Chris Hadfield: The Most Inspiring Astronaut. Don’t Give Up
Chris Hadfield is a former astronaut. He is the Canada’s first shuttle mission specialist, and the first Canadian to board a Russian spacecraft and walk in Space. Also, he has experiences as an engineer and Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot. He is an official TED speaker and well-known for his inspiring speeches. He is the author of An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth and he also published an album of his photos from the shuttle: You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes.
------So the first question is: For those who are not familiar with you, please let us know more about you. Why did you decide to be an astronaut and what allowed you to get through the difficult processes to realize it?
I was inspired by the actions of other people. I think that’s what helped me decide what I want to do with my life. Part of it was fantasy; reading science fiction and watch science fiction television and movies. But it’s easy to have a fantasy, the hard part is reality. I think I was lucky enough to have the fantasy underpinned by the actual reality of spaceflight and watching the first people leave Earth, and then watching those people travel all the way to the moon and walk on the moon. And It was that combination of fantasy and reality that really cemented in my mind the idea of deciding to turn myself into an astronaut.
And then what allowed me to get through all the difficulties? I think it’s a very worthwhile personal process to give yourself a near impossible goal in life and use it then to help you make decisions about all of the little things you are going to do. It’s easy to say I decided to be something, the hard part is to then actually change yourself, to turn yourself into someone else. You can I’m going to, whatever, climb Mt. Everest, but that doesn’t get you to the top of Mt. Everest. What is actually going to get you to the top of Everest is learning all of the skills, all the logistics, and all of the potential dangers for actually turning yourself into a mountaineer.