
It would be accurate to think Kathy Sullivan is smart. But plenty of smart people are mired in mundane jobs, selling commodities, or running a business to pay the bills. What ultimately defines ‘smart’ may not be the number of brains cells available so much as the number of brain cells wholeheartedly engaged in getting the job done.
The chances of winning the lottery range between one in fifty million and one in three hundred million while the chances of creating a richly satisfying, financially rewarding, memorable life through education and effort are at least fifty-fifty. Still, lottery tickets sales are booming. Some people don’t even buy a ticket. They just talk about what they would do if they won.
In innumerable interviews of actresses and actors called overnight successes, they wryly recount years of auditions, rehearsals, acting classes, rejections and unemployment. Motorists drive by a construction site for months, exclaiming with amazement that "the building just seemed to go up overnight. Einstein’s great idea did not come to him in a flash. It developed through thousands of painstaking calculations performed over years of inquiry.
Wishful thinking is a harmless indulgence, a few empty calories for the spirit and daydreams are an affordable escape from a humdrum day. But nothing concrete is built from wishful thinking. Great expectations must be based on brick and mortar. They are only realized through the profoundly simple concept Kathy Sullivan described as putting one foot in front of the other every day.
It isn’t magic. It isn’t romantic. It isn’t quick. It is doing the work.
But look at the return on investment. Kathy Sullivan can look back at-and forward to-decades of achievements and honors, scores of interesting people, a host of fascinating projects and the most incredible experiences. She still makes significant contributions in science and education daily, she gets to travel the world, and she loves her life.
It is seductively easy to end a day, a year, or a life, standing in the litter of discarded lottery tickets.
The decision to not act can be as alluring, as justifiable and as nonproductive, as soaking in a hot tub. It’s so comfortable to lay back, and let the world go by. And when it’s over, look into the mirror at a foggy reflection of what should be there.
There are thousands of places for a woman to be successful, but doing the work, putting one foot in front of the other every day in the direction she wants to go, is the only sure way to get there. PL
Copyright © 2005-2006 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
Femme Fair 2006
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