Do you tune out flight attendants during their pre-flight demonstration? Maybe you shouldn’t. It turns out their guidance has even more value outside the plane than inside. If healthier relationships, a stronger sense of direction, or more fulfillment from life sounds good to you, take the next 3 minutes and direct your attention to the front of the “plane” for some special announcements. There are very important things the Real You can learn from flight attendants.
Two things the Real You can learn to do well
What could flight attendants possibly teach us about a stronger sense of purpose or clearer direction for personal development? Could they know something we don’t about getting more fulfillment from all of our relationships? Yes, but only if they heed their own advice during the pre-flight routine.
Flying, these days, has some pretty big downsides. Zero leg room, ridiculously small tray tables and no escape from crazy little upcharges are just a few. Those poor flight attendants don’t even get to hand out the one redeeming goody we all anxiously waited for while sitting in those tiny seats! They do get to remind us what to do if we experience a sudden loss of cabin pressure or find ourselves in need of a fast exit. Seriously, NOT a job I could do.
But wait! In the bigger picture, there are two very important lessons the Real You can learn if you want more and better out of life.
#1: Put your own mask on before helping others
Last week, we talked about an important shift in your focus so that positive change can become a reality in your life. Similarly, we must all learn the right order for troubleshooting problems and finding solutions. Although none of us wants to contemplate a drop in actual cabin pressure on a plane, it happens in real life all the time, doesn’t it?
You’re going along your busy day with no time or space for unexpected problems and, BOOM! Right in the middle of controlled chaos, there’s a flat tire. There’s a phone call from your child’s school that they need to be picked up. There’s an important meeting you totally forgot. Amidst the crazy, what do you have to do? You got it: PUT YOUR OWN MASK ON FIRST.
Your “oxygen mask” is a full charge on the necessary inner resources you’ll need to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. If you have depleted these inner energies, you’ll need to replace them so you can eliminate the anxiety or anger you can feel under pressure. You’ll certainly need to do this before you engage with someone who has not done the same. And you’ll need to do it according to your inner design (your InnerKinetics®).
For more on how the Real You effectively stays fully charged, check out these great articles from Ray Lincoln and the team at InnerKinetics:
- A Hero with a Red Hot Why
- The Real You — Hero or No-Show
- Avoid Burnout in Your Fast-Forward LIfe With this Simple Strategy
- With So Many Ways to Recharge…How Do You Choose What Really Works?
- Healthy Emotional Fuel Will Turbo-Charge Your Life
#2: Know your nearest “exits”
In any situation, it’s important to know WHEN and HOW to employ the gifts you bring to any situation. It’s your fully developed inner strengths that empower you to exit a bad situation and re-engineer it into a good one. Your inner strengths are like a life-saving EXIT sign, leading you to safety, positive change, and real growth.
- Are your workplace relationships in need of some essential self-awareness? Suggest that everyone involved discover their inner design. This understanding leads to common ground and appreciation.
- Can’t find the passion or vision you need to make important decisions? Again, it’s your inner strengths that propel you in the direction you are naturally designed to go, doing it the way you are designed to do it.
- Is your parenting in need of an upgrade? It’s the use of your design-driven inner strengths that create a 2-way street between you and your child.
- Could your intimate relationship benefit from some spicing up? It’s your design-driven strengths that attracted you to each other in the first place. Knowing and understanding each other’s strengths and then appreciating and employing them in your relationship will ignite the flame again.
Once you learn about the Real You. Then you can get on with being the Real You.
Are you an SP? If you are, it’s your optimism and tactical intelligence that will have you courageously leading others to better ways.
Are you an SJ? Your careful and responsible planning will lead you and others to more stable “airspace.”
If you are an NT, your strategic solutions and ingeniously creative ideas are needed. If not you, then who will bring these to the table?
And, if you discover you are an NF… it’s your diplomacy and future-oriented thinking you must use. The best is out there waiting for you to lead others to it.
The strengths I underlined above are just a few of the design-driven powers the Real You needs to find MORE and BETTER from your life. Learn how to develop them on purpose and you too will discover just how smart that pre-flight advice really is.
START TODAY:
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- Grab a copy of INNERKINETICS by Ray Lincoln.
- Come back next week and learn how to develop your “GRAB & GO” strength.