“Self-help gurus are always advising us to think positively and envisage success, but it’s about as helpful as thinking about cupcakes. Just thinking about them isn’t going to help. It’s more important to think what could go wrong with a mission. Visualize failings, not success. That’s what’s essential to survival as an astronaut. I was an astronaut for 21 years, but I only spent six months in space. The rest of the time, I was looking into every detail that might have gone wrong during a mission. Once you’ve understood all the potential risks and you’re forewarned against them, fear no longer plays a part in your thought process.”
Chris Hadfield
Great interview with Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield in Red Bull magazine. Addresses an important issue. Just blindly doing some positive thinking is not going to help us succeed in flying. We need to think about all the failure modes — and what we will do in that event. After that analytic analysis, you can visualize positive outcomes, even with system failures or weather challenges. This is an important point, not often addressed by cross-legged amateur success coaches peddling sessions on instagram. As Chris puts it:
“I’m not saying you should give up all hope. The main thing is to visualize failings, not defeat.”
There’s more in the article about risk, preparation, and living life to the fullest. All from someone with 4,000 hours logged in space! Good stuff.
