We think about ourselves a lot. If you were stuck in a cage with a crocodile you'd think about that a lot too but you're not stuck in a cage with a crocodile. But you are stuck with you. And, unlike crocodiles, we humans are easily deluded by the next great thing - I mean, ‘Everything will be OK when…’ 'We get the new car…' 'We get the new job…' 'We move to a better area…' We imagine that when these things happen, everything will be OK. But it won’t. It won’t because we often use these things to replace an emptiness inside of us, a foundational fragility, and if that emptiness isn’t addressed then no amount of cars, promotions or houses will make us happy.

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We all know that pilots are an overconfident bunch. You've seen the airline captain wearing sunglasses as he walks through the airport terminal or you've met the pilot who insists on telling you what he does for a living before you've even asked.​But pilots are also flawed in other ways. The problem stems from the fact that normally pilots have always been the best at what they've done when growing up. So much so that they will even avoid or stop doing something that they are not very good at just because they are not very good at it. If they played rugby in the first team at school but suck at playing the guitar then their focus will drift more onto their sporting, rather their musical, endeavours. Pilots want to solve things and be impressive to people and if they can't then they quickly lose interest - this can come across as egotistical. But they are not alone with their narcissistic attributes. Who has never said 'When I lose some weight, get a new car or climb Mount Kilimanjaro people will think I'm awesome and I'll have loads of friends!' Pilots want to impress people, of course they do. But so does everybody else. But what if I said that the secret to being liked was not to be impressive but to be impressed? One of the strangest things that I've found is that the less I say at parties, the more people talk about me. If I meet someone and they talk about themselves all evening, I'll hear back the next day that they think that we had a great conversation. Even though they only spoke about themselves all night! 

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We are all blinded by success, now more than ever. Never before have we been able to see such meteoric rises of nobodies to somebodies who are able to attain significant wealth and status on the way.  Take Zoe Sugg aka Zoella. Zoella is a 25 year old YouTube vBlogger who started her channel 6 years ago and has over 7 million followers. As of 2015 her net worth is thought to stand at an incredible £3 million. Or the boy band 'One Direction', just some guys that entered a singing contest and who are now officially the richest boy band in history - each of them worth £15 million! I've flown fast jets now for 17 years but I don't consider myself a success, I mean - I'm not an astronaut, now, surely that would mean I was successful?

http://www.fastjetperformance.com/podcasts/tread-carefully-on-the-road-to-success-but-make-sure-that-it-is-your-road

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So, I've just swapped the cockpit of my military fast jet for a desk in an office and, WHOA... ...Am I learning about communication! Or the lack of it. I'm probably just not familiar with all of the nuances yet, I mean - I've only been there a month or so. But I've become fascinated with the way people exchange information and, as I still fly a few hours each month, I've been comparing how pilots communicate with how it's done in the office. Communication in the Cockpit. This week I had to check one of my flying instructors on his annual flying ability test. This instructor is one of my top guys and an ex-single seat ground attack pilot. His flying was excellent but there was just something he did that caught my eye.

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Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/fast-jet-performance.

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We’ve all done it and if you haven’t you probably know someone who has.

You're having a conversation, driving home from work or watching TV when you suddenly realise that you can’t remember the last 5 minutes of what you’ve been doing.

A recent survey suggests that 23% of all car accidents happen within 1 mile of the owner’s house and over 50% within 5 miles.

It's fairly obvious that familiarity is causing problems for drivers and, the resulting inattention, costly insurance claims.

It's no different with pilots either but the results can be a lot, lot worse.

In aviation, inattention is often referred to as ‘low-arousal’ and is an issue that has caused many a pilot's demise. I was recently caught out by this and it made me realise that I needed to re-evaluate my approach to flying.

I’ve been flying for 17 years and have over 2,500 hours, mainly fast jet. To an airline pilot this figure would be laughable but, as any Service pilot knows, the variation of content in military fast jet flying makes this number significant.

But although the content on each flight might be diverse, the departure and recovery to the airfield can become very routine and it was on one such recovery that I was caught out.

