Barking Up The Wrong Tree August 21st, 2023 ---------------------------------------------------------------
Before we commence with the festivities, I wanted to thank everyone for helping my new book become a bestseller! To check it out, click [here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- This Is How To Succeed Under Pressure: 4 Secrets From Astronauts ([Click here]( to read on the blog) On the International Space Station nothing is comfortable and everything is a challenge. Thereâs no running water and even less privacy. Your world is covered in Velcro. And itâs loud. Fans whir and hum constantly, interrupted by the occasional micrometerorite slamming into the Stationâs armor. Weightlessness does a number on your sinuses causing congestion, so food always tastes bland like when you have a head cold. Thereâs an emphasis on oatmeal, pudding and cooked spinach because food that clumps is more practical in a place where your dinner might float away from your mouth. And that doesnât even cover the most dangerous part: getting there. Youâre basically strapped to a 4.5 megaton bomb. And a very claustrophobic bomb at that. The Soyuz spacecraft has 265 cubic feet of space inside. By comparison, a Dodge Caravan is about 163 cubic feet. (And, family vacation or not, the Dodge Caravan isnât loaded with as much cargo as the Soyuz.) Take off feels like an 18-wheeler going full speed hitting the side of the ship. And to add insult to injury, youâre wearing a diaper. Youâre also wearing cotton long underwear. Why cotton? Because when engulfed in flame it just chars and doesnât burn or melt. (Yes, these are the lovely factors that inspire your clothing choices.) And once you get to the Space Station it doesnât get much easier. The thing is orbiting earth at 17,500 mph and frequently needs repairs. (You thought home ownership was a chore?) And nobody is coming quickly in case of an emergency. You need to handle anything that occurs with whatâs already on the ship. You better be resourceful and an excellent problem solver. By comparison, the hardest thing you and I do is try to squeeze into pre-pandemic jeans. Well, if you ever want to get promoted to Senior Vice-President of Extremely Important Things you gotta be able to deal with challenges -- and astronauts are the perfect people to teach us about how to succeed under pressure. Previously weâve learned from [bomb defusers]( [Navy SEALs]( [hostage negotiators]( and [Special Forces](. Now letâs get some lessons from people whose surroundings are literally trying to kill them, 24-7. Our guide will be Colonel Chris Hadfield. His wonderful book is â[An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything]( Letâs get to it... âOkay, Whatâs The Next Thing That Will Kill Me?â Many of us dreamt of being astronauts when we were kids. But the more you learn about what they actually face, the more it seems like they woke up one morning, looked up at the sky, and thought, "I want to work in a place where the commute could potentially explode." I hear your naive little voice saying, âWell, they should be optimistic, look on the bright side.â Oh, you sweet summer child. When youâre an astronaut your environment is constantly conspiring to kill you. Everything for tens of thousands of miles screams, âYour puny mortal body should not be here and we will end you.â Challenge comes in so many flavors, it's like Baskin-Robbins up in here. Chris doesnât recommend positive thinking. That gets you killed. Whatâs he suggest? âWeâre trained to look on the dark side and to imagine the worst things that could possibly happen. In fact, in simulators, one of the most common questions we learn to ask ourselves is, âOkay, whatâs the next thing that will kill me?ââ Being ready means knowing what could go wrong and having a plan for it. Positive thinking makes you passive. âOh, itâll all work out.â Negative thinking keeps you on your toes and itâs productive: 1) Imagine problem, 2) Go solve it before it rises up and slays you. Thinking about the worst might seem like a prescription for depression but Chris says, actually, itâs the reverse: âRehearsing for catastrophe has made me positive that I have the problem-solving skills to deal with tough situations and come out the other side smiling.â Chris isnât truly pessimistic because he leverages negative thinking to plan for the worst. And following through on those plans makes him calm and confident. Heâs calm because heâs always ready. Really ready. And that beats the heck out of wishful thinking. That attitude serves him well in difficult circumstances. But what works even better is what heâs doing loooooooong before the hard problems ever arise... âSweat The Small Stuffâ âAn astronaut who doesnât sweat the small stuff is a dead astronaut.