Live it up and lean into what you love

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” T.E. Lawrence quotes

Today is Easter- it was one of those sunny days in Denver filled with exquisite lighting, happy people, and the warming beams of that pre-summer goodness that reminds you to take a deep breath and love this moment. I hope you lived it up today, leaning into what you love. I don’t think I have laughed as much as I did today, in many years. Today will be marked by belly laughs, genuine smiles and yummy food.

It has been a while since my last post! Why did I wait so long? Well, I vowed never to force the blog. It flows when it flows and it slows when it slows. Faking the fun and the freedom of this place of expression goes against the whole idea of encouraging the interesting & juicy stuff. Here’s a little update on the flight for this summer. Planning, organization, airplanes, business plans, and nerves have exploded all over my iPad. Compared to the Oakland to Miami flight… ha… well, I will just call it complicated. I take advice from every source I can squeeze it from. I have an enormous amount of respect for those of you who have pulled something like this off. When things get tough and I want to quit (which has happened more times than I can count) I just think about what it will feel like when I complete my first ocean crossing. To see the glistening sea beneath the plane, to know that my goals are in my hands, that will be the best feeling in the world. The prep work for this kind of trip is almost just as tough as the flying! I am STILL working towards my instrument check ride (I need to take my own advice, I know!) and am working in the studying for the written exam as much as humanly possible between the tv station, meteorology school (finally a senior this year), flight planning, and a little fun here and there. No excuses, just being honest here- obtaining the instrument rating is hard as hell and you really have to dive into it without distraction to give it the learning and the attention that it deserves. Obtaining the instrument has been such an ego-checking roller coaster ride of hard work- but what I have come to learn is that if you just commit to increasing your understanding of what you are striving towards by 1-5% per day, things come together quite quickly. Learning to spend time each day with each of my goals, giving undivided attention is a good way to climb the mountain, steady and strong.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe. -Abraham Lincoln

So what is next? It is time to take things to the next level. What I have realized over the past year is that personal adventure is great, but leading by example and encouraging others to rock their own lives is the most amazing aspect of the whole big, long, process. I am now officially in the beginning phase of setting up a Denver based foundation that will get young women flying. We are about to have a whole lot of fun, mentoring one another, flying around this big beautiful world, while learning about ourselves in the process. Eeeeeeee I get so enthused just thinking about it that I instantly sit up straighter, toes start tapping, these are good signs that the energy to pull this off is right on track. Much more detail about the foundation will be coming soon!

So this turned out to be a little but more of an update post than anything else, but the main idea I keep coming back to popped up in the first paragraph…

Live it up and lean into what you love

Encourage your crazy, out there goals by loving them with all of yourself. To the ones who tell you it can’t be done, let them waste their breath. While they are telling you it can’t be done, you’ll be doing it. Wow, it feels awesome to write that down! Only give meaning to the encouraging, healthy, upbeat people in your life. Be a radiant source of those great feelings for the ones who need it the most. Big sigh… here is a good one to call it a night with…

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” Dr. Seuss

Here’s to falling in love with your adventure and to cheering others on as they dive into theirs.

The US supports new search for Amelia- Will the mystery be solved?

Monday evening, my phone started buzzing like crazy… Twitter notes, Facebook messages, and texts from friends linking to the article about the new US supported search for Amelia Earhart. This is exciting stuff! The mission is privately funded but now has the support of the State Department. What do you think? Will we ever find Amelia or her Lockheed Electra? I absolutely think we will.

By MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is wading into one of the 20th century’s most enduring mysteries: the fate of American aviator Amelia Earhart, who went missing without a trace over the South Pacific 75 years ago.

Clinton will meet Tuesday with historians and scientists from The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, which is launching a new search in June for the wreckage of Earhart’s Lockheed Electra plane off the remote island of Nikumaroro, in what is now the Pacific nation of Kiribati. Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared July 2, 1937, while flying from New Guinea to Howland Island. Searches at the time uncovered nothing.

The group believes Earhart and Noonan may have managed to land on the island, then known as Gardner Island, and survived for a short time. Other historians believe they crashed into the ocean. But conspiracy theories, including claims that they were U.S. government agents captured by the Japanese before the Second World War, abound despite having been largely debunked.

