An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth

I recently finished An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth and found it one of the most inspiring books I’ve read in a long time. I not only found it engaging and interesting, but there were many instances where I found value in his ethos and way of thinking. Chris Hadfield, the author) is the first Canadian astronaut to perform an extravehicular activity (namely installing the Canadarm as he describes in the book), and the first Canadian astronaut to become commander of the International Space Station (ISS).

In his book he describes his experience and journey to becoming an astronaut as well as his life in the ISS, in a humorous, entertaining way. However, aside from making me want to become an astronaut too, I took a lot of inspiration in his mindset and approach to decision-making, to task completion, and to the long journey that becoming an astronaut is. He is humble and intelligent, but hard-working and devoted – all qualities that I value in a professional environment and hope to be able to apply myself.

I compile here the most memorable quotes as the most valuable takeaways from the book:

• “Success is feeling good about the work you do throughout the long, unheralded journey that may or may not wind up at the launch pad. You can’t view training solely as a stepping stone to something loftier. It’s got to be an end in itself.”

My takeaway: while having goals is something good and a driver of motivation, it is important that I enjoy the journey too. If for whatever reason my goals don’t get realised, I need to make sure that the steps I took to try to get there were valuable to me, contributed to my overall growth and provided some form of satisfaction, pleasure and enjoyment themselves. That’s what I can call success.

• “That’s how I approach just about everything. I spend my life getting ready to play ‘Rocket Man’. I picture the most demanding challenge; I visualise what I would need to know how to do to meet it; then I practice until I reach a level of competence where I’m comfortable that I’ll be able to perform. It’s what I’ve always done, ever since I decided I wanted to be an astronaut in 1969, and that conscious, methodical approach to preparation is the main reason I got to Houston. I never stopped getting ready. Just in case.”

My takeaway: opportunities will arise and doors will open. It is my task to ensure that when that does happen, I am as prepared as possible to take full advantage of them. There are no downsides to this – worst case I have built an arsenal of skills that couldbe applicable to many other areas, and grown my knowledge and abilities.

• “Early success is a terrible teacher. You’re essentially being rewarded for a lack of preparation, so when you find yourself in a situation where you MUST prepare, you can’t do it. You don’t know how.”

My takeaway: whilst I consider myself somebody that is capable to learn a wide variety of disciplines, I am by no means gifted nor a natural. I feel that the success I have achieved in my life has been accompanied by a lot of hard work. However I know people that have struggled to reach the same level of success as they did seemingly effortlessly when they were younger. In essence, hard work and preparation increases your chances of being successful and should be practiced, regardless of how hard or easy a particular subject is for me.

• “In my experience, fear comes from not knowing what to expect and not feeling you have any control over what’s about to happen. When you feel helpless, you’re far more afraid than you would be if you knew the facts. If you’re not sure what to be alarmed about, everything is alarming.”

My takeaway: this is an interesting way to describe fear; it is almost fear of the unknown. I think this is a very accurate representation of fear and anxiety surrounding future events. This again highlights the importance of preparation in any endeavour – this not only makes me feel in control of the outcome (if there is any choice) but allows me to dictate my emotional response to the situation.

• “If you start thinking that only your biggest and shiniest moments count, you’re setting yourself up to feel like a failure most of the time.”

My takeaway: it’s important to be humble and keep your head down. Celebrate any victories and small wins, of course, but it’s important not to get caught up in them. In the vast majorities of cases, the feeling is short-lived both for myself and the people surrounding me. Success is not only measured in the apparent victories, and I should take pride in the work that I put in that goes by unnoticed by the majority of people.

• “Over the years, I’ve realised that in any new situation, whether it involves an elevator or a rocket ship, you will almost certainly be viewed in one of three ways. As a minus one: actively harmful, someone who creates problems. Or as a zero: your impact is neutral and doesn’t tip the balance one way or another. Or you’ll be seen as a plus one: someone who actively adds value. Everyone wants to be a plus one, of course. But proclaiming your plus-oneness at the outset almost guarantees you’ll be perceived as a minus one, regardless of the skills you bring to the table or how you actually perform.”

My takeaway: Chris then goes to argue why you should aim to be a zero. In most cases when you’re new, you will not be a plus one. At a new job, you will not be adding value to the atmosphere. The best you can do is aim to be a zero – you are competent enough not to add any problems and so you are not a minus one. You can take it in without a lot of pressure and learn from others, both plus ones and minus ones, to see how best you can make a positive impact. I thought this was particularly relevant to me because I noticed I struggle to follow in other people’s footsteps, even when theirs are a lot more reasonable and efficient than my own. I need to remind myself that sometimes it’s okay to just be neutral, to learn from other people and try to absorb as much as I can so that I can add value to an environment eventually. I think there has been occasions where I’ve definitely come across as a minus one by adopting a plus one attitude.

• “But in weightlessness, tears don’t flow downward. They just sit there, as you keep on crying, a bigger and bigger ball of salty liquid accumulates to form a wobbly bubble on your eyeball.”

This is just funny for some reason.

• And in case you were curious as to how pee is collected in space and are hoping to get a laugh out of it:

“Collecting a urine sample was quite a bit more complicated and required a container of test tubes, a whole cleanup kit and a big plastic bag that looked just like a hot water bottle, only at one end there was a condom and, at the other, a long, thin hypodermic-looking tube capped with a blue rubber diaphragm. Already inside the bat was a chemical that needed to be mixed with the urine sample for the whole exercise to work. Full disclosure: I’m not entirely sure how female astronauts go about this, but as will become clear shortly, it’s almost certainly different than the way male astronauts do it. First you need to stretch that hot water bottle-esque bag to be sure the little septum between the condom and the bag is as open as it can be, so the force of your pee will overcome the little one-way valve and fill up the bag rather than squirting back out and all over you, all over the walls, all over – you get the picture. Once the bag is filled, you put it in a Ziploc bag just in case it leaks (at least once, it will) and shake it vigorously to make sure the chemical is mixed well with the urine. At this point, when your hands are covered with blobs of urine and drops are floating around the bathroom, too, it’s usually helpful to remind yourself that you are doing all this in the name of scientific inquiry. Take a minute to clean yourself up and while you’re at it, grab a disinfectant wipe – surely you’ve got a free hand! – and clean the ceilings and walls, too.”

All in all, I found a lot of value in this book. Not only did I research becoming an astronaut as a potential career option (turns out I have 2/3 minimum requirements to become a NASA astronaut, just need to go to flight school and learn to be a pilot) and am now entertaining this possibility by beginning to acquire new skills, but it made me reflect upon myself and my values when it comes to productivity, work and how I approach my tasks.