Canadian Astronaut Offers Advice
As Appeared In Mowi Canada West Wharfside
You look around the office to visit with a colleague, and there are none to be found. Who can you have coffee with? Yourself. . .again.
Or you’re working remotely, in your home office, connecting with other employees via telephone and/or video.
Such is life these days as Mowi Canada West has many of its workers practicing self-isolation, to stop the spread, or “flatten the cure” of the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Everyone hopes this will soon pass, but in the meantime, how do we cope with working on our own, and the various challenges that presents?
Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield
Perhaps some tips from Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield can be helpful. Hadfield knows all about working in isolation as the former commander of the International Space Station in outer space.
He shared four things astronauts keep in mind during their missions with CTV News Ottawa recently on their CTV Morning Live program.
- Know the risk.
Hadfield states there’s a difference between fear and danger, and obtaining information from credible sources about the risks facing yourself, your family and your friends is very important.
“It’s what might happen that is scary, but once you actually dig into it, you can become like an expert and then you can do the correct things and be a lot more logical and calm about dealing with it,” he says.
- Know your mission.
Hadfield points out it’s important to have clear objectives for the day, week, and month, so we know what we want to get done.
“Shave. Learn the chords to ‘Stairway to Heaven’. Call your Aunt Ethel and get her to actually show you how to make those muffins. Something that takes a little time, something you’ve been meaning to do, but you never had a chance to do,” he adds.
- Know your constraints.
Every person is facing their own unique set of circumstances, so have a plan that works within any possible constraints you’ve identified.
“Who’s telling you what you need to do? What financial resources do you have? What are your obligations?” are good questions to ask, he says.
- Take action!
Do something, he suggests, even if they’re different. Start a new project, learn to play guitar, write, create. . . Just don’t let lethargy and passivity take control.
“Give yourself something to accomplish every day,” he suggests. “Actually go and do one of the things on your list of stuff to get done.”
He shared that, while on the space ship, they were active from six in the morning until eleven at night.
“At the end of the day, you’re exhausted, but you look back and go, ‘Wow! That was a great day! I got a whole bunch of stuff done!’ Don’t let this thing direct your life. Direct your own life,” he states.
