Tag: Motivation

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My Journey

Life Gems From A Boeing 777 Captain (Part 2 of 2)

This is the second in a series of 2 blogs in which I share my recent conversation with a Boeing 777 Captain of a major airline in the USA. The first blog was ‘A Chat With A Boeing 777 Captain’.

Annoyingly, I didn’t get a chance to record the conversation since it happened on a noisy, London Underground train.

Here’s what I’ve done instead. I’ve poured all the fragments of the conversation into a pile of words, on the screen, from memory, and have pieced them back together as accurately and as concisely as I could manage it. I hope you will find it interesting and insightful. I know I did!

CONTINUED

8. How often do you practice emergency procedures at your airline?

We have a 4-day training every year. The first 2 days are focused on the theoretical side and the last 2 days are in the simulator. 

9. What advice would you give to an aspiring pilot such as myself? 

Think of yourself as a 65 year-old, after you’ve retired, what experience would you be happy to look back on? Pursue that.

I have 2 kids, a boy and a girl. Something I tell my kids, although they are not interested in flying, and that’s ok, is that there are 2 kinds of people: those who ‘make life happen’ and those who ‘watch life happen’.

Pilots are not the kind of people who ‘watch life happen’, they ‘make life happen’. If you really want it, you’ll find a way to make your dream happen.

Something to bear in mind is that seniority is everything. If you know that the airlines are where you want to be, ‘pedal to the metal’, get there as quickly as you can. 

I have friends who came into the airlines 2 years later than I and they only just became captains, because of the crises that shook up the aviation industry. The more senior you are, the better the position you’ll be in, to ride all the ups and downs. 

There is so much you can’t control. It’s a tough journey, and you will face disappointments. You just have to keep going.

10. What disappointments have you had to push through?

I didn’t have any financial support form my parents. I had to take up a job as a waiter to start my flight training. Everything changed when I got into the military but until then, it was tough.

Disappointments come in different forms, everyone faces them. You ask anyone, in any field, and they will have faced disappointments. It’s just a part of life.

My Conclusion 

It was great running into Chip. I got a much needed boost from the conversation, even though I already knew what he was saying to be true. In particular, I’m thinking of what he said about ‘making life happen’.

People, usually those who are not in aviation, often suggest that I reach out to pilots to ask for help and support. As it happens, I do have access to airline captains and first officers, but the thought of asking for a hand-out makes me cringe.

I know that people suggesting this are on my side, and so they want my journey to be easier on me. However, from my point of view, there are many who would like that kind of support, and very few opportunities available; there are tough challenges and no easy solutions.

As such, I would rather build something, and hopefully it is something of value – hence the blog and the YouTube channel – than sit around, hoping a saviour comes along. 

Maybe I am wrong, and I just don’t know in what way I might be wrong. What I do know, however, is that no matter how big your dream is, no matter what little you have, you always have enough to get started towards that dream – whatever that means for you. Little steps amount to great distances, over time. 

Once you start moving towards your dream, and once you start making the most of whatever you have, you increasingly attract the opportunities that will help you along the way.

Until next time, stay safe and live your dreams.✌🏾

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My Journey

Courage: How Fear Keeps Me Going

We admire people who are courageous. Better yet, we are inspired by them. They are giants in our eyes, whatever their physical stature. Even the smallest person can be a giant, a ‘force of nature’, if they are courageous.

What could you become, if you had a little more courage?

We could all do with a bit more courage. At least, I know I could. Anyone know any one selling courage in a bottle? I wish!…I don’t mean drugs. Although drugs can disinhibit us and give us a temporary ‘courage’ (if we can even call it that), it’s not always appropriate to be ‘under the influence’ and it certainly isn’t always healthy. I don’t think that the benefit of drug-induced ‘courage’ outweighs the costs.

Holding Back From Your Dream?

One of the biggest things that kept me from starting off on my dream of become a pilot was fear. How paradoxical then that one of the biggest things that made me finally pursue my dream of becoming a pilot was fear.

Fear can keep you from trying new things, from expressing yourself fully and from making yourself vulnerable. However, fear isn’t only an inhibiting force. It can enable you to run faster than you ever have, jump higher than you ever thought you could and endure far more than you ever have.

I’ve had the dream and hope of becoming a pilot, for as long as I can remember. That was the carrot. It was calling me forth, to an adventure unlike any I had ever embarked on. Interestingly, I didn’t do much about it. I stayed in my comfort zone, waiting to pursue my dream at a more convenient time.

What Will Happen If You Don’t Try?

What sprung me into action was the development of a new, more powerful fear than that which held me back. Instead of being shackled by the fear of what would happen if I went for my dream, I was pushed by the fear of what would happen if I didn’t.

I realised that life could actually pass me by, that I could spend another another 6 years, and then another, and another, and never get any closer to my dream.

I became afraid of being an old man and having my dream turn into nothing more than a bitter regrets. I became afraid of living a life of insignificance, doing everything other than the very thing I’m most passionate about.

I am afraid of becoming the kind of person I would become, if I were to allow fear to shackle and keep me from the righteous pursuit of living my dream. That person is neither the kind of person I would admire, nor the kind of person I would be inspired by.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that fear is the best fuel or motivator to get anyone to their goal. Hope is a powerful, sustainable and enduring force.