â Astronauts are stereotyped as thrill seekers and cowboys but thatâs totally inaccurate. Theyâre actually calm, conscientious, methodical and detail oriented. They have to be. There are no âaccidentalâ astronauts. They prepare for months for every day theyâre in space. And they need all that prep: this really is ârocket scienceâ. Dealing with problems for the first time once youâre in space is like trying to get sober in Vegas. NASA even has them fight real fires in an ISS simulator over and over again because, to state the obvious, fires on a space station are not good. (Imagine if things on fire floated around the room setting other things on fire.) So Chris recommends preparing for the worst long before anything goes wrong. Donât just imagine it. Donât just have a plan. Simulate it. He considers it a permissible form of cheating. Imagine if you could stop in the middle of a chess match and go study classic games and test which gambits might be most effective. Canât do that during a game but you can do it as much as you like beforehand. Maybe Chris sounds like heâs some sort of Superman, but heâs not. In fact, this explorer of outer space is actually afraid of heights. Yes, really. But by getting the knowledge he needs and preparing over and over heâs managed to tame that fear. Itâs not a thought process; itâs a get-off-your-butt process of understanding your environment and practicing until you can handle it. This is what transforms you from a soggy mess of a human being into a glittering beacon of resourcefulness. But what do you do when youâre in the middle of an unexpected, life-threatening situation tens of thousands of miles from assistance? âWorking The Problemâ Chris has been trained to react unemotionally, prioritize threats, and deal with them. Astronauts call it âworking the problem.â Go through possible responses methodically looking for the best solution (and hoping you find it before you run out of oxygen). First thing they do is go through the big three: âwarn, gather, work.â Tell everyone onboard about the issue. Gather to discuss the problem. Get cracking. Again, advance simulations play a big part here because itâs about acquiring knowledge about how things go wrong and learning whatâs serious and whatâs not. This is what allows you to prioritize, to understand which problems are related and what must be dealt with first. And theyâre not all as sexy as fighting fires. Sometimes it looks a lot more like what you deal with when your computer misbehaves. Youâd hate to lose all your work in Microsoft Word but if the computer Chris uses on the Soyuz crashes, um, so does he. Sims called âpart task trainersâ (PTTs) are just sitting in front of a laptop next to an instructor with a laptop. The instructor is throwing error messages to your screen saying itâs 100 degrees inside part of the ship. And Chris has to figure out: is the engine overheating or is the thermometer just busted? Where is the malfunction? And is this minor enough to ignore while he deals with the other error messages the instructor just threw at him because now pressure is dropping in the crew cabin and thrusters are inexplicably failing. Eventually theyâre throwing every problem imaginable at him. Chris says itâs one of the most stressful and exhausting things astronauts deal with â and itâs just sitting in front of a laptop. We often avoid problems but the closer we can get to trouble in a safe way in advance, the faster we learn. âWorking the problemâ only works if you constantly increase your comfort zone so that when things go sideways, you feel like youâve been there before. People assume that launch day must be stressful but Chris says itâs the exact opposite. The only thing he feels is relief. Heâs been preparing for years: âFear comes from not knowing what to expect and not feeling you have any control over whatâs about to happen. When you feel helpless, youâre far more afraid than you would be if you knew the facts.â So far weâve discussed a lot of technical annoyances astronauts deal with. But life is filled with all different kinds of annoyances. And by annoyances, I mean people... âWhatâs The Most Useful Thing I Could Be Doing Right Now?â You think you have it bad with co-workers? Imagine being locked in a tin can with them for six months. With no showers. Or Scotch. You have to count on them for your very survival and you canât even go outside to let off steam. Chris has heard rumors about people refusing to speak to each other for days â and even fistfights. On a space station. Chris says the key question to ask when youâre part of a team is, âHow can I help us get where we need to go?â What is the most important thing for you to be doing right now that advances the teamâs goals? Often weâre trying to do too much or getting into the weeds with drama. And then we try and fix things by adding layer after layer of problems that further complicate the real issue of getting the job done. Chris simplifies it. There are only three kinds of people on a team. You can be a âminus oneâ: someone who causes problems. You can be a âzeroâ: someone whose impact is neutral. Or you can be a âplus oneâ: someone who actively adds value. The real problem is everyone thinks theyâre a âplus one.â And when you walk around arrogantly thinking youâre a plus one, you drive everyone else crazy -- even if you really are a plus one. So start by being a zero. Do no harm and donât make assumptions. Even if you have skills, if you donât fully understand the current context, there is no way youâre going to be a plus one. Donât cause problems for anyone else and donât have an attitude. Once people know they can trust you and you fully know the current lay of the land, then try to add value. You have to demonstrate competence and be reliable before you can be extraordinary. Okay, time to round it all up â and discover the lesson that matters most over the long haul... Sum Up This is how to succeed under pressure:
- âOkay, whatâs the next thing that will kill me?â: Negative thinking can be a positive during a crisis. When youâre facing a perverse all-you-can-eat buffet of misery, anticipating problems and finding solutions is a superpower, while âthinking it will all work outâ leads to a passive demise.
