I suppose training as a pilot has benefited me much more than just learning how to get off of and back onto the ground safely in an airplane. Thank goodness that aviation safety is a major part of earning one’s wings these days.
In pilot training we learn about accident chains and how to avoid them. Few catastrophic events occur due to a single instance of bad judgment or error. Usually these events are caused by the combination of a series of unfortunate circumstances and poor judgment, which can culminate in tragedy. I, like most pilots, have encountered these chain links in real life situations while flying and have avoided things going south, which they can do very quickly if not vigilant.
I watch a ton of videos about aircraft accidents, not out of morbid curiosity, but rather to benefit from the mistakes of others. I do it to learn about different types of accident chains and how I can avoid them should those potentials begin to become evident.
We are taught to recognize potential danger in the making to break these chains. The old adage that the exercise of superior judgment often eliminates the requirement for the exercise of superior skills holds very true in aviation.
But too, it does in life as well.
There’s a careful balance between risk management and impulsivity that we must maintain in order to successfully navigate our way through our lives, hopefully with the clearer, but not necessarily the safest, head prevailing. The trajectory of our lives are all about the choices that we make and the consequences that ensue.
Sometimes good and desirable, sometimes not so good and life-changing in an undesirable way. No one has the crystal ball to give us a definitive answer whether to choose the lady or the tiger in any decision matrix.
However we do have some gifts and tools at our disposal to guide us to where we want to be. We are all blessed with two main gifts: one is the ability to extrapolate the current situation into the future to determine the possible outcomes and desirability of each. The other one is the wisdom of experience. The latter feeds into the former. My pilot book is full of “don’t do that again” chapters. Not that I ever got into any serious trouble while aloft, but I have definitely encountered some of those links in a potential accident chain which caused me to rely on my training (experience), and then to rely on my training (learning the possible outcomes from the experiences of others).
Good or bad, I once gave my daughter some advice when she was first learning to drive. I told her that she can drive at whatever speed she likes, but be prepared to pay for a ticket and increase in insurance if she gets caught doing it, from a financial perspective. From a safety perspective, be prepared to deal with guilt and other emotions if injury were to occur to her or others as a result. The speed limit signs are there for a reason. Know the consequences, and make your choice.
For those who have the right to remain silent but not the ability, where impulsivity reigns supreme: It’s all a matter of personal discipline.
On the other hand, if we don’t act impulsively sometimes we get pigeonholed into living a life that’s based upon fear. We become paralyzed by the what-ifs, and inadvertently spin in, crash and burn due to indecision. Or, less dramatically, we miss opportunities that could get us to our goals.
It all boils down to the rapidity of assessment. Develop your instincts, your spidey-senses, to help quickly make determinations. It’s less linear and more of a feel thing…gradients of color rather than hard black and white lines. Now here’s the thing,..put into that context, a beautiful painting comprises both hard lines (for form) and gradient shades of color (for nuance).
Use your life to make a beautiful and complete painting. Trust your instincts, based upon logical decisions from a matrix of experience and desirable outcomes which you have embedded into your soul. Constantly and continually update that matrix. Recognize and correct the accident chains as they appear, but keep flying.
The ironic trick is to keep flying while remaining grounded.