Ad Astra And How To Stay Cool Under Pressure

Brad Pitt’s character in Ad Astra has an impossible task. Two in fact. The first is to get to Neptune without getting killed, and the second is to maintain calm and collected as a Buddhist monk while doing that.
And it got me thinking. I’ve had anxiety and panic attacks for as long as I can remember, and it’s really been a set back in so many ways. I can’t help but wonder where my life and career would be if I could keep calm and collected under pressure. Would I have been more successful than I am now? Would I have more friends? Would I have more respect from my peers?
But I really liked that part of Brad Pitt’s character over here. I just loved how Major Roy McBride managed to pull himself (and others) out of tricky and dangerous situations just because he stays calm.
I’ve never been able to do that, but after watching this movie I promised myself to push my self to do exactly that. Be strong, calm and collected under pressure even if goes against every single bone in my body. And yes, I’m very well aware that Roy’s a fictional character but the same principles apply everywhere. And yes, I’m also aware that I’m not an astronaut. Although my job is pretty stressful, it’s no where near stressful and dangerous as an astronaut’s job, but yea.
Roy can really teach me a lot about composure and calmness. Especially when I find myself in a pressure cooker of a situation. Up to a certain point in the movie Roy has never had a blood pressure above 80 and at the very start of the movie we saw him in a free fall from space. We saw him fight space pirates and aggressive monkeys in space and he was the only one that was cool as a cucumber.
You can expect my review of Ad Astra shortly. It was a good movie and I think it deserves a post beforehand. Hope you’ve enjoyed it.