Book Review: An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth

Author:  Chris HadfieldPublisher:  Random House Canada; 1st Edition (Oct. 29 2013)ISBN:  978-0-345-81270-4

In March of 2013, Chris Hadfield captivated millions of earthlings through social media outlets like Twitter and YouTube. He offered us a rare glimpse of the extraordinary life of an astronaut while aboard the International Space Station. Unpretentiously, Chris Hadfield has taken his seemingly flawless life and translated it through a more traditional form of social media. I say ‘seemingly’ because after reading the book, you realize that he has endured similar gravity-bound human tribulations as anyone else. After all, he is human, albeit, a human with a resume the size of a phone book, but I digress.

This book gives a brilliant, descriptive look into life as an astronaut while demonstrating leadership through competence, humility, preparedness and trusting others. He stresses that to be an astronaut you need to THINK like an astronaut. Using this meticulous thought-processing system is what has allowed him to become the successful astronaut, former fighter pilot, father, husband, leader and genuine, down-to-earth individual that he is today.  He dishes out unconventional wisdom such as “aiming to be a zero”, “sweating the small stuff”, and “the power of negative thinking”. For those of you looking for an out-of-this-world example of a truly transformative leader, please, look no further.

– Submitted by Brent Cunning