I’m just saying, if you must fear, fear what would happen if you didn’t pursue that which you know to be the most valuable pursuit, even in your own estimation.

Live your dreams. After all, is there anything better to do?

For more on how I’m getting on with learning to fly, check me out on the YouTube.👊🏾

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My Journey

Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing

Don’t spend major time on minor things.

Jim rohn

One of the mantras that has kept me focused this week is, “keep the main thing, the main thing”. When I shared it with colleagues in the staffroom, during our lunch break, my mantra was met with a, ‘huh?’, along with an expression like that of a cow staring at a new gate. Hopefully I can do better this time around.

Aviate. Navigate. Communicate.

As a student pilot, there is so much for me to learn and it is easy to become task saturated in the cockpit – having much to do and not much time to do it in. Of course, I have my flight instructor with me, but only for now. At some point, it will be all down to me. As such, it is important for me to be able to separate what needs to be done immediately from what can wait – I must prioritise. If I don’t, I could easily end up a statistic. 

Everyday, we are thrown into numerous situations requiring us to navigate an insane amount of choices and arbitrate between competing priorities. We encounter people who have their own agendas and if we are not careful, their agenda inadvertently becomes our agenda, and before we know it, we are further away from our goals and desires.

As a student pilot I have to learn to fly the aeroplane, to navigate and to communicate with the appropriate Air Traffic Service Unit. Inevitably, there are times when these 3 priorities clash. I might find myself in a position where I am lost, not in complete control of the aircraft whilst also being required to respond to a call.

There are 3 really important things to do in this situation: fly the plane, fly the plane and fly the plane! It cannot be overstated. If I lose control of the plane and find myself plummeting to the ground, navigating and communicating become somewhat irrelevant to my outcome.

Identify Your Goal In Any Given Situation

“If you aim at nothing, you will hit every time.” 

Zig Ziglar

One of the great things about the mantra I have been using is that it prompts me to identify what my true priority is in that moment. This was particularly useful when I was frustrated due to feeling like things were not going the way I wanted them to go. As such, I realised I didn’t have to win every single battle and have everything go my way. I only needed one specific thing out of my day, out of my interaction or whatever situation I was in. 

Consider what you are doing now. What is your goal? What is the main thing? You may have to wrestle with your goals and desires a while before the true priority reveals itself. Your priority, your main thing, will differ with each situation. It might be to listen, to think, to plan, to simply get started, to create a terrible first draft, to be playful, to be yourself, to save money, to collect data, to support, to rest, to learn something new or to progress, and so on.

Distractions are everywhere, available free of charge. Some distractions are clear, while others come in a disguise. Like cunning thieves, distractions can steal your resources – time, money, energy – and leave you further from your goal. To give yourself the best chance of reaching your goal and living your dream, make sure you keep the main thing, the main thing. 

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Stephen Covey

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Flight Training My Journey

Solo Flight, Here I Come!

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt over the last year is that when you set off on a journey, to achieving an important goal, you will likely have problems you didn’t foresee.

However, even more importantly, there are incredibly useful solutions that will reveal themselves, but only once you have embarked on and committed yourself to the journey. At least, that seems to be the case for me.

At the end of the 2020, I had a chat with one of my accountability partners and told him that my big goal was to solo for my birthday. I had no clue how it would happen, except that I’d try to make it happen.

A few months later, after one of my flying lessons, my car broke down as I pulled away, in slow-moving traffic. Thankfully, this didn’t happen when I was doing 80mph *cough* *cough* I mean 70mph on the M11 motorway (highway).

The mechanics listened to the clanging and banging in the engine and said it wouldn’t be worth fixing. They gave me a quote for a replacement engine, £1,800. I was devasted. I knew this would have a huge impact on my flying.

I was really tempted to put flight training on hold, to pay for my car’s heart transplant. After all, I rely on it for so much more than just transport (particularly when out of lockdowns). As soon as I decided to put flight training on hold, I recognised in myself the same ‘impulse to pause’ that had crippled many people’s path to progress.

A fear grew within. I realised that if I gave myself an excuse to pause flight training, I might always find an excuse to pause it, which means I may never achieve my dream-goal. There was no way I would allow myself to go down that path.

In the end, I decided to take the car off the road for a few months while I saved up and continued with my monthly flying lessons. With my financial priorities split, having my first solo flight before my 30th Birthday seemed impossible.

Here’s what’s crazy though. Out of curiosity, I asked my flying instructor how far I was my first solo flight. He said, he estimated that I would need another 10 hours. 10 hours? That works out to be £1,800 exactly. Remember that figure from anywhere?  Coincidence?

I remember a while back, one of my friends advised me to start a crowdfunding campaign. Now seemed as good a time as any, so I launched a Go Fund Me campaign, #SoloBy30.

I’ve been overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity that I’ve been shown, through financial gifts, as well as words of encouragement. I know that each and every penny gifted to me was hard-earned, and there are many, and arguably better ways that money might have been spent, but those people chose to support me on my journey. I’m humbled and very grateful. Thank you.

