Josh Waitzkin on excellence
Excellence is super cool amazing. But you don’t get there by wishing or hoping or staying safe and comfortable. Your call. (For more from Josh about excellence, see JoshWaitzkin.com)
inner art
Anne McClain on facing fears
Anne McClain has faced down many fears, and is now going to be rewarded with sights that are literally out of this world. She’s been an Army combat helicopter pilot who deployed to Iraq, an instructor pilot and a test pilot. She is currently a NASA astronaut, in the pipeline to fly to Mars. Quote is from an interview in Glamour magazine, Jan 2016, talking about walking out on the launchpad to ride a rocket. And the picture is from her super-cool NASA video bio.
Don’t let your emotions …
Never get emotionally worked up in the cockpit — you’ll only die mad. Best be like the WWII British poster, keep calm and carry on:
Fighting complacency
Fighting complacency is not as exciting as fighting fires, but it’s a battle we will join many more times. We train for engine failures, electrical loss, and lots more. And we should practice multiple worst case failures. But we must also learn to handle ourselves on all those flights when nothing is going on. (Quote is from Coelho’s 2008 novel The Winner Stands Alone.)
In the wholeheartedness of concentration
Concentration, time, work, art. Lots of time and lots of work. But it’s worth it. You will experience what others never see, never know. (quote from her 1997 essay collection Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry)