(Principles are basic truths that, when applied, cause success to come to you easier and quicker.)

 

Bear with this example, it’s got more to do with Life than with airplanes.

It used to be that the builder of a home-built/ experimental airplane — starting with some plans, smooth sheets of aluminum or sticks of fine-veined spruce, and the powerful gleam of the idea to create, from scratch, a flying machine — faced a long and arduous set of tasks. They may have been given the advice by their predecessors to be sure they enjoyed the building at least as much as the flying because they were likely to be doing much more of the former than the latter.

Today’s flying machine home-builder more commonly starts with carefully engineered, professionally manufactured, pre-shaped, pre-drilled, pre-fitted, and, in ultimate cases, pre-assembled major subsystems, ready for the builder to complete. That’s why they are called kits. The result is nearly always a strong, safe airplane with predictable and desirable handling characteristics, produced in a fraction of the time of the old method.

Both approaches to creating personal aircraft have their purposes and each are situationally appropriate. There is no right versus wrong here.

The grander question for us, beyond building ourselves an airplane, is to know what our purpose/ objective/desire is. Are we wanting to “build” or to “fly”?

In your work, your family, indeed your life, are you participating in the way you most want? Are there “pre-assembled pieces” you can use? Or do you more enjoy the designing/building process?

 

Coaching Point: Both approaches benefit from having a plan. Do you have one?

 

Copyright 2013 Steve Straus. All rights reserved.