If, this time last year, you told me that I’d be preparing for my first solo flight for my 30th Birthday, I’d have bitten you arm off. And yet, here I am, but I’m not sure exactly how it’s all happened. Of course, I’m still a long way from my Private Pilot’s License, but it’s progress, and that’s all one can hope for.

With just over 4 weeks to go, everything seems to be coming together so well. I passed my Air Law exam last year. I’m in the process of sorting out my medical certificate and all the financial gifts I have received have given me a much needed boost to make it all happen.

Solo flight, here I come!

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My Journey

Why You Should Be Enthusiastic About Failing

I like writing because it allows me to step out of the frame and view myself through a more objective lens. It gives me the opportunity to check myself against the good ideas I know to be true and right. No matter how great you are, there will always be a need to check that you are operating optimally and that you are still heading in the direction of your goal. If you are not, corrections must be made. 

I’ve been thinking about the last 5 years of my life and what held me back from pursuing my dream goal. My dream, for as long as I can remember, has been to become a pilot. The thought of being able to fly an airplane stirs up passion from deepest parts of my soul. So, why did I ever hold back from pursuing my dream? For the same reason that most people hold back from pursuing theirs. 

What’s Your Excuse?

My excuse for not pursuing my goal, with every fibre of my being, wasn’t even an original excuse. I simply borrowed it. The excuse that gave me comfort, by stripping me of my rightful responsibility was, “I can’t afford it”. 

I used that excuse to explain away making zero progress over the years. After all, I didn’t have parents who could remortgage the family house to pay for flight school.

The Danger Of Factual Excuses

On one level, my excuse was a true fact. This meant that I could go about my everyday life feeling justified in my self-deception. Ultimately, that excuse was total and utter bullshit. 

Just recently, I had a flashback to what was the pivotal moment that led me to single-mindedly pursuing my dream of becoming a pilot. It was a conversation I had with an old college friend, Ellis, right after the funeral of one of our teachers. 

Filled will the sadness of tragedy, we discussed the power of potential. I told Ellis about my dream, explaining that the lack of money was the main reason why I couldn’t achieve it.

Ellis peered straight into my eyes and said, “I don’t believe that money is your issue”. In a few words, he destroyed the excuse that I had hidden behind, and comforted myself with for years. It didn’t fully manifest until 2 months later, but in that very moment, there was a shift in my mindset.

The Greatest Challenge To Achieving Your Dreams

What is the greatest challenge to achieving your dreams? Is it money, access to the right people or the state of the economy? Is it the colour of your skin? 

A lot of people are impressed and even inspired by the journey I am on. (Click here to learn more about me.) I am humbled and grateful for that, but I am not impressed with myself. That’s because, from the way I see it, I am making up for lost time.

You can have all the money, the necessary network and the opportunities in a booming economy, as well as having from the ‘right’ ethnic background, and still make zero progress towards your dream-goal. Why? Two words. Limiting beliefs. 

What is a Limiting Belief?

A limiting belief is a story you tell yourself, over and over again, about what you can’t do and why you can’t do it. That story limits how hard you work, your ability to spot opportunities to progress and consequently, how far you will advance despite your passion, vision or dream.

This is why even though I could have comfortably afforded 3 flying lessons every month, at one point, I did not do anything about it. Those limiting beliefs result in possibility blindness.

The Question Is: What Are You Becoming?

Here is one of the greatest questions I learned from the late Jim Rohn, a motivational speaker who remains a positive influence on many even beyond the grave: What are you becoming? He explains that most important thing to ask in any endeavour is not, “what am I doing?” It is, “what am I becoming?”

Your dream-goal flows out of the depths of your soul. It has the power to infuse you with the kind of energy and focus that every-day, mundane tasks simply fail to do. If you do not pursue your dream-goal with everything you have, despite how unlikely it might seem, you will definitely not achieve it. But more importantly, what will you become? In not giving your whole self to the most worthy cause you can think of, what will you become?

Conversely, if you choose to accept and embrace the high probability of failure, presented to you by your circumstances, there is nothing left to hold you back. Why? Why embrace the fear? Why embrace the probability of failure? The answer is no secret. 

Choose What You’ll Become

It is in failure that we learn. It is in failure that we grow. It is in failure that we develop the necessary knowledge, skills and ability to achieve that which we hope to achieve. It is in the willingness to withstand the full force of failure, that we become worthy of that which we desire. 

Don’t take my word for it. Take only that which resonates with you as being true. Fail fast. Fail often. Fail forward. An ‘L’ is never a loss, if you learn from it. Anything that is worth having, will come at a price and is worth sacrificing for. Pursue your dream-goal, despite the potential and possibility for failure. Do it, not least, for what it will make of you.

As far as I can see, it will make you strong, courageous, inspirational and more likely to achieve your dream-goal and sustain the challenges that come with living your dreams. At worst, the passionate pursuit of your dream-goal will develop you into the kind of person who is better able to achieve any other goal set before them.

Choose what you will be come by the actions you take in every moment of every day. Approach failure with great enthusiasm for what it will make of you to learn from it.

Thank you for your time.