This past week I took off work and went on a flying trip. I got my private pilot’s license a few years ago and my instrument rating this past January, and figured it was finally time to go beyond my local area and do some real adventuring out beyond Southern California.
Most of the time I have spent flying has been with an instructor, and all of that time has been around airports and areas I have gotten to know really well, so this was going to be a significant step up in novelty.
Beyond that, here in San Diego, our weather really only comes in two flavors- bright sunny days and overcast cloudy days. We rarely get rain or anything remotely like actual weather.
Not so on this trip. On day two, after a flight over the Grand Canyon and landing in Sedona, Arizona (both trip highlights!) we departed to fly on to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Just as we crossed the border, however, I could see in front of us dark clouds just above us with grey streaks of rain coming down underneath. Rain is one thing, but these clouds just looked mean, and the turbulence was picking up. A thunderstorm is no place for a small plane, and I certainly didn’t want to risk it.
After talking to air traffic control, I decided to divert to Gallup, New Mexico, which has a large public airport with a nice long runway and was only a few minutes behind and north of us.
As I turned around to try and line up to divert there, the plane continued to bounce around more and more, and as I checked the screen I could see I was now battling a 17 knot cross wind blowing me off course.
I also got the report for the runway, and the wind was blowing 16 knots there, with gusts up to 26 knots. A knot is 1.15 mph, so essentially, I was going to be trying to land in up to 30 mph winds that were blowing diagonally across my path, in a plane that weighs half of what an SUV weighs.
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Up to this point in my flying career, the windiest conditions I had landed in was 14 knots, and that was with an instructor. My normal flying, which is usually in the morning, is often no wind or just 2-3 knots on the landing.
But with a storm bearing down and limited options, I figured this was the time to put my training to work and just follow the steps to get the plane safely on the ground.
After two attempts to come down that I had to abort, with each one helping me learn more about how to handle these conditions, that is what I did on the third try, landing a little wide of the centerline but otherwise just as planned. Safely and now on the ground and out of the grip of the weather.
It was scary, but I knew I could do it if I just focused and applied myself. I was out of my comfort zone at the start, but having done it and realized I could do it and that it wasn’t really as bad as it seemed at first, in the end, it turned out to be a confidence booster. Which was good, because just three days later, I encountered a situation with 19 knots gusting to 31 knots, and in that case, I landed it in one.
Had I not done the landing in Gallup, no doubt the worst one would have been even harder or even impossible. But because I had that recent experience under my belt now, this one, just a little harder than the last one, seemed much more in reach.
My goal on the trip was to learn new things, practice what I had been training for, and test myself while staying within limits I knew I could handle although I hadn’t yet done it. These conditions made it easy for me to achieve that goal because they tested me in a way no simulation or textbook discussion could rival, but also in a way that I could exit if I really felt I was beyond my abilities (in both cases, I had enough fuel I could have diverted another 2 or more hours away to somewhere less windy if I had needed to).
The point of this story is that it is easy to fall into a situation where you limit yourself to what you have done before and what is comfortable and feels safe. Prior to this trip, I would not have considered flying solo if the wind was over 10 knots simply because I never had before and I wasn’t sure how it would go. Now I would feel very comfortable knowing those are conditions I can handle because I have done it already.
Running your business can go the same way. You tend to do things the same way you always do because it’s what’s comfortable and you know how to do it. You don’t stretch yourself to reach new goals or achieve new milestones because that means going outside what you’ve done before and breaking new ground.
Your beliefs limit what you can achieve, although you tell yourself you’re just being smart and conservative and staying safe. I get it, I find myself having the same problem from time to time. The problem is, if you never venture out of your comfort zone, you don’t ever see what else you can see.
Maintain a margin of safety and don’t go nuts, but do push yourself to try new things, take slightly uncomfortable steps into new territory, and try to expand your horizons. In business and in life. You will very likely be very pleasantly surprised to find out just how much more you can accomplish when you give it a shot!