How courage, focus, and wingmen can help you tackle your fears Three years into my eleven year Air Force flying career, my life changed when I almost died during a scuba diving trip in the Caribbean. Thirty feet under the water and exhausted from excessive use of my arms to swim, I inhaled a full lungful of water and had the most intense panic attack of my life. I literally thought I was going to die. A week later, I found ...
This weekend I gave $5 to a homeless man that looked genuinely down in the dumps. I rarely give money to the homeless as you never know what the money will be used for. But this guy seemed different. He looked around 30 years old and was frail, in dirty, worn out clothes, and was walking slowly with his head down. As I sat in my car, feeling the breeze through the open window while waiting for the ...
Imagine being strapped into a single-seat fighter jet at 25,000 feet above enemy territory. You tear through the pitch-black sky at the speed of sound in a cockpit so small there’s barely enough room to shrug your shoulders. You must maintain laser-like focus as you operate dozens of weapons and sensors and fend off surface-to-air missiles.
When I flew in combat, the risk of failure was always present. I could have an aircraft malfunction, mess up a critical maneuver, or even get shot down. Success was never guaranteed. Success never is. The possibility of failing at something is a beautiful thing. It incites risk and even helps eliminate complacency. When something is at risk, fear, anxiety and doubt can result. But risk also forces you to stretch yourself and grow. It makes you train, focus, ...
Wingmen, If you're like me, there may be times when your IT systems are enough to drive you wingnuts! You may find your business struggling with costly computer networks that never seem to perform to your expectations, wondering what will happen if your systems break down, or you may even be experiencing losses in productivity, customer confidence, and even employee morale. To deal with these missiles, I leverage a reliable IT wingman (Randy Pelkey in Atlanta) who comes to my office every ...
For every pilot, weather is always a critical factor in flight. Blue skies and perfect visibility are a rarity. Sooner or later, thunderstorms, lightening and turbulence will appear. When this happens, we don’t turn around and head back to base. If we did, we would never reach our target. When bad weather strikes, pilots: 1. Alter our flight path away from the weather 2. Seek an altitude that has the least amount of turbulence 3. Slow down to minimize the ...
