“Always think with your stick forward.” – Amelia Earhart

394033 03: (FILE PHOTO) Amelia Earhart stands June 14, 1928 in front of her bi-plane called “Friendship” in Newfoundland. Carlene Mendieta, who is trying to recreate Earhart’s 1928 record as the first woman to fly across the US and back again, left Rye, NY on September 5, 2001. Earhart (1898 – 1937) disappeared without trace over the Pacific Ocean in her attempt to fly around the world in 1937. (Photo by Getty Images)

Push forward as you rescue animals.

“Always think with your stick forward.”  Painted on the side of her plane, these were the words that Amelia Earhart embodied and believed in as she flew across the Atlantic ocean.

Their message is clear: you have to maintain speed or you’re going to crash so remind yourself to not pull back, but rather push forward on the stick to keep the plane flying.

Maintain your speed

As a pilot, I am very familiar with the need to maintain airspeed throughout a flight or you could end up stalling the airplane and falling from the sky.  Throughout your flight training, your flight instructor acts as a constant reminder to maintain your airspeed and keep the stick pushed forward because if you pull back, you’ll bleed off your airspeed and end up stalling.

Don’t procrastinate.  Do it now!

There are many lessons from flight training that can be applied towards your everyday activities in life.  Like many others, I can sometimes be a procrastinator, putting things off until the last possible minute to get them done.

Unless there is an outside pressure, deadline or someone depending on me, I can always find excuses to wait until the next day or week or month or to just give up altogether.  This is a classic example of me “pulling back” on the stick instead of plowing ahead through the tasks at hand.

Often I’ll try and convince myself that I’m pulling back because I do not have all of the information or that I am waiting for some inspiration to motivate me to push ahead, but usually it is because I am just procrastinating doing whatever it is that I am reluctant to do.

One of my personal resolutions for 2018 is to keep pushing forward on the stick of my life.  I plan to stop pulling back, hesitating, and procrastinating, and to start every day with the stick forward to maintain my airspeed.  I plan to say ‘yes’ to life and to actively participating in it.  This holds true for both my ‘day’ job and my Doobert and animal rescue activities.

Are you waiting for “inspiration” or some event to trigger you to jam the stick forward?

Be inspired and push forward on the stick.  Now is your time!