One senior U.S. official said a new analysis of a contemporary photo of a portion of the island shows what some people believe could be a strut and wheel of the plane protruding from the water. The administration takes no position on the purported evidence and acknowledges there is fierce debate on the subject.

The expedition will coincide with the 75th anniversary of Earhart’s departure on the ill-fated attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world. Previous visits to the island by the group have recovered artifacts that could have belonged to Earhart and Noonan and suggest they might have lived for days or weeks after landing on a reef.

State Department officials say Clinton will use Tuesday’s event to lend her high profile to the search while also lauding Earhart’s legacy as a pioneer for women and a model of American courage. She will also note the Obama administration’s keen interest in the Pacific.

The “event will underscore America’s spirit of adventure and courage, as embodied by Amelia Earhart, and our commitment to seizing new opportunities for cooperation with Pacific neighbors founded on the United States’ long history of engagement in the Asia-Pacific region,” the department said in a statement.

The State Department and other U.S. government agencies supported Earhart and her goal. The State Department obtained flight clearances from the countries in which she stopped and coordinated the search effort with foreign governments.

Being “on-track” vs. building your own track

This is not a whimsy, foofy, la-tee-dah kind of post. If you want that, well, check back next time because I dig those too, but today, I am ready to rock my big goals.

This is a post about getting things done and asking for what you want.

I just posted a note on my Facebook page that read:

Ask for what you want, not what you think it is “appropriate” to ask for. 

Being “appropriate” sucks! 

Here’s to going big. 

Within 17 minutes, 102 people had “liked” this, and about a dozen others had taken the time to comment. What does this tell us? We ALL want to grab the day by the horns and get our BIG stuff accomplished. What are you not asking for? Consider the worst case scenario… you get a no and you move on to the next potential YES!

This concept is not about asking others for what you need. It is about knocking on the doors of opportunity and asking yourself if you are ready to walk through them when the doors are answered. If the door was opened, would you stand there with a blank look on your face or would you smile, take that first step over the threshold and start making things happen?

This summer I am going to fly the Cirrus to Paris and back. There is an INCREDIBLE amount of planning involved in this kind of flight and it is time to kick things into high gear.

From sponsors to aircraft to planning, there is a lot to rock in order to pull this off.

So far, things are on track to make this happen. I don’t like being on track. I like being the one designing the concept for the bigger and better track.

You have 1440 minutes in each day to surprise yourself with how much you can do to improve your life and the lives around you.

Sleep about 7 hours (Oh how I wish that were the case!), you still have 1020 minutes to make your life what you want. EVERY SINGLE DAY. Say you work another 8 hours on top of that, well… you just found 540 minutes to do what you want. Take care of your family, take care of the important stuff, but remember that you must invest in your ideas in order for them to blossom. Maybe you wake up early, you eat lunch at your desk, skip “happy” hour (horrible name, by the way), stay up late… DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO to make things happen. Coming from the girl whose alarm goes off at 3am 6 days a week… I am here to tell you that it can be done.

Goodness, the potential is ridiculous.

Big ideas are the best. They challenge us, they confuse and frustrate us. All the best things do!

The response on Facebook to the post above says it best… I wrote this in about 10 minutes and another 52 people clicked “like”. Those are some pretty good numbers.

Ask. Do. Inspire others to do the same.

What will you do with the 1440 minutes in your day? (Starting now)

In order to give off light, you’ve got to burn

What is to give light must endure burning – Viktor Frankl

(I took this shot from the helicopter in So Cal. One of the most amazing things I have ever seen)

When you “can’t” have what you want more than anything, a deep craving develops. In love, your heart may ache because of unreturned affection. In limiting one’s consumption, you may desire an off limit food, car, thing, so badly that you get physically mad, churning, clenched fists and stomping feet. Like a 5 year old who is denied a toy, we become focused on one thing so much so that the whole world disappears for a minute and our focus is like a laser beam of fire.

Good.

Keep doing it.

You are worked up.

You are tense with anger.

I enjoy seeing you like this.

