Create

Most of the time, the aviators I was charged to lead actually showed me the way. They didn’t need to hear me preach, but as I have mentioned before, OPI was as much for me as it was for them.  That said, culturally, we do tend to complain. I wrote to the team:

David Emerald wrote about a distinction between being a victim versus being a creator. To OPI, you must avoid being the victim, but doing so can be difficult in our service and our aviation community. In challenging times, it can be hard not to voice a bit of the victim perspective. ID that and move on rapidly. The victim perspective can be contagious on a team. With a few vocal folks and a little time, “victim” can become a pervasive climate. Everyone blames, complains, criticizes, and compares. The focus is on what we don’t want and all the problems that abound. Society loves to press victim buttons.

We want aviators who “create” with focus on meaningful tasks that help others. We need them to maintain this focus and create multiple pathways to achieve worthy goals, despite a society (and, at times, peers) constantly trying to steer them back to “victim land.”

Control what you can control: budget woes – an operational aviator can’t fix them alone; parts shortages – can’t be fixed at a duty station; duty station not what you had hoped for – if you have orders and obligated service, you are going; lost 20% of the helicopter fleet due to an unanticipated limit on service life – being a victim doesn’t help. However, creating alternative pathways to positive iteration helps a lot.

To OPI, you need what Phil Stutz refers to as reverse indicators.  Positive discomfort is a sign you are doing something right and you should lean into it.  If you watch any other exemplar individual, they do the hard things that need to be done for their practice and people, especially when they don’t feel like doing them. In fact, they embrace adverse situations because challenge and meaning are linked (you don’t stress about things you don’t care deeply about).

This old guy wants to emphasize to our younger aviators that a life well lived is incremental. With sustained effort, valued skills and knowledge accrue over time. A life of strong commitment and earnest effort, in which you capitalize on the unique skill set you have developed to serve others, leaves our community in a better place and provides a true sense of fulfillment. – Spiral up