Effortlessness and yet such total presence

By Dave English

“Rowing at its best occurs when you are gliding through the water with such effortlessness and yet such total presence that you almost seem to disappear. Rowers use the term ‘swing’ to refer to that magical kind of condition when the boat seems to fly over the water and a lot of effort disappears from the stroke. The athlete becomes completely the servant of the oars, the water, and the shell; your individuality—your separate self—isn’t there anymore.… Rowing can get you in a state where you’re ready to expand your definition of yourself, and I call that an expansion of consciousness. In that sense, you are on the path of spiritual growth.”

~ Craig Lambert, in his book Mind Over Water. Sounds just like flying!

Rowing

Astronaut Chris Hadfield on negative thinking

By Dave English

“Self-help gurus are always advising us to think positively and envisage success, but it’s about as helpful as thinking about cupcakes. Just thinking about them isn’t going to help. It’s more important to think what could go wrong with a mission. Visualize failings, not success. That’s what’s essential to survival as an astronaut. I was an astronaut for 21 years, but I only spent six months in space. The rest of the time, I was looking into every detail that might have gone wrong during a mission. Once you’ve understood all the potential risks and you’re forewarned against them, fear no longer plays a part in your thought process.”

Chris Hadfield

Great interview with Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield in Red Bull magazine. Addresses an important issue. Just blindly doing some positive thinking is not going to help us succeed in flying. We need to think about all the failure modes — and what we will do in that event. After that analytic analysis, you can visualize positive outcomes, even with system failures or weather challenges. This is an important point, not often addressed by cross-legged amateur success coaches peddling sessions on instagram. As Chris puts it:

“I’m not saying you should give up all hope. The main thing is to visualize failings, not defeat.”

There’s more in the article about risk, preparation, and living life to the fullest. All from someone with 4,000 hours logged in space! Good stuff.

Chris Hadfield, image NASA.
Chris Hadfield, image NASA.