THINK LIKE A PILOT! Are pilots very really stressed? They have the responsibility of the whole aircraft and about a hundred passengers in the usual Boeing aircrafts. I bumped into a pilot this evening, and he sounded pretty stable. My psychologist’s genes got activated looking for signs of stress and the eagerness to find some scope for intervention. Instead, I ended up learning a lesson from him. During discussion I learnt that the working of a pilot is extremely streamlined, the tasks they have to do are pretty predictable, repetitive and there are standard protocols for almost everything. As he was undergoing training for a new aircraft, he told me about having to read 20 books, which was a short-term stress though. With new Airbus, which is a highly sophisticated and an almost automatic aircraft, he accepted that the pilot feels pretty useless while flying it. He mentioned, even with older aircrafts, all they need to do is to just walk in and fly! The training and reporting is rigorous though. The other hassles almost never reach the captain. I was naturally intrigued. I mentioned having once spotted a note on the cockpit door that read like this, ‘Do not carry your worries beyond this point’. He started telling how his seniors trained him to not worry while flying. He had learnt one habit, which is, if you goof up, just leave it there. Don’t think about it too much, and think, ‘Ok, I made a mistake, no point in thinking about it. What can I do right now?’ In a high risk scenario, thinking like this really makes sense, time is too short to beat yourself up for the mistake you have done, and the little time rather be spent in DOING something corrective. Putting myself in his shoes, I realized that a demanding situation could really teach us the best stress management strategies. Do we really need such high-risk situations to incorporate this strategy? I say no. Life itself is too short to keep ruminating and brooding about your own mistakes. We spend hours, weeks and years in thinking ‘If only’, ‘Why did I?’, ‘How could I?’ and so on. Think like a pilot. Just think, ‘Ok! I goofed up! Big deal. I’m human, what can I do NOW to get things on track as much as possible?’
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 03:48:19 +0000
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