Flying with Strength, Energy and Enthusiasm
Our emotional state is largely dependent on our assessment of how we’re feeling for the day. Some days we can wake up, feel super good and everything seems just goes to plan. Sadly there are other days when we wake up, fight through the day, and by the end of it, we figured it was probably better to just stay in bed, we just had a bad day.
How You Feel
Many of us feel that it’s very difficult or even impossible to change our mood that we’ve somehow got ourselves in. This mood will control us from the beginning of the day, through to the end, perhaps even through the whole working week if we let it go unchecked, affecting our mental state & performance in general. The big-ticket item out of all this, there is a link between how we feel and how we perform, we just need to learn how to harness it or manipulate it. Naturally, if we’re able to do this, then we can bring out some great performance changes. If we feel down and sluggish, then this is how we fly, if we feel good and positive, then this too is how we fly, I know which one I’d prefer to perform under!
Self-awarenenss
Self-awareness is key here, we need to know what general mood types there are first, in order to make a positive mental change to turn our day around, or keep it on the track we’ve created for ourselves already. It’s pretty safe to say that we all know that the following attributes are going to be detrimental to our flying mental state:
- Fatigue
- Tension
- Anger
- Depression
- Confusion
I much prefer to fly with strength, energy, or enthusiasm. Also known as vigour! Personal energising techniques can be used effectively here, backed up with matching goals to pull you forward in a natural manner, which in turn keeps you motivated and focused. Self-talk is a well-known positive trait to lift one's spirit and attitude. It can re-establish the right amount of vigour and bring us back into the optimum performance range, where we become energised by positive thoughts, more focus, and naturally motivated, which in turn brings self-enjoyment and the results we are chasing!
Recover from Stress
If we go in the other direction, there becomes a lack of incentive to perform at your best, your mind can wander and become unmotivated. Stress or too much of it is not a good thing either, it’s possible to have too much of it and your mind simply shuts down, which doesn’t allow any more information in. You can imagine where this leads, a poor performance, poor circuit, or off-field landing. How do we recover from the last bit to reduce our stress levels? Rest and Relaxation, a rest from competitions, or even, just a rest from gliding if you must go there – after all, gliding should be fun!
Finally, we must understand the different moods and how they affect us personally, or if you’re an instructor, how they are affecting your student so that you can guide them into a positive and safe learning environment. So if one of your identified moods that affect you is fatigue in general, research this mood, think about how you can reduce it for your own personal body and mind ‘makeup’, action the plan & reap the rewards.
Flying with strength, energy and enthusiasm is a wonderful way to our sport – it really opens your eyes to the beauty of it, and puts us into a peak performance state!
Banner Photo by Petr Kolmann
Adam Woolley was born into the gliding world, being the 3rd generation in his family. Going solo at 15, his thirst for efficiency in soaring flight & quest for a world championship title to his name has never wavered. One big passion is sharing his experiences & joy with other glider pilots all around the world. Adam is an airline pilot in Japan on the B767 & spends his off time chasing summer around the globe. He has now won 7 national Championships & represented Australia at 5 WGC's & 1 EGC.