 Anything worth doing
in life has risk.
That's been my observation.
If you want to learn to
walk, like most of us
did when we were
little, that had risk.
When I was learning
to walk, when
I was just a little
over a year old, I fell.
We were living in an apartment
that had a concrete floor.
I fell and banged
my head on the floor
and actually cracked my skull.
But I needed to learn to walk.
And even though no one
had explained it to me,
even at that stage, biology
and evolution and the world
around me had put
me in a position
where learning to walk, which
is dangerous, was worth doing.
As an astronaut, that
sort of becomes your life.
You say, this is
a dangerous job.
Flying a rocket
ship kills people.
Flying the jet
aircraft that we use
to train to fly rocket ships--
that kills people.
We've had people die underwater
training to do spacewalks.
It's a dangerous profession.
But much like learning
to walk or learning
to ride a bike, if you
can gain this skill,
if you can do this thing,
then maybe those risks
are worth taking.
And in my case, I
decided a long time ago
that exploring the
rest of the universe
was worth taking a risk for.
To me, that's a worthy thing.
I'm willing to change who I am.
I'm not just a person who
is blindly taking a risk.
But I am, instead,
a calculating,
thinking human who is trying
to do something that we haven't
done before and figure out how
I can defeat the risk, how I can
beat the danger and
put us in a new place,
get to that new place safely,
come out the other side
without a cracked head.
I like what that does, actually,
in that if you say, "I'm
going to take a risk
because it's worth it",
that changes your part.
You aren't a spectator.
You're not a passenger.
You are now part of the
process by which you're
going to defeat that risk.
You don't have to feel afraid.
Instead, you can
sort of feel, like,
motivated to solve the problems.
You're part of this thing,
trying to make this happen.
So that when I walk
out to a rocket ship
and I'm about to get in,
I know it's dangerous.
I've been thinking
about the danger of it
for years and years.
But I no longer
have to feel afraid.
That's not the only defense
mechanism that I have.
I've been working on
this thing so long,
and my job has not been to
sit there and cross my fingers
and hope.
My job is now to pilot
this thing, or at least
to be part of the
flight crew on board,
and safely defeat the risk,
get out the other side of it
with success.
And I sort of treat everything
in my life that way.
What is it that I
think is worth doing?
What are the risks involved?
And how can I address
the actual risks
so that I can achieve the things
that I think are important?
No astronaut launches for space
with their fingers crossed.
That's not how we
deal with risk.
We don't just take it as
somebody else's problem.
We are ready to confront the
risk head on and recognize
that there is a difference
between danger and fear.
They're not synonymous.
So many people ask--
because in English,
it's sort of crept in--
oh, that must be a scary thing.
And things aren't scary.
People are scared.
It's different.
The thing is just the thing.
Whether you choose
to be scared--
some people are
afraid of spiders.
Some people are
afraid of mirrors.
Some people are afraid of
open spaces, confined spaces.
But that's just your reaction
to a thing that exists.
You can choose to
be afraid or not.
And if it makes you afraid, why?
Why does this make me fearful?
Maybe there's a danger there
I shouldn't be confronting.
I am never going to
be a tightrope walker.
To me, there's so much
danger in walking down
a tightrope and so
little benefit to getting
across the tightrope that it's
not a risk I'm willing to take.
It's a real danger.
I can feel the fear of
doing it, and the fear
warns me that this is
a danger that I don't
want to subject myself to.
But there's lots of
other risks in life
that I do think are worthwhile.
And the real, I think,
important step in life
is to identify, what are
the risks worth taking?
If they do make you afraid, why?
Because that's
probably an indicator
that you haven't learned
how to do what it is you
need to do yet.
And then start
changing who you are.
Gain your skill.
The best antidote for
fear is competence.
If you can make
yourself competent,
then you're not just
relying on fear,
but you're actually a person
who can do this thing.
And if you're competent, then
not only can you do this thing,
but you can relax
while you're doing it.
You can look around.
You can notice how
cool this thing is.
This dangerous thing that's
happening, I got this.
I know how to do this thing.
I am not just a
chihuahua shaking away,
hoping that this problem will
disappear without killing me.
Instead, you're a
functioning, thriving
human being in the middle
of something amazing,
and you have turned
yourself into somebody
who can truly appreciate it.
To me, that's how you
should deal with risk.
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