- âSweat the small stuffâ: Prepare. And then prepare some more. You may think youâre busy now but you will always have more time before a problem strikes than when youâre in the middle of it.
- âWorking the problemâ: Find a way to safely experience the challenge before it ever hits. May sound like the emotional equivalent of chewing aluminum foil but nothing beats the understanding and experience from having dealt with a problem previously.
- âHow can I help us get where we need to go?â: Yes, it seems like some people are only here to give you a head start on a midlife crisis. The first thing is donât make things worse. Donât be afraid to be a big steaming pile of mediocrity at first. Be competent and trustworthy and then find the best way to be a âplus one.â
It feels good to do well in the simulations astronauts use for prep. But thatâs not what theyâre about. You donât want to win; you want to learn. Doing well is nice but more often itâs about noticing gaps in your knowledge or skills and improving. In school, the people who never make mistakes are called âintelligent.â But after we grow up, itâs the people who make mistakes and learn that are truly âintelligent.â Astronauts are perpetual students. They are always learning because there is just so much to learn about this relatively new environment called outer space. After a four-hour sim there will be a one hour debrief. After an actual trip to space the debriefing takes a month. Nothing but analyzing every part of the trip, all day, for a month. The purpose? To add to NASAâs list of âFlight Rules.â Itâs a compendium of everything theyâve learned from every space flight since the 1960âs. Instead of impulsively reacting, Ground Control has a database of what did and did not work in every situation thus far. Itâs like the legal precedents for space flight. A learning focus would serve you as well because success rarely happens overnight. And your own personal âFlight Rulesâ book would be helpful as well. Nobody likes making the same mistake twice. Chris has learned an enormous amount and heâs admirably passed that knowledge on. He did a wonderful series of videos while on the International Space Station that answered common questions kids had about being an astronaut. How do you [eat in space]( Brush [your teeth]( Go [to sleep]( What happens when you [wring out a wet towel]( in zero gravity? Preparation, sweating the small stuff and teamwork have given him the confidence and competence to handle the most difficult situations imaginable. Time and time again, Chris has been able to find the right answer to almost any challenge. There was the time Chris went into space again and his 30-year-old son spoke into the microphone at Mission Control: âHi Dad, great to see you launch. Now can I have a pony?â As usual, always prepared, Chris knew the proper response: âAsk your mother.â ***If you are one of those lovely people who bought "Plays Well With Others" please leave a review on Amazon [here](. Thanks!*** Email Extras Findings from around the internet... + Want to know how your unique personality traits determine your happiness? Click [here](. + Want to know the type of eating that reduces your chance of death? Click [here](. + Want to know the supplement that might reduce your chance of Alzheimer's? Click [here](. + Miss my prior post? Here you go: [New Neuroscience Reveals How To Overcome Boredom, Frustration, And Impatience](. + Want to know the habits that will make your kids smarter? Click [here](. + You read to the end of the email. It's not a challenge at the level of surviving space travel but I sure do appreciate it. Okay -- it's Crackerjack time: More fun insights from Chris about life on the Space Station. He answers fascinating stuff like "What does space smell like?", "What would happen if you went outside without your space suit?" and more. For the answers, click [here](.
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