Today Americans watched with bated breath as astronauts Bob and Doug were successfully and safely launched into space. After having had the American space program effectively disassembled after the most recent launch, that of the Atlantis in 2011, it seems like an unlikely place to be. At the same time, Americans are dreaming of re-achieving the moon.

Our original moon shot also came as an apparently insurmountable achievement, from the time President JFK announced it as a plan in 1962, until its achievement in 1969 – in time to beat his declaration of the need to reach this milestone before the end of the decade.

We humans over estimate what we can do in an hour, a day, a week. Think of all of those deadlines that have been made, and missed. “Sure, I can get you this by the end of the day.” “Sure, I can get you this before lunch.” *whoosh* as those plans go flying by.

But by the time we are thinking of a year away, the situation has reversed.

Humans under estimate how much they can accomplish in a year, 5 years, and 10 years, let alone a lifetime. Just like humans and exponential growth (1, 2), we are bad at this math. Don’t fail to dream too far. Do you want to be an amazing and involved Dad, an inspirational teacher in a number of unrelated fields, a community mentor- or all of them? Having a Dad who has done all of those things, and more, with possibly another 30 more years ahead of him, let me tell you, you can dream bigger than you have likely dared to dream.

What can you plan to launch for yourself? Don’t be afraid to dream as big as an astronaut, your ability to achieve it is not as out of this world as you think.