Help! I Have to Pass the Test!!

Hark the Heralds Angels cry... 

"I need help!"

Last week I received a message that went something like this...

I have 12 months to study all 9 subjects.... and I have to get my slot at first (life demands it) and it's for a very very very hard university. It's the best aviation university in the country. I want SO much my slot that I get anxious.

 

Because I haven't been to school for a year, I’ve lost my concentration, focus and attention - I have the "I don't have time" syndrome. I get anxious thinking I won't have time to revise it and only makes things worse.

I am a synesthesic student. I need movement, colors and a specific lighting so I can learn. Sometimes remembering a specific tune beat and associating with a successful complex calculation formula will boost my attention. The thing is... Synesthesia is the hardest way to learn in my case. Because I am very peculiar and I cannot change this.

No Worries!

Seriously... don't worry!

Three things that impeded success are the evil twins worry and fear, and their cousin doubt.

We only have so many brain cells and when our mind is needed to focus in order to learn something, you cannot have it playing with doubt, fear or worry. 

Think of your brain as having 100% capacity to achieve anything. We'll pretend you have 100 brain cells. If you are studying and worry about something, you've just given 50 of your brain cells away to worry, losing 50% capacity. Worry never works alone.

Fear gets involved because while you worry you fear what will happen if you fail and don't get into school. Fear will take another 25 of your brain cells. Then you begin to doubt your ability, and you use another 25. You have lost your capacity to learn.

How many brain cells do you have remaining for retention and study? None.

Did you know stress and anxiety physically impedes learning by Killing Brain cells?

The point is...if you use even one brain cell to worry about something that might not happen...you are headed down a path to manifest that destiny.

How do you not worry? Don't do it! If your mind drifts simply tell yourself, "I choose not to think of that now, I'm too busy."

Movement for learning? I am the same way! I have taught myself to balance on the elliptical trainer, hands free, so I can read.  I put music in my ears and read while in motion. I often have noise in the background in my office, as it helps force me to focus. In silence my mind wanders. I need bright lights. (This part has to do with age) 

The point is...do what you need to do for you. But motion with music is an excellent way to retrain data.

Here's The Deal....

No excuses. Have discipline and do it! You can do anything for 12 months. Keep focused, and there is nothing you can't do!

Enjoy the Journey!

XO Karlene

How to Achieve Success...

 "The best way to get 1500 hours of flight time...

one hour at a time."

You can achieve the success you desire if you breakdown the challenge into small manageable parts. One step at a time. One flight at a time. If you focus on the 1500 hour requirement you might think it's impossible and never go for it. What about one hour...is that impossible? Of course not. So why not focus on each hour instead? Eventually you will reach your goal. 

How do you write a novel, play a song or paint a picture? One page, one note, and one stroke at a time. Eventually you will reach your goal.

The problem with people not achieving success is they give up too soon, or never start because of their perception that it's too difficult. They look at the goal and think it impossible, instead of looking at each step as a mini goal.

I agree with Tom, in The Imperfect Path, that we must not view our success by how direct our path is...life happens. The trick is to not get discouraged and become frustrated and give up if we get off our path. We must create a new new path toward our goal and get moving again. 

 

Success is not your ability to stay on a preset course. 

Success is the ability to keep moving toward your goal, especially when you get off course!  

You will get off course due to external circumstances. That's life. But not an excuse to give up. Make a new course and get moving again. Focus on the steps along the way. Focus on what's in front of you...one flight at a time, one step at a time...one mogul at a time.

Many years ago I was a very inexperienced skier. Somehow I ended up on top of a mountain with moguls I had never experienced before. (Not to mention my fear of heights.) When I looked at the bottom of the hill (my goal), I became physically shaken. 

"How can I get down this mountain without killing myself?"

The slope was far too daunting and far above my experience level. What did I do? I looked at the mogul in front of me...Not the entire mountain. I thought, "That's nothing more than a little hill. I can certainly navigate that."

Thus... I focused "only" on what was in front of me. One mogul at a time. Guess what happened? I reached the bottom of the hill safely. I was able to achieve the goal of survival and ski down a mountain that I should never have been on because I focused only on what was in front of me. One step at a time.

More times than not, the obstacles that get us off track are not external life challenges, they are self-induced. Join me tomorrow and I'll share with you how to achieve success when worry, concern, and stress get in the way of you achieving your goals.

Enjoy the Journey!
XOX Karlene 

A Special Day...

 Happy Birthday

An!

