5 Secrets To Success From NASA’s Space Program

How many technological developments that happened over fifty years ago would be impressive to today’s teenagers? Not many.

Well, can we please talk about how insane the Apollo 11 mission was? Seriously, this was the 1960s. A time when everyone’s idea of cutting-edge technology was a television that weighed as much as a small car and a rotary phone that doubled as an upper-body workout. Seatbelts were a fun suggestion and you could still smoke in hospitals. The height of American ambition was figuring out how to put fake wood paneling on every surface imaginable.

But then a bunch of guys at NASA in horn-rimmed glasses sitting in front of massive computers with less power than your phone were like, “Okay, we’re going to build a rocket taller than the Statue of Liberty and go to the moon. You know, the one poets have been writing about for centuries, the one werewolves howl at? Yeah, we’re going to that.”

The rocket they built for this, the Saturn V, was a skyscraper with a death wish. This thing was 363 feet tall. And they filled it with enough explosive material to make Michael Bay cry tears of joy. Basically, six million pounds of “I hope this works” with an engine.

And, somehow, they pulled it off. Three people flew 240,000 miles in a tin can with the computing power of a digital watch, landed on a rock that’s literally trying to kill you, and then flew back home like it was just another day at the office.

It was the most insane, magnificent “because we can” moment in human history. How did they do something so unimaginable?

Professor Richard Wiseman studied the Apollo 11 mission and discovered a few of the secrets that led to this incredible achievement. Things that can help us accomplish big things in our own lives. His book is “Moonshot: What Landing a Man on the Moon Teaches Us About Collaboration, Creativity, and the Mindset for Success.”

Let’s get to it…

 

Passion

Robert Vallerand, a professor at the University of Quebec, found that doing something you’re passionate about makes people enjoy their work, allowing them to persist through difficulty. Unsurprisingly, this leads to increased productivity and success. Nobody doubts the people working on the Apollo program were passionate.

Passion gets things done. It’s what takes you from just liking something to going so deep you start writing manifestos on napkins and alienating everyone in your book club because you won’t stop talking about it.

What are you passionate about? What pushes you over the line from friends calling you “driven” to saying, “Oh God, we need to stage an intervention”? If you want a smoother pass to success, that’s a great place to start.

(To learn how to find your passion in life, click here.)

Everybody always says you need to have goals. Turns out they’re right. But what kind do we need?

 

Goals

You want to have “stretch goals.” Goals that are a little more ambitious that you think you can handle. Stretch goals are like adulthood’s version of a triple dog dare. They work. You know why? Because they force you into that awkward position where you really have to put in the effort…

But don’t go overboard.

The trick is to aim high, but not so high that you’re basically volunteering to be a cautionary tale. If the mere act of writing this goal down makes you laugh until you pee yourself a little, that might be too much. Researchers say the sweet spot are goals that have a 50-70% chance of success. Stretch, but don’t dislocate a shoulder, okay?

You also want what are called “SMarT goals”: specific, measurable and time constrained. John F. Kennedy didn’t say, “We should do some kinda space thing eventually.” No, he said NASA would land on the moon by the end of the decade.

Specific makes a difference. (Like if you decide you’re going to get in shape you might want to specify a shape. “Blob” is a shape, after all.) You’ll be more focused and think more clearly if you take your amorphous, comforting dreams and pin them down like a taxidermist who’s had a particularly bad day.

Then make them measurable. As the saying goes, “what gets measured gets managed.” You can’t put points on the board if there are no points and no board.

And then time-constrain them. Because if your goals don’t have a ticking clock attached, you’ll never feel the sweet, sweet pressure of potential failure looming. Yes, that feels horrible. But you also know deadlines are essential.

(To learn everything about setting the right goals for you, click here.)

Doing the same old thing gets the same old results, and that’s if you’re lucky. So we’re going to need some…

 

Creativity

A key aspect of being more creative is simple: don’t just go with your first idea. Keep generating.

Often your first idea is the thing most people would think of, which is the opposite of creative. It’ll be something cliché like “best thing since sliced bread.” (And who decided that sliced bread was the high watermark of human achievement? Bread is not that complicated. If you’re impressed by pre-cut bread, I have to assume you’ve never seen an iPhone or a bidet.)

What else can make you more creative? Researchers found that taking a break and coming back to your problems later leads to more creative solutions. This is what they call the “incubation effect.”

To compound it, use that time to go for a walk. Studies found that while walking, you’re 60 percent more creative than when you’re sitting at a desk like a normal, defeated human being.

And research validates the power of “sleeping on it.” Study subjects solved a problem 60% of the time after a good night’s sleep, while the people who stayed up working on it only had a 23% success rate.

(To learn how to be more creative, click here.)

To succeed, everyone says you must be optimistic.

And they are dead wrong…

 

Be Optimistic… Or Not?

I’ve posted tons of research on the benefits of optimism. It definitely makes us more likely to initiate projects and to persevere.

But optimism often gets oversold as essential and all you need. As if life is ruled by “The Secret,” and all we have to do is wish for a pony hard enough and BAM! Pony in the driveway.

