Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield recently gave some fantastic life advice during a mind-blowing talk in Vancouver at TED 2014.
He started the talk by asking: "What's the scariest thing you've ever done?"
Hadfield has done more scary things than the average person. When he took his first shuttle flight in 1979 the odds of catastrophic failure were 1 in 38.
"Why would we take that risk? Why would you do something that dangerous? In my case it's fairly straightforward. I was inspired as a youngster that this is what I wanted to do." he said.
So what's advice to other people for dealing with fear?
It has to do with thinking about the real risk, he said. Hadfield used the fear of spiders as an example. There are only 24 venomous spiders out of the 50,000 species known, he said. Specifically, in Vancouver, there's one venomous spider that isn't deadly but delivers a nasty sting. So, if you are even slightly careful, you can avoid getting bitten.
You can lose your caveman instinct to fear the spider by "learning the difference between perceived danger and absolute danger."
"It's just a little bit of fluffy stuff, it's not a big deal," he said. The spider that may have been in there is no more danger than a lady bug. Realizing this and practicing facing the fear will fundamentally change you.
You can apply that to anything, he said. Even being blinded during a space walk.
When you do that, "you have taken the dreams of that 9-year-old boy, which were impossible and dauntingly terrifying, and turned them into practice. And that allows you to come back with an amazing set of experiences and a level of inspiration for other people," he said.
Here's the whole talk:
SEE ALSO: 23 Unforgettable Moments From Astronaut Chris Hadfield
SEE ALSO: Astronaut Chris Hadfield: In Space, There Is No Problem So Bad You Can't Make It Worse