What the hell am I talking about? For a lot of us, the only time we really get fired up is when we are not given what we think we need/deserve/want/crave/must-have-no-matter-what. Kinda sad when you think about it like that, right? Other people, external circumstances, family, relationships, money, blah blah blah, can grate on us to the point of crazy rage!

Here’s the beautiful juxtaposition of our minds… they are capable of caring about whatever we tell them to care about. Obsess over someone else’s “stupid” decision, cry about someone deciding they don’t want to devote their time and energy to you, or spend time tearing others down while you sit on your couch, fuming that someone else is finding success… The amount of energy we spend on caring about these sorts of things is STAGGERING. What I love about all of this is that WE ARE CAPABLE OF CARING THIS MUCH.

Consider this fact: Nothing matters to us until we assign it a meaning.

Read gossip magazines? First off, I am sorry… but secondly, you have just assigned meaning to the content. Put time and energy into your work? Fantastic! You just gave the work meaning in your mind and put its importance in front of other less productive activities. Get up and get active? You guessed it, you are rockin’ the meaning of valuing your body and the yummy energy attached to the feeling of being alive.

What if we had that same burning passion, desire and craving for the things that we choose to invite in, rather than the things that are in the control of someone else or a situation out of our control? What if we consciously decided to, for ONE hour, one DAY, heck, ONE moment, FOCUS on the things that bring us the most delicious value, success, pride, love, fulfillment? What if we stopped for a moment getting fuming mad about the things that are out of our control, and instead lit our passions on FIRE.

If you have read this far, you want to succeed. You want to kill it when it comes to being the person you have always craved being. We all have the moments where attention slips and we let external situations burn under our skin. Try this: Just think of all the time that is wasted on talking about how others should change, how we deserve so much more than we were given, how other people should be doing things your way. SHUT UP.

That’s right… I need to do it too. I have been trying this lately, and let me tell you- it is working.

Let’s set our own lives on fire and allow them to start generating light. They will be flashy and bright and oh-so-HOT. They will be ever-changing and gorgeous, yet they will always have the potential to burn out, if left un-stoked and the oxygen is taken away. That’s right, we are going to burn. We will fly planes, and create new business, we will fall in love and invent things other’s have never even dreamt of, we will change the world and we will shock the hell out of those around us. And maybe, just maybe, they will see the light and be inspired to ignite their own flame.

Let’s go back to where we started,

What is to give light must endure burning – Viktor Frankl

Are you willing to burn in order to give off light?

The risky joy of making ALIVE choices

This or that, now or later, sleep in or wake up, engage or escape, pout or fix, criticize or empower, blame or take responsibility, try… or don’t.

Without placing a value judgement on which of these choices is better than its counterpart, I think we can all agree that one is more active than the other. Making active choices means that a shift is taking place and that we are moving, questions are being raised, and there is a tasty little dash of discomfort in the unknown. Right now, I am talking about the little things… Do you always have to be changing the world? Nope. Are you responsible for always growing, developing and engaging in YOUR world? You betcha.

Saying yes to just about anything (positive, learning, growth oriented stuff) has become a new way of life for me. Meet with a friend to discuss an idea they are excited about? Sure! Work the weekend shift at 9News because it is an opportunity to forecast the weather while I work on my meteorology degree? Let’s go. Brainstorm about an idea that everyone else thinks is crazy? Let’s see where it leads. Some are big, some are small, but the common thread is that each one takes a little effort and for you to let go of the “nope, not gonna do it” feeling that your plan is being altered. From the people you meet, the ideas that are sparked, and the skin that is grown thick from being a little daring, you will see that it feels darn good to make the active decision to be a little edgy.

These choices are more than just active. They are ALIVE.

Words aren’t doing this one judgement. I am going to make the more alive choice right now and make a video so I can explore a little more about what this means to me. Standby!