(And Hans too)

Please join me in wishing this fabulous flyer the BEST birthday ever. As far as struggle and loss goes...this has been a challenging year for An. And yet her smile never fades. She is always full of encouragement and concern for everyone else. 

An, you are so appreciated, my friend. I wish I could be there with you to celebrate, and I hope you do it right.

The best thing about virtual cakes... they are low calories and easy to keep around. I will bake you a new one next year! 

 Dick sends birthday hugs too!

Much love from Seattle and many more memories to come! Happiest of birthdays!

XOX Karlene

The Imperfect Path

T.H.ursdays with Tom Hill

Imagine you're on a path towards a mountain. The mountain is where you want to go. It's not really a path in the sense of being surrounded by dense trees where the path winds through the dark forest, the type Little Red Riding Hood took on her way to grandmother's house. It's more like the yellow brick road where the path passes fields, scenes, characters, and distractions along the way. The path is supposed to be the shortest route to the mountain. You want to get where you're going and you "know" that path is the right one to take you there. But, somewhere along the way, you get off the path. 

 

 

 You discover yourself not perfectly aligned with the perfect path. You're still going towards where you want to go--the mountain is in front of you still. But somehow, you aren't on the yellow brick road anymore. You think to yourself, "How can I make it to the mountain if I'm not on that yellow brick road?" You try to get back on the path but it's hard. You're still facing the mountain. It's out there in front of you as you walk, but the course you're on is not the path. Yet you're moving towards the mountain even off the path.

Obviously, this is a gigantic metaphor. What I'm suggesting is we assess how well we're getting somewhere by only looking at a single course line. As aviators, we understand course lines. It's the route we plan to follow before we fly. We want to get somewhere and imagine a path like a course line on a map. The problem comes when "life happens," and diverts us off that course line. Like encountering unexpected weather along the way, we have to deviate from the pre-planned course. Yet, we're still able to head towards where we want to go. That's just like life. We plan where we want to go but are constantly pulled off course along the way. We are rarely on the perfect course line. 

 

I think we're "check the box" kind of people. We want to measure success by getting to defined places along our path. As much as we might say, "It's about the journey, not the destination," that's really hard to believe. After all, how do you know if you're going the right way unless you steadily check off the boxes on time and as expected? If we aren't checking off the boxes on schedule, i.e., staying on the planned path, mentally we're off course. Mentally, we might think we can't get where we want to go, we aren't heading towards the mountain. As you can imagine, people give up on their path when they think they can't get there.

Here's the thing: in this scenario I did NOT mention that somehow we got off track from the path and then got turned around away from the mountain, opposite to where we want to go. I only suggested we got off the path for whatever reason and were still trudging forward. 

The problems began when we looked at how far off the path we were. Too often we measure how we're doing based only on our perfect path, the yellow brick road. It's unfortunate because for sure we'll get diverted off the path. Something always comes along and diverts you off the track. If your assessment mechanism only looks how you're doing compared to the perfect track and you were always off that track--because life always happens--you might think you were doing something wrong.

Imagine this: stand up facing your mountain. The perfect course is a straight line directly from you towards the mountain. Now imagine going one or two or three degrees off that course. Move your finger slightly away from the mountain. Obviously, where your finger is pointing is not the perfect course. But, if you went that direction you'd still be heading towards the mountain.

Now consider this: as you're facing the mountain stretch out your arms with the palms facing towards the mountain. Any direction forward of your arms, your hands, takes you to the mountain. Of course, just barely "north" of your hands isn't very much towards the mountain but it's still going there, albeit a lot slower than the perfect course. As long as you aren't going backwards, you're still heading towards where you want to go. Sometimes, that's the best anyone can do.

I have been in impossibly complicated situations where the path forward was muddied at best. I was unsure whether the next step was the right one because I had no idea what would really happen with the next step. I could only hope that the next step would be in the right direction. Sometimes all I could do to keep moving towards the goal was to take a step, see what happened, and think, "At least I'm not going backwards."

So much of how we think we're doing is only based on the perfect path. Unfortunately, when things get tough the perfect path may be nowhere to be seen and you might give up. I am no different. I constantly need to assess how off course I am. When it's tough, assessing this way can be very depressing. Sometimes all I can do in such situations is stretch out my arms to see if I'm still moving towards the mountain, even just a little bit. Then I can say, "At least I'm not moving backwards."

Cheers

Tom

Santa Express 2013

Where spirits take flight...

 

Sharing love and joy... 

Where a whole bunch of Delta employees bring holiday cheer to kids who need a smile and some extra love this holiday season. Pictures speak louder than words ... Enjoy!

