10 Life lessons you can learn from astronauts.
Apply them, and you will see the difference.
An astronaut is one of the unconventional career choices that one could choose, with its tough education, and training, I would say it’s very hard to be one.
Astronauts are not just into space, maths, and physics, they are also interested and very knowledgeable about life and its hardships.
They learn this the hard way through obstacles, failures that are inevitable in their journey.
So it will be useful to learn from those amazing minds. Here I outline 10 life lessons that you can apply today for an amazing life.
1. Have an attitude:
In space terminology, attitude is the relative orientation to two positions, losing your attitude is bad, because you could end up drifting, lost and alone in outer space.
In life, you should control your attitude, so you can achieve what you want. It doesn’t matter if you achieve your goals or not, you should aim to stay on the right track, because losing it is way worse than not reaching the destination.
2. GOOD ADVICE IS GOOD ADVICE, FOR KIDS AND ADULTS:
You should seek advice and guidance from everyone if possible, because good advice can save you from making mistakes that others have already done.
You have nothing to lose if you just listen, then apply what is useful to you, and discard what is not.
3. Recognize the power of teamwork:
Working as an astronaut require to solve complex problems with different angles. Different stakeholders from different backgrounds have to work together to achieve a good, and acceptable solution.
In life, you should embrace teamwork, especially if others are competent and knowledgeable. Learn to work with others effectively, this includes listening, compromise, and communication skills.
4. Do care what others think:
It’s hard to accept we’re not in control of our own destiny. But the fact is other people have more influence over the course of our careers and lives than we do.
Inside your family, your workplace, it’s important to know what others think of you as person, or your performance.
If the only opinion you care about is yours when there are other stakeholders, you are probably not on the right track to improvement. So get feedback, and learn.
5. Aim for zero:
This is a given advice from Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut. He says that in a new situation, you should learn to observe, listen, offer advice, and move on. This is what he calls zero.
If you are a minus-one, then you are a liability to your team, which is the worst case scenario.
If you are a plus-one, then you will get to prove yourself, to show how great you are, your ‘I got this’ mentality might easily irritate and prove detrimental to the dynamic.
6. Utilise the power of negative thinking:
We are always thaught that negative thinking is bad to have. However when used effectively, it can be a confidence-boosting and energising.
Well, if you always prepare a contingency for every scenario you’ll never be caught off-guard.
And that means you can actually relax and enjoy life, knowing you’re ready to act if things go wrong.
7. Sweat the small stuff:
This one goes with the previous one. When you pay attention to granular details, you are incrementally safer than most people.
In every thing, the details play a role in success or failure. Those little details have a compounding effect, that can be positive and make the mission successful, or negative and make it a failure.
8.When the stakes are high, preparation is everything:
We can’t control the occurence of big moments, but we can control how prepared we are.
So whether it’s a big exam, a job interview or sports final, when the high-stakes situations arise planning for success is key. In most scenarios, depending on your level of preparation, you can know from the beginning if you are going to fail or succeed.
9. Good leadership means leading the way, not bullying other people to do things your way:
You have to aim for a consensus-approach when you are a leader, by setting up an example of a better plan. This will build your leadership on strong foundations, like communication, teamwork…
As a result, it will be a good investment in the long run if there is an opportunity for leadership, a track record that can set you apart. People will want to follow you because they want to, not because they have to.
10. Criticise the problem, never the person:
“Work the problem” is the core mantra of NASA culture, it’s not about the ego.
Learn to pinpoint the problem, and work on finding the solution, yes, it can be hard when you are suffering from someone else mistake. But you have to learn to do it.
along with this, you have to go help other people even if it’s not in your best interest, this will pay dividends in the future for you as person, even if the other is not grateful, you will craft internal peace which is important for success down the line.
Conclusion:
And there you have it, 10 life lessons from astronauts you can apply today in your life. Astronauts are such interesting people to listen to, they have wide knowledge and experience in many fields.
So tell me what you think in the comments.
