At the controls

My first flight instructor in 1998 would ask me, "Are you having fun?” after every flight together.

I found each session quite stressful and demanding, quite the opposite of fun. Passing my flight test was a highlight of my life, and with the gift of freedom when I was pilot in command, every flight was fun.

In 2008 when I returned to university to get an education degree I trained as a student teacher with multiple great mentors. I always felt like an imposter within their class, teaching with routines, rituals, and culture that I had not created, and I did not love the experience. Two years later as a certificated teacher, running my own classroom, the experience completely changed.

It was fun, challenging, uniquely my own, and I loved it.

This seems to be the way of life. There is a huge difference between completing a task under someone else’s requirements, rather than in your own way. The learner who finds their own way to curiosity, out performs the others at school. The business owner that sets his shop up with his own design, learns and adapts as needed. 

Autonomy and agency are hallmarks of fulfilment. 

Choose a path that lets you be ‘at the controls’, it is what we are called to do.

• Now that’s a peak ethos.