Human Achievement: The Apollo 9 Command Module Gumdrop (1969-018A)
According to Niel deGrasse Tyson, the only driver for human achievement on the highest level are war, money, and worship or royalty and deity.
He is quick to point out that regardless of the motivating factor, the actual real world benefits of striving for enormous human goals are real and plentiful. Nasa was started because of the cold war with Russia and yet the benefits we reap from working together on Nasa programs are amazingly positive and start a domino effect of good things.
In most things in life, you can get a feel for how positive they are based on the motivating factor behind them. If the seed of activity is nurtured with fear and scarcity, surely that changes the ultimate potential of the future tree. So if we do the exact same action motivated by positive factors like being excited for the experience rather than fearing life without it, I think there is a much larger positive potential for the results.
Watch Niel deGrassi Tyson’s amazing commencement speech given to Rice University’s 100th graduating class here:
If we study the past we can break the cycle. Let’s innovate and explore on a massive scale purely for the advancement of human knowledge and betterment! Do you think it is possible to set and achieve goals on a large society level without needing the motivation of war, money, or worship?
How can we check in on our own motivations in every day life? Awareness and mindfulness found through the breath.