Title taken from ‘It takes courage to make the right decision:’ Artemis 2 astronaut explains why moon mission was delayed to 2025 (exclusive)

I love the above statement. In the article that follows it is about saying things aren’t ready for takeoff yet. It got me thinking with this year of elections coming up – how many of our leaders have the courage to make the right decisions and how many will promise us things they cannot deliver? How often do we promise we will do something because we do not have the courage to upset others because we are too busy people pleaseing? And also to make this positive step along the way with a project rather than coming over negatively.
It is the courage to say No that I love about this story. No it isn’t safe. No it isn’t ready. Just no not yet. Not no forever but just wait. This project will have to wait because I don’t have the energy/time/resources/support to get it done.
I think too often one is encouraged to push through and get things done rather than be courageous enough to say “wait” and “not quite yet”. The Artemis 2 people aren’t say Never but are saying Wait. Wait till it’s safe. Wait till we know more.
I think about the meeting where I bemoaned the need for some people to show they were busy, in that there was just this need to “get the job done” “get the money spent” and when someone was brave enough to challenge that, all though they appeared to be listened to, were actually ignored because no one there was courageous enough to say things like “oh you could be right let’s wait a while“.
The courage to make the right decision is so much more than pushing through regardless. It is so much more than putting in those extra hours to keep someone else happy. It is the courage to look at the whole situation and then be willing to say Wait. Sometimes it might even be the courage to scrap it completely.
I will paraphrase something I heard on a TV program last night “This life is all we have and it is alright to make mistakes along the way so long as one has the courage to admit to them, pick oneself up and go off to see what happens next”.
Not “don’t make mistakes” and not “oh that hurt so I won’t step out again” but to boldly go and courageously see what happens next.