Here’s the song I was rockin’ out to while contemplating Alive choices… pay attention to the line…

“Happiness, hit her like a train on a track
Coming towards her, stuck still no turning back”

Just  a thought…

What are you resisting? It could be the thing you crave the most…

Big accomplishments are HARD work! I am not telling you anything new, but sometimes it feels good to say it out LOUD! If these things we are working towards were easy, everyone would be rockin’ it, but let’s face it… they’re not. My friend Tripp Lanier is the host of The New Man Podcast and he interviewed Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art. This interview was made for those of us who are searching for why we sometimes avoid the things that we love the most. I promise… if you are working towards ANY sort of goal, you will get it. Here’s my take on why I am a procrastinating fool lately when it comes to my instrument check ride. At the end of the video, I make a promise and also issue a little challenge…

Here are some wonderful quotes from the book…

The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference. Steven Pressfield

Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. We experince it as an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential… Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work. Steven Pressfield

The more you love your art/ calling/ enterprise, the more important its accomplishment to the evolution of your soul, the more you will fear it and the more Resistance you will experience facing it. Steven Pressfield

The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death. Steven Pressfield

You can’t change the weather (A note about everything *except* the weather)

A great wind is blowing and that gives you either imagination or a headache.’ Catherine the Great

Yikes! Sometimes things don’t go as we plan.

Take flying, for instance. Try as you might, you are always at the whim of the weather. As a pilot, you respect it, you anticipate it, some even learn how to read it. In a sense, you plan for the worst, but hope for the best. Seeing as though you are quite literally taking your life into your own hands, you give this force the respect that it deserves, and when you need to divert, you head to a safer space.

In Denver, we are currently in the midst of a full-fleded blizzard. No one is flying, even the big boys out at KDEN. We have all been grounded by nearly two feet of snow, ice and nasty winds. When something this drastic shuts our airports down, we just have to take it.

Last night, I was let down by a situation out of my control. Sitting on my bed, I stared out of my 40th floor balcony at the snow that was coming down hard, heavy, and with intention. After a few tears, and a pit in my stomach feeling that lasted until I finally fell asleep, I started thinking about how placing expectations of others can be as ridiculous as trying to control the weather.

Like the wind, ice, snow, sun, fog, calm and rain that can help or hinder our flight, the opinion and the actions of others is out of our control. Each person you come in contact with comes along with their own set of morals, values, goals, passions and vision. This is why best friends and loving relationships are so amazing when they finally come along… when you find a person who compliments, not necesarily matches, your set of values, you are lucky. These people should be cherished and kept close.

As pilots, we plan for the weather, because we are taking our lives into our own hands. In the past, I have viewed this as life and death. Literally. As in, “I can die if I get into a situation that is dangerous”. After a good work out and a few hours to calm my mind, I came to realize that “taking my life into my own hands” simply means never expecting others to comply with my plans, but rather enjoying and appreciating when they do. We will be let down a thousand or more times in our lives, but you can’t be let down if you don’t have an expectation of how things *should* turn out. If you plan on rockin’ it long term, it is time to forego allowing the actions of others to “let you down” and instead, be above it. I know, I know, easier said than done and I am certainly battling with my own ability to do so, but in the end, your attitude will determine your success. Don’t be let down, but rather elevate yourself.

When the weather changes and you have to divert to another airport, you don’t sit around and cry, wishing that the weather would change its mind (I am laughing while I type this sentence because it is so ridiculous). No, you change your route, you look for the blue skies, lighter winds and you land that plane, because YOUR life is in YOUR hands.

When people let you down, divert. Not necessarily away from that person, but divert from your expectation of what they are “supposed” to do for you. Do not be afraid to alter your course a bit, ask for help, get to a safer space where you can get back on your flight plan and get to your intended destination.

Here’s the best news… much of the time, your flight goes exactly as planned. You land where you wanted to land and on you go to planning your next adventure. You are not always let down, in fact, you are often times surprised by the generosity of others and inspired by the cool things that are thrown your way.

‘Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.’

— Helen Keller

The difference between this-

And this-

Is a wider angle lens (*wink wink*), a little patience, the ability to see that in life, we do really have a lot of beautiful weather.

He asked me to define my point of no return…

John and I met for a ground lesson on Tuesday where we planned, in detail, the D.C. to Paris trip, looking at routes, fuel, cost, altitude, and dates. At a sunny table at the Starbucks at R.E.I. downtown, we took both launched Foreflight on our iPads and started inputting airport identifiers.

