AIRPLANES & ACTIONS. A MUST READ!!

So I recently upped my reading on family foundations & kids & pregnancy as do most expectant moms. One of the books I’m reading is Stephen R. Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective FAMILIES.” I had read his habits of effective leaders and it’s a must read for any leadership team, so I figured that this book would bound to be a good read.

I’m only two chapters in & I’m inspired to share already. So it’s GOOD.

There are two different illustrations he shares within the first chapter that are just GREAT. And they can apply to MANY areas of our lives.

1) THE AIRPLANE ILLUSTRATION

“It’s like the flight of an airplane. Before the plane takes off, the pilots have a flight plan. They know exactly where they’re going and start off in accordance with their plan. But during the course. of the flight, wind, rain, turbulence, air traffic, human error, and other factors act upon that plane. They move it slightly in different directions so that most of the time that place is not even on the prescribed flight path! Throughout the entire trip there are slight deviations from the flight plan. Weather systems or unusually heavy traffic may even cause major deviations. But barring anything too major, the plane will arrive at its destination.”

What Covey is getting at here is that in life, the most important thing is that we know, as well as out co-pilot knows and has the SAME destination in mind. You need to agree on where you’re going as a family, as a person, as a couple, as a business, as a team (enter whatever scenario you find yourself in) you need to agree on your CLEAR destination, and that’s the most important thing. When you have a clear destination decision and preferred flight path, ALTHOUGH you may not be on the EXACT flight path most of the time, you’ll probably be close and you’re still going to get to your destination.

The problems occur when A) there’s no decided upon destination and B) you haven’t determined a preferred flight path to even try to navigate along.

The reason why planes can pivot and adjust their flight pattern based on weather, planes, turbulence and other unexpected things, is FEEDBACK. they are constantly getting FEEDBACK from flight decks and tools that are reading their environment and suggesting alternate routes that will safety guide them to their destination. It’s important to ensure that you have people you trust, that KNOW and BELIEVE in and SUPPORT your destination to be giving you continual feedback on flight path based on the environments.

I thought this was SUCH a beautiful way to think about life in general, planning and getting to our dream realities!

Okay here’s another one…

2) LOVE IS AN ACTION PROCEEDED BY A FEELING

“At a seminar where I was speaking on the concept of proactivity, a man came up and said, “Stephen, I like what you’re saying, but every situation is different. Look at my marriage. I”m really worried. My wife and I just don’t have the same feelings for each other that we used to have. I guess I just don’t love her anymore, and she doesn’t love me. What can I do?…. I replied with… “Love her.”

What Covey goes on to explain is that the best thing that we can do as humans when feelings fade is to put our actions in high gear. Covey talks about how we confuse love as a feeling that then inspires an action, but Covey is adamant that LOVE is an action, or actions that are decided upon and committed to that produce a FEELING as a bi-product. The best thing to do if you feel like you love someone less, is to LOVE (as a verb) them. Create an action list of ways you can practically love them and start to do it. See the feelings as a bi-product begin to grow.

This can be applied in so many areas of life. Maybe you aren’t liking a friend too much lately. Why don’t you try making an action list of ways you can show you appreciate them and want to invest in the friendship rather than give up on it? the bi-product is probably going to be a strong friendship.

Maybe you are starting to feel stale at your job. Make a list of actions that you would be enacting upon if you LOVED your job, maybe that’s showing up early, bringing in treats for your co-workers, going the extra mile on a project. Discipline yourself to ACT and the FEELINGS will come as a bi-product.

Let’s not mix up the order and think our FEELINGS come first and then we act. We ACT in order to steer our feelings!

Those are just two great take aways so far that I hope encourage and challenge you in some way! I’ll be sure to share more.

XOXO Ash