In 1967 a journalist is wandering round NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory talking to people involved in the Apollo missions.

He encounters a man wearing the default engineer’s uniform of a white shirt and blue tie, a slide rule sticking out of his top pocket.

“Sorry to interrupt” says the journalist, “but do you mind me asking what you your job is?”

“No problem” replies the engineer, “my job is to calculate the mass flow rate of RP-1 fuel through each of the engines of the Saturn rocket”.

The journalist dutifully writes this down in his note book and thanks the engineer. In the office across the hallway he finds another man, dressed in a dark suit. He knocks politely then asks,

“Hello, I’m doing an article on the staff at NASA and I am trying to find out what peoples jobs are.”

“I’m the Lunar Module Flight Plan Director.” says the man in the suit,  “I manage and approve all changes the the LMFP.”

Again the journalist writes down what the man says and wanders off to find someone else. At the end of the corridor is a man in NASA overalls sweeping the floor. Under the blue and red logo is the word ‘Janitor’.

Sensing the possibility of a human interest story the journalist approaches the man

“I can see you are a janitor”, he says “but what does your job involve?”

“That’s easy”, replies the janitor “I’m putting man on the moon”.

Is “Because it’s there” a good enough reason to do something? Do you want to do it to become wealthier, to be more secure, to learn something or just to get to the top?

Prepare

You need to work out what you resources you need, you need to work out a rough schedule as well. You also need to make sure you’re up to the task and have the right team around you.

Plan Your Route

A map isn’t a requirement if the terrain is easy and recognisable. The more complicated it is, and the more unknown it is, the more you need  to think about where you’re going.

Take Notice Of Paths

Paths are only there because people have done it before. You can use known good paths to your goal, you can use them as rough guides to the direction you should be heading or you can ignore them altogether. The only thing to remember is the well-trodden path is well-trodden for a reason. Is it the right reason?

Stop And Enjoy The View

Enjoy the journey. If you plough on to your summit, you can miss out on what you’ve achieved so far, and there’s nothing better for your motivation than to take stock of how much you’ve done. Take the time to resurvey your surroundings. Is there a better path from your current position that you didn’t spot until now? Are you on schedule?

The Summit

Take time to enjoy it while you are there. If it doesn’t feel satisfying, was it challenging enough?

Other Peaks

Once you’ve reached the summit you wanted, or even before you get there, are there any other peaks worth going to? You’ve already done most the hard work, so sometimes it’s only a minor detour to acheive something in addition to your original plan.

Shortcuts

There are no real shortcuts. The shortest routes are steeper, more dangerous and more difficult. The easier routes are longer, but safer.  You just have to work out how to balance the two.

The Journey Down

Even once you’ve achieved your goal of the summit, there’s still a lot of work to do to finish the job off properly. It’ll be easier than getting to the top, but it won’t be plain sailing.

Thanks to Brian Drought who wrote the first draft of this, Image from Totem staff