#76 - Resilience in Flight - Another Tree, Another Lesson
- Pawel Pietruszewski
- Apr 16
- 2 min read
Resilience & Flight: Lessons from the Cockpit: In this series, I explore how the principles of aviation can help us build resilience. Like pilots facing turbulence, we can learn to stay steady and adapt to whatever comes our way!
Pilot on a Tree
I recently caught up with a friend, an experienced business coach. As we chatted, I started passionately arguing about all the things I don’t want to do. She smiled and said:
"Don’t tell me what you don’t want to do—tell me what you do want to do."
There was a pause. Then I laughed. A tree again. Same trap. I should’ve learned this already.
Back in 2017...
I was a beginner paragliding pilot, coming in to land in a wide, open field with just a few trees on the side. And somehow—despite all that empty space—I managed to land right on one of those trees.
It was embarrassing. It took hours for the rescue team to get me down and I kept asking myself: How did this even happen?
My instructor later explained:
"I’ve seen it so many times—people focus so hard on what they want to avoid, they end up hitting it."
Since then, I’ve seen it over and over again. Someone gets distracted by a hedge or a river—and boom, that’s where they land.
We—those of us who’ve been there (and most of us have)—just help them down and repeat the mantra: “Focus on your landing field. That’s all there is to make it safe.”
The Focus Paradox
I thought I had learned the lesson. But here I was again—mentally circling trees instead of aiming for the open field.
This time, not in the sky, but in life.
I guess it illustrates the power of focus: Our brains are energy-hungry and have limited capacity for attention. When we fixate on the negative, we drain that energy. There's no room left for the positive to take root.
But when we have a purpose—when we focus on where we want to go—things start to align. Not perfectly. But directionally. And that’s what resilience is all about.
Smile—someone will smile back. Snap—someone might bite you faster than you think.
Simple rules of positive thinking are very similar to landing and yet I still have to remind myself - think what you want! Oh boy, think about your landing field not this tree again.
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True, your article reminds me one sentence of my teacher on driving licence course: when driving at night, never look at the headlights of a car on the other side. Otherwise, you will subconsciously start to turn towards that car. Although it was long, long tome ago I still remember that sentence, but using it's meaning only while driving...