Chris Hadfield is a smart dude. You have to be, if you want to be an astronaut. Only the best of the best of the best in a spaceperson’s field of work end up on the International Space Station.

When he came back from the ISS, Hadfield penned An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth. I read it, and have to admit I didn’t love it. I thought it read like a Malcolm Gladwell book: thesis up front, and then many examples to prove the same point. I thought it got kind of boring.

In general, though, I really like and admire Hadfield. He’s wicked smart, is well-spoken, and seems like an extremely genuine person. Yesterday he did an AMA on Reddit, and one particular comment of his stood out to me. It was made in response to someone asking about how to become an astronaut:

Learn other languages, learn to fly, learn to scuba dive, learn medical training, always be pursuing new skills. There is no one specific path to becoming an astronaut. The best thing you can do is train yourself to enjoy building up the skills that end up defining who you are.

Becoming the thing you dream of is a long shot, no matter what. The key is to HAVE a dream, a destination, a personal definition of perfection in life, and then to use that end goal to help decide what to do next. It is not the end goal that changes you, but the summed total of each of the small, daily decisions. Actively pursue your dreams by deliberate small choices — what to eat, to read, how to exercise, what to study, where to go, when to change direction. It’s amazing where all the little decisions can lead you.

Never hate what you are doing. Make the most of it, find pleasure in the nuance and the art of it, become better at it, laugh at it, make it one of the things that you can do. If it’s truly insufferable, then you must change and do something else. But get the most out of each step of life as you go. There’s always more there than you think.

And celebrate success now! Don’t wait to walk on the Moon to notice the thousand small victories that got you there. Rejoice in each new skill, every discovered idea, each small improvement you make in yourself.
All the choices and ideas you list make sense. Do what is closest to your heart, the ones that make you the most excited. That way you are inevitably turning yourself into who you want to be.

Chris Hadfield. Wicked smart dude.