Quote By JFK I Could Have Written

A Mission to Help Others

While editing my website today, I was searching for a certain John F. Kennedy quote.  The quote is “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” I wanted to make sure I had the correct quote. I had rewritten it in my head and posted to my blog to reflect a project I am currently planning for this fall. The project is to travel the country while raising money for various organizations along my route.  I will be stopping to show my movie and talk about some of my philosophies to accomplish my goals.  To convey my mission, I changed the quote to “Ask not what other people can do for you, but what you can do for other people”. That is what I want my life to be about helping others accomplish their goals and dreams.  I certainly have had many people help me in life and I really want to take every opportunity to give back. 

WOW! Great Minds Think Alike

During my research for the correct quote, I came across a list of JFK quotes.  One of them jumped out at me as something I could have written.  The quote is “Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” Now I have never seen this quote until today, but this is something I say in some of the talks that I give.  I talk about the 3 things I do to accomplish my goals.  The first thing I do is try because when you try, things happen.  It may not always be what you wanted to happen, but you will learn from it. You can keep trying with your newfound knowledge.

Nobody’s Perfect

On the flip side I will confess there have been many times where I had that question in the back of my head, “Is this really worth trying?” I can think of a lot of those moments right now.  The first that comes to mind is taking flying lessons.  Spending hours flying the same pattern over and over and not quite getting that landing right.  Thud after thud on pavement but still trying again.  Then comes that moment when the tires kiss the pavement like it’s a cloud and you say aha that’s what it feels like.  You will never forget those moments when you have worked so hard and tried so many times to achieve a goal. The second memory that comes to mind is learning to ski. I can’t tell you how many times I thought about giving up while looking at Bob Dyer with a bit of anger in my eyes haha.  I didn’t give up though I kept trying. For at least a week the routine was ski, fall, eat snow, repeat. One day the feeling finally hit me. It was as if I was connected to the snow through my ski.  I was carving turns and feeling the need for speed. If I had given up, I would have never had those feelings of accomplishment. I wouldn’t know how to fly a plane or ski. 

Remembering Nick Hall The Ultimate Trier

Today also happens to be the anniversary of the passing of my friend Nick Hall. He is one of the many people that helped me in life.  He inspired me to start this journey of adventure I am on.  I believe he also lived with the idea of trying and making things happen. I hope to be posting about him from the top of Mt. Rainier on this day next year or at least somewhere on the mountain.  I have been trying since this day 7 years ago to honor him in some way by taking the path of adventure that he was taking. It is because of his inspiration to try that I have had some pretty amazing experiences.  I hope to take that inspiration and pass it on so that others may know what its like to feel those tires kiss the pavement, to feel the rush of skiing, to feel the exposure of being 2000 ft in the air hanging from a rope and looking over one of the most amazing places in the world. It all happened because Nick inspired me to try.