Astronaut Chris Hadfield’s 3 rules for going into space | Big Think

If you want to be an astronaut, there are three main things that are important: number one is simple, just physical. How healthy is your body? If you’re going to get on a spaceship and leave Earth, then it’s really difficult to go see a doctor or to get to a hospital. So we need people to be healthy.

Part of that is just a roll of the dice; what sort of makeup is your body? Are you a person with a problem you were born with? If so, then maybe you’re not going to be an astronaut. Maybe you’re not going to be in the NBA; maybe you’re not going to be whatever. You are who you are. But given that you have a certain body, you can do a few things obviously: think about what you eat. You get a choice every time you put something in your mouth, so eat food that’s good for you.

And then exercise a little bit. Take the stairs. Don’t drag your bad; carry your bag. Walk. Climb. Go for a run. Do something every day, a little bit physical. It doesn’t take much, but if you’re careful about what you eat and you do a couple physical things every day, then you’re taking care of your body. That’s step one.

Number two is: flying spaceships is complicated; it’s technical. So if NASA is saying, “Who are we going to pick to be astronauts?” you want to pick someone who has proven their ability to learn complicated things. You don’t want to pick someone, “What? You don’t know how to learn this?” But if you pick someone that has a doctorate in astrophysics and also repairs their 1955 Thunderbird in their own garage, this is a person that knows how to do technical things.

They can learn complex theory, and they can get in there with their hands and do stuff. So the second part is to plan to always be a student learning complicated things. Try and gain qualifications that show that you can learn complicated stuff, so plan on an advanced technical university degree. It’s just like your ticket of entry.

The third, though, is that we don’t just want to hire healthy students. The third is: can you make good decisions and stick with them, especially when there are very high consequences? If something really serious is happening, are you the person that can make the right call, make the right decision? And that’s a skill.

Learning to make decisions is a skill. You can get better at it, or you can always go, “That’s above my pay grade,” or “Nah, I don’t need to decide that.” You can do that, but then you are not learning how to actually make a decision and stick with your own convictions.

So you can start small; just decide, “Next month, on the first of the month, I am going to do something different with my life.” “I’m going to wear black every day for the whole month.” “I’m going to do 100 push-ups every day for the whole month.” “I’m going to read 20 pages of Shakespeare every month.” “I’m going to learn five words of Japanese every day this month.” Make a decision; stick with it.

By the end of the month, you will have changed who you are. And if you choose not to, you will have also changed who you are, but in some random direction. So learning how to make decisions and stick with them, as the stakes get higher and higher, is also something we’re really looking for in astronaut selection.

So those are the three main things: take care of your body, get advanced complex technical training (preferably to at least a master's degree at the university level), and make decisions and stick with them. Show that you’re a person that can make the right call when the chips are down, and then hopefully NASA will give you a call...