 

  Port Of Seattle Fire Department...

A special thanks to Ryan Lock for coming to town, all the way from England, and helping with this special event. He helped me load and unload the soldiers and snowflakes and hung lights... and was the master photographer. And when he wasn't doing that...he was creating my website...coming soon!

Enjoy your holiday season... may all your days be bright!

XO Karlene

Let Your Dreams Take Flight...

I recently received and email from Mark Jones...

"Sometime this last year, we collaborated by sharing an motivational "focus" picture on your blog. Now I wanted to share a story (and a poster) with you--a story that resonates with both the pilot and the author.  I share them both as a way of thanking you for the encouragement that I get from your blog, and so you can share with your tribe and community.  The story first, and then the web version of the poster which I've attached below. "

And what a beautiful story it is! Thank you so very much Mark.

"As an experimental test pilot, 

I get to wear a mask and fly, 

but that isn’t my superpower."

"Transforming an ordinary piece of paper into something that looks sharp and cuts through the air, held aloft by unseen forces — in the eyes of my seven year old son, this is an unparalleled act of awesomeness.

But giving him a blank sheet of paper and showing him how to fold it, hold it, and launch it into the sky transforms him into a superhero.

A blank sheet of paper is an invitation.

It is a common starting point for many personal journeys — for artists who sketch, authors who write, and for those brave enough, a way to let their dreams take flight.

As a child, I used to believed in the invisible, in superpowers, but somewhere along the way I stopped believing.

It’s like Jake, my two year old son, who used to put on a pair of swim goggles, his “super-Gake goggles” and fly around the house with no doubt in his mind that he was a superhero.

A few months later, I asked him if he was “super-Gake.”

He replied, almost defiantly, somewhat dejectedly, “No, I can’t fly. I don’t have any wings.”

It’s almost inevitable, that at some point, we all lose faith. We stop flying.

As a child, I dreamed of being a test pilot and eventually an astronaut.

Eighteen years later, I had achieved part of that goal. Now I can fly again. I’ve rekindled my belief in unseen things.

Today, still farther along the way, I’ve learned some valuable life lessons.

I’ve learned that achievement is one part rocket science and one part 1st grade art class.

I’ve learned some aeronautical engineering and Bayesian statistics and airmanship and aviation.

Some of those things are natural forces like lift and drag. Some aren’t: e.g., politics, economy, and technology.

And still more, some are supernatural, like vision, hope, endurance, and attitude.

Endurance, for example, has dual meanings. It is measure of an airplane’s ability to remain airborne for a set length of time, a function of fuel quantity and performance. It’s also a quality that helps us transform our dreams into something real.

I believe a paper airplane is simultaneously a symbol of hope (and other invisible forces) and also a concrete example of the wonders of aerospace (especially flight test) — this is why I feel compelled and privileged to share with you, the readers of Lift and Drag, these observations and inspiration.

No one ever tells you that you don’t have enough experience to build and fly a paper airplane.

In other words, we all get a chance to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary and to launch our ideas into the world. Where will you land?"

Sincerely,
Mark Jones Jr.

Mark offers free downloads of his poster on his website. But he also has physical copies for sale too.  (12.5 x 18 inch posters) but they weren't free to produce, so he shares those for a small fee.

Enjoy the Journey!
XOX Karlene

Nelson Mandela: Possibility

“It always seems impossible 

until it’s done.”

Nelson Mandela

A tremor of pain was felt throughout the world last week when Nelson Mandela died. In memory of his passing my friend, Alex, sent me numerous quotes...All equally inspirational. This quote resonates with the task of writing a novel...sometimes just surviving the holiday season and all that life throws your way.

I won't bore you with the details of what has consumed my life the previous six months. But I squeezed time to work on Flight For Safety, after I give everything to everyone else. I've edited on planes, in waiting rooms, in the ICU unit at the hospital and during grand children's nap time. I climb out of bed at 3 a.m. and often stay up until well after midnight to find time to write.

And when I think it's done, I go back into the story and find areas that need to be massaged, and sometimes attacked with a hatchet. But the work never ends...until it's done. I've been cleared for the approach...landing soon.

If I looked at the big picture of my life and thought I would have time to write one novel, let alone two, I would have thought I was nuts.

The reality is... Anything is possible.

Take it one day at a time and when you are done, you will know...it only looks impossible before you do it.

 

Flight For Safety.... 

  
We might have it for Christmas... 

but definitely for the New Year. 

Thank you Alex for the inspiration!

XO Karlene