The New Space Hero’s Journey
What is SpaceKind? Is it a new species of space beings?
No, it isn’t some unknown alien species, but a mindset fostered by an 8-week Emotional Intelligence informed training for Space enthusiasts and change-makers.
I recently wrapped up my training on June 22, 2023.
For the last eight weeks, every Thursday at 7:00 p.m., I’d click on the Zoom link to be surrounded by individuals across the globe dialing in for the hour-plus conversations that spanned the depths of experiences just as varied as ours. Students were waking up at 1:00 a.m., while others joined the call pre-flight boarding, and each one of us brought our presence and intention to our SpaceKind journey.
Guided by the book, “The New Right Stuff: Using Space to Bring Out the Best in You,” we’d studiously read the chapter before the call and completed our weekly homework assignments. Yes, folks, we willingly signed up for homework devoted to unraveling the most challenging component of any person — emotions.
For myself, this is one of the many pursuits I’ve undertaken to challenge myself in my Emotional Intelligence, mindset, and comfort zone. Yet, it pushed me further in areas I’ve previously struggled to embrace — my vulnerability and voice.
Space and vulnerability?
Could that be paradoxical? Yet, it’s precisely why this training exists. In the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Columbia, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two, and the recent Titan submersible implosion, these incidents’ glaring truths point not to mere engineering mistakes. Instead, it is the shortcomings of the communication, collaboration, and coordination of the teams making strides to accomplish grand explorative feats.
“We are working on the most complicated subsystems of space — people.”
— Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides
Space is for the explorer, adventurer, and unflinching intellectual who risk it all for a taste of the cosmos. Endeavoring to reach for the stars doesn’t mean you lose your humanity, though. Instead, you must find it. You must embrace the vulnerability in yourself and others to achieve more than one human can.
If you’re a crew member tasked with Extra Vehicular Activity to repair your ship’s exterior yet forgot a tile or oversight a repair. Could you be vulnerable enough to own your mistake?
Suppose you’re the Flight Director in Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR), aka the Ground Control — who oversees the entire mission, ensuring crew safety and mission success. What would happen if you made a mistake? Perhaps it was a lapse in judgment, misreading a report analysis, or simply a need for support on all the moving pieces.
All the various crews and teams work together on a collective mission, but that doesn’t mean mistakes don’t occur. We are human, after all, and while we strive for perfection when the stakes are immense — remember that even a computer needs a restart, troubleshooting, or shut down when tasked with a formidable job.
Why would we not grant leniency and support to those embarking on our most challenging pursuits as a species?
SpaceKind reminds you of those precious truths, as the book, “The New Right Stuff: Using Space to Bring Out the Best in You,” takes you on your hero’s journey. Facing yourself, defining your powerful mission, embracing your shadows, having courageous conversations, and ultimately determining — What you came to Earth to do. It’s a lot to cover in 8-weeks, let alone a lifetime, but we showed up.
We asked ourselves and our fellow SpaceKind crew to be present, vulnerable, authentic, and courageous in our truths.
There were moments where I struggled to share amongst the others, letting fear or shame cloud my inner power, but then I’d hear someone’s story. I’d listen to a tale that mirrored my own. I’d hear the vulnerability of another and witness not a recoil but a welcoming by the crew. A graciousness was witnessed and cultivated each week by Loretta and her team of Teaching Assistants in each of us throughout the eight-week journey.
It gave me the strength to:
- Create an integrity list and carry that practice forward. An Integrity List lists actions, goals, and items supporting your highest well-being, mindset, and character.
- Ask for help after being let go from a dream job.
- Heal and find closure within the relationships I had with my parents.
- Share my voice in new ways, like this article.
Are you ready to embark on your own Hero’s Journey?
The training is on SpaceKind, and there’s another one embarking on September 5. Maybe I’ll see you there.
Note: This article is an unsolicited positive review, all true.
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