“I wasn’t destined to be an astronaut. I had to turn myself into one.”
“Competence means keeping your head in a crisis, sticking with a task even when it seems hopeless, and improvising good solutions to tough problems when every second counts. It encompasses ingenuity, determination and being prepared for anything.”
“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.”
“Preparation is not only about managing external risks, but about limiting the likelihood that you’ll unwittingly add to them.”
“Anticipating problems and figuring out how to solve them is actually the opposite of worrying: it’s productive.”
“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.”
“The more you know and the keener your sense of operational awareness, the better equipped you are to fight against a bad outcome, right to the very end.”
“I wasn't lonely. Loneliness, I think, has very little to do with location. It's a state of mind.”
“Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It’s about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter.”
“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.”
The Guardian: An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield – refreshingly grounded space tales
The New York Times: He Stayed Grounded by Writing a Thriller Set in Outer Space
The Wall Street Journal: Book Review: 'An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth' by Chris Hadfield