Here is the planned itinerary: 

Washington, D.C

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Gander, Newfoundland

Narsarsuaq, Greenland

Reykjavik, Iceland

Faroe Islands

Edinburgh, Scotland

Paris, France

We will fly approximately 7,800 nautical miles round trip, which is about 50 hours of flight and a whole lot of fuel…

Once we planned the route, John said something I never thought I would hear him say.

“You need to plan your points of no return”

“Excuse me?”

What the heck was he talking about? When it comes to commitment about flying, I am pretty confident that this will be a part of everything I do, from here on out. Was he challenging my commitment to these flights? I gave him an incredibly quizzical look and thought he was joking. As a fairly new pilot, I had never heard such a dramatic request. Little did I know, John was being serious. When crossing oceans, there is a calculated plan as to how far you can travel over water, taking into consideration fuel requirements, mandatory fuel reserves, diversion for weather and emergencies. Once you cross your point of no return, you are forced to forge ahead to your original destination, even if there are complications. He wanted to plan the point in our routes at which we could no longer safely turn back to dry land.

This really got me thinking.

At what moment had I crossed my point of no return in my commitment to flying and adventure? Looking back, is at this point, a non-issue. How could I possibly return to a life without flight? If my daily life were a flight plan, I would be surrounded by ocean, with no plans to divert to a more conventional existence.

Trying to pinpoint the exact moment when I decided that my days would be motivated by a love for aviation and adventure would be impossible, but I can narrow it down to a week where I was absolutely lit up about life. It was an experience that happened right here on the blog… in a vulnerable moment of excitement, dream-filled ambition and partial lunacy, I told the world right here on the blog that I wanted to re-trace Amelia’s North American route in the Cirrus. Stating out loud that you are going to do something usually puts a little ooooomph behind your intentions, at least in my experience.

Since that post, I’ve had plenty of daily doubts about whether I am smart enough, strong enough, etc. to accomplish all my flight goals, but overall, I have generally stayed on course towards an adventurous attitude all leading toward a flight around the world. How would it feel if I suddenly woke one day, gave it all up, and went back to a life of non adventurous boredom? If I gave up wanting to challenge my boundaries, see this gorgeous world that we live in, and stayed safe and grounded all the time? It just wouldn’t be me.

This is the definition of my point of no return: I am now past settling for a life of ordinary routine and I understand that I am capable and deserving of a rockin’ life of adventure and passion.

If you are feeling bold, ask yourself this…

Is there something you love so much in your life, that if you were to pull away from it, you would feel empty, lost, without direction and lackluster?

Whatever that thing is, chase it. Live with it. Let it excite you. Dance with its potential. Drink it in. Let it exude from your smile. Don’t be scared by the unknown in regard to what makes you thrive. Fall in love with feeling this great and do it as much as you possibly can. Encourage others to do the same.

If you connect with this, you are absolutely, 100%, past your point of no return. You are in it for the long haul. Consider yourself lucky… lots of folks can’t even figure out what they are passionate about, let alone something they can’t imagine their life without.

If you are nowhere close to feeling like you are past a point of no return, don’t worry. It will hit you when you least expect it, but don’t be fooled. You have to work for it, look for it, under every rock and behind every door. You must be curious, inquisitive, loving and eager. Everyday.

Want to hear from a couple of folks who agree? I sure do.

If you make the unconditional commitment to reach your most important goals, if the strength of your decision is sufficient, you will find the way and the power to achieve your goals. Robert Conklin

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” Walden, Henry David Thoreau

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Congrats to our N Flight Cam winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered to win the N Flight Cam! Mitch Ellis is the winner this time, but stick around because we are going to give another away soon! You all have made this blog a fun, inspiring place to talk aviation and it’s about to get much more exciting! We are beginning to plan the the transatlantic flight and it feels good to get started. Anyone know which airport is in the photo? It’s one of our stops along the route!

Here’s a great quote from Emerson to start your day off right…

“Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is the last day for the N Flight Cam give away!

Read the post below for all the details! Good luck!