Get Out of Your Head

“Stop staring at the instrument panel,” my flight instructor said, his finger pointing to a blue stretch of sky beyond the windshield. “Everything that can ruin your day is out there.”

I lifted my eyes from the cockpit's gauges and took in the view. He was right.

Student pilots tend to fixate inside the plane when learning to fly. Ignore the altimeter, and you drop 500 feet without realizing it. Forget the course indicator to get two degrees off your bearing, you may find yourself 100 miles off your intended destination when traveling long distances.

The gauges are necessary, but experienced pilots take quick glances at these instruments so they can place more focus on the world outside, a world that contains much that can ruin your day: storm clouds, oncoming planes, and the ground rising fast.

But the world beyond the cockpit is much more than something that can ruin your day. Most of the time it’s a magical tableau that makes flying worth the enormous effort required to learn. Most student pilots don’t pay hard-earned money to stare at an instrument cluster. They pay to learn because they’re eager to soar above whitewashed cloud tops infinitely more intriguing than their shadowed underbellies. They exert tremendous effort because few things are as calming as the glint of early morning sunlight from a mirrored lake below. They remember flying is transformative each time they take off over treetops to see a deep blue sky cascading over lush greenery on a distant horizon.

There is much on the ground that makes life worth living too. But I wonder if some spend too much time inside the cockpits of their minds instead of the world outside. Dwell in your head too much and fear, doubt, and uncertainty grow disproportionately. Allow those things to swell, and they rob us of action. When devoid of action, we rob ourselves of fulfilling lives. Who among us hasn’t grumbled about an obstacle blocking our way? But if we persevere, we’ll realize the boulder in our path is ultimately a stepping stone to a better life.

We need what’s between our ears to guide us, from small course corrections to critical decisions. But to find true success, we must get out of our heads and engage the world around us. When we do, it’s ours for the taking.

Get out of your head.