Let’s get this straight: I have nothing against optimism. Really, I don’t. But sometimes I find it to be a lot like those advertisements for medications where they list the side effects at the end in a low whisper while showing people happily riding bicycles.

Enter the equally effective alternative: “Defensive Pessimism.” About one-third of pessimists have this thinking style, and it gives them superpowers.

Basically, defensive pessimists instinctively and consistently do something we’ve discussed before on the blog: a pre-mortem.

You sit down with your big idea and imagine every possible way it could fail. Every catastrophic scenario. Then you ask, “How do I make sure that doesn’t happen?” And you figure out how you’re going to get through each one.

Sound bleak? It’s not about being miserable; it’s about being realistic. If you plan for the worst, you’re never surprised and always ready. “Oh, the flight got canceled? Good thing I brought books, a flask of whiskey, and my noise-canceling headphones to block out the screams of the less prepared.”

(To learn how to be more optimistic, click here.)

So how do we build the confidence necessary for success?

 

Small Wins

The concept of “small wins” popped up time and time again when Teresa Amabile of Harvard Business School researched who would end up successful.

When we try to achieve big things, the challenges can be intimidating. But when we break things down into smaller steps, it becomes less terrifying. These mini-goals trick your brain into thinking you’re not actually attempting the impossible; you’re just doing this one tiny thing.

What makes mini-goals even better is they lead to more little moments of success. This increases confidence and motivation. And it’s no small effect. Breaking goals down into smaller steps led to increased performance 90% of the time.

(To learn how to be more motivated, click here.)

Okay, we’ve covered a lot. Time to round it all up. And then we’re going to boil your problems with achieving success down to their psychological essence. Yes, my dear, it’s gonna be tough love time…

 

Sum Up

These are the secrets to success:

• Passion: I don’t know about you, but I didn’t sign up for a life of emotional room temperature.
• Goals: Set stretch goals that fall into the 50–70% “may fail, won’t die” zone. Then get SMarT: specify the thing, count the thing, date the thing, because without a deadline your plan is just a cozy fantasy in sweatpants.
• Creativity: Take a break, go for a walk, or sleep on it. (If you want advice that’s easier than that, I honestly don’t know what to tell you.)
• Be Optimistic… Or Not?: While optimism is off skipping through fields of daisies with its head in the clouds, defensive pessimism is crouched in a bunker, making a list of everything that could go wrong, and laying out a plan. And when the daisies turn out to be poison ivy, guess who’s got a tube of anti-itch cream and a smug grin?
• Small Wins: Break down your goals into bite-sized pieces and savor their completion like the tiny, calorie-free victories they are.

Okay, you’ve read a blog post about what the space program can teach you about success and now you want the emotional mint on the pillow. Pull up a chair.

You want the pep talk version? Fine: you are a unique snowflake forged in the heart of a dying star, hydrate, practice self-care, go team. There. And if that actually worked you wouldn’t be reading this. Now let’s do the other version…

Here’s a diagnosis masquerading as a compliment: you are not lazy. You are “defense-mechanism efficient.” You’ve built an elegant system of stories that keeps you from really trying. “I need a better routine.” “I need to finish researching my options.” You’ve been laundering fear through logic until it looks like prudence. This is why you research habit trackers like you’re choosing a pediatric surgeon and then neglect to open the app.

But I need to align my values first.

Your values are whatever you actually do. You don’t need clarity to start; you need a start to get clarity.

But what if I choose wrong?

You will. That’s not the tragedy; that’s the tuition. You are not a product; you are a process. Processes don’t fail; they iterate.

What if people judge me?

Oh, they will. They are already judging you for not trying.

This sounds hard.

Correct. Adults do hard things. Children post about them.

You probably think success will arrive as a feeling, like the last beat of a Super Bowl commercial where the golden retriever grows up and buys term life insurance. But discipline is remembering what you said you wanted after the feeling leaves the room.

Success is a pattern of behavior repeated under pressure until reality yields. Pick a direction and shove. You will not be “ready.” You will never be “ready.” The trick is not to chase readiness; it’s to normalize motion. You want a one liner to stitch on a pillow? Fine: The smallest finished thing outperforms the grandest intention. Less horn, more engine.

The biggest lie you can tell yourself is that you need to be a different person to start. You don’t. You need to be this person and do a different thing. People change after they keep promises to themselves. Not before. The identity comes post hoc. We don’t start projects because we want to be legends. We start them because we want, at least once, to be who we said we are. If you think identity comes first, you will end up mouthing, “I guess I’m not the kind of person who…” And that sentence is a life sentence.

Now the tender part you’ll pretend not to need but will remember at 1:11AM:

Somewhere there exists a previous version of you who bet everything that you would, someday, stop delaying. They endured your adolescence, your decade of false starts, the jobs where your soul played dead. They did their time. You owe them something. Not a Nobel prize, not an Olympic medal, not a platinum album, just one verifiable change in the physical world attributable to your choices. You owe them.

You might think that last paragraph will change your life. It won’t.

The next twenty-four hours will. Go.