Personal Development Lessons from Airplanes
I read today that airplanes do not stay on track for their entire flight. Instead they spend most of their time completely off track, and rely on their instruments to give them constant feedback as to their position in the sky. The pilots then adjust accordingly… but to be perfect about following the path is impossible.
This is a good analogy to life and the continual striving from being where you are right now, to being where you want to be. The feedback instruments are advice from friends and family, successes and failures, your insights and your instincts.
I was having a drink with a man the other night and we decided that we wanted to do away with the regular small talk and ask each other something original. I decided on "do you have a pet?" (yes, it doesn’t sound that cool written down, but it is hard to be cool in these situations). It turned out that his profession was rescuing animals from precarious situations across the city of Toronto – usually cats and dogs but sometimes tropicals or lost indigenous Canadian creatures. Why did I choose to ask this man about pets? Because this type of premonition has happened to me before, I think that it has something to do with meeting thousands of people in my life, and now I can see patterns.
So, that instinctual feedback is a good thing. I also like the premise that planes approximate a perfect course, rather than achieving it. I remember sitting through Physics class in my Undergrad, measuring ground speed, angles and other attributes associated with flight for exams and papers while feeling some doubt. Of course it is unrealistic to think that messy life , even in the hands of professionals, can be as perfect as a mathematical equation. My calculations were only producing approximations.
When it comes to personal development and occasionally going off track, that too is a good learning from airplanes. Because despite the messiness… most planes actually safely reach their destinations. So – it is true that the fulfillment of a vision frequently isn’t as perfect as you want it to be, and the path is messy, but getting to that vision is the point of the whole thing.
Thanks to Stephen and Steven for these ideas.
I like these kind of posts.
Saw you on a blog from mybloglog, glad I clicked through, was an interesting read.
Cheers
A couple of months ago, I took a long exposure picture of an aircraft in flight. It was night, and I found myself alone on the chilly balcony of my parents’ 6th floor condo. When I loaded the file onto my laptop, I was surprised at how many corrections there were to the otherwise-simple white line that moved diagonally across the frame.
Thanks for the fascinating perspective on something most of previously took for granted.
Like your blog, BTW. Nice to e-meet another canuck.