This week I contemplated perseverance. How to keep going. I thought of the steadfastness of the Voyager 1 — apparently still dutifully sending back data, 44 years, 9 months, and 29 days after its launch. Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth and the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space. Apparently, it’s now 14.5 billion miles from Earth. I imagine it has encountered difficulties along the way — and yet it keeps going. Recently, it began to spew out “wacky” data, which reminded me of that oddity in perseverance — it’s really important to know when to re-calibrate. Or not.
In Voyager 1’s case, apparently, continuing on regardless is the best (only) course of action.
Diverging a little, another story that impacted my week was a conversation around the infamous “
Marshmallow Test” — in this case, a reminder that we don’t actually know another persons’ best course of action in most cases.
Perhaps you could say that perseverance only makes sense when we know our mission.
And perhaps a corollary, spending time listening — actively, deeply listening to others — is a great and lovely way to get to know other people’s missions and thus be able to support them in their best course of action, should they want that :)