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When 25 year old Taylor Swift sold her 40 millionth album and became the youngest woman ever to be included on Forbes' '100 Most Powerful Women' list, it would be easy to think that her success could be put down to one thing.Talent. I mean, that's why she made it, right? If you'd had her talent then maybe you could've been a super-successful recording artist with millions in the bank.It's just not fair that she has all of the talent and the rest of us have none!But what if I told you that talent was pretty much irrelevant to her success?And, what if I also said that there were more important factors at play and that they are accessible to everyone?You see, most people think that they can't be successful because they lack talent. They aren't as talented a singer as one of their friends or they have a mate at work who has a talent at giving presentations and is always getting noticed by the boss. Maybe they've tried to write a small novel but it reads nothing like their favourite Stephen King book because they just don't have his talent.But here's the thing - these people are wrong.

http://www.fastjetperformance.com/podcasts/how-smart-people-gain-massive-success-using-3-key-essentials-hint-talent-isnt-one-of-them

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Have you ever wondered why you missed that promotion at work or why another person always gets the great assignments?

You work as hard as the next guy but he always seems to get the breaks!Maybe you have some great ideas and, if only someone would listen to you, your workplace could be awesome and so much more productive.What if I said that I had an answer for you...And it’s been around forever.You see, most of the emails I receive from my readers are not about the articles I've written or pictures I post. No, the majority of people write to me for career guidance or to ask my advice on a life or business decision they're making.If I was to offer one piece of advice to you and all of these individuals, it would be this.Get a mentor.

http://www.fastjetperformance.com/podcasts/are-you-really-going-to-make-it-on-your-own

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What's wrong with the youth of today? Recently we had some young employees doing a project for our civilian partners and when they had finished, and the contract had been signed, they all left the company even rejecting an increased salary offer to stay! They went and found work with another company having only worked for our partners for 18 months. Speed and agility are key in today’s fast moving workplace and this was what these young employees knew. They were not prepared to risk leaving their future employment chances to someone else and were aggressive in their planning.  I had to admire them - they knew the project they had done would look good on their CVs and now they were off to get more experience from somewhere else.

'There is no such thing as security. You have to be aware of your options and not be afraid of change or failure. In fact, change is vital.’ – Captain Richard Champion de Crespigny, QF32

It is exactly the same in air combat - at the merge, he who manoeuvres first dictates the fight. What this means is that when two aircraft meet head on, at speeds of up to Mach 1.5, the pilot that makes the first move will have the other pilot reacting to what they have done.

http://www.fastjetperformance.com/podcasts/the-fighter-pilot-school-of-winning-how-you-can-use-aggression-to-succeed

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You've heard of the saying 'If you want something done, give it to a busy person' but often it seemed that the more I did, the less I actually got done. My three year tour as a Senior Executive on, what was arguably at the time, the busiest fast-jet squadron in the RAF, was a brutal and demanding tour with high workload and long days.  In effect we were building a brand new squadron with a brand new aircraft. The infrastructure was also new as were the civilian partnerships that we had entered. I pretty much worked myself into the ground but towards the end, ironically after I'd taken my option to leave the Service, I managed to seek out some working practises that helped to lower my stress levels and increase my productivity.So, 5 quick tips for a more productive and less stressed you! 1.         Stop procrastinating.  As I found out, when you have so much work to do it can be hard to know where to start. Just as you're getting on top of one thing another task comes in! In 'The Pomodoro Technique', author Francesco Cirillo recommends allocating a chunk of dedicated and focused time to concentrate solely on one particular task; he calls these chunks 'Pomodori', the Italian plural for tomato, as it was a kitchen timer, in the shape of a tomato, that he first used to develop the technique. He recommends that you have a timer (kitchen timer or phone) set for between 20 to 40 minutes (he suggests 25) and, for that length of time, you solely concentrate on one task. When you have finished the 'pomodori' you can go and take a 5 minute break, make some tea, check emails etc. But the 'pomodori' must be uninterrupted - he recommends being firm with people that might try to steal your time during this period by telling them that you'll call them back later. He also suggests getting a timer that clicks as it counts down - it'll remind you that you are in the 'focus zone'. A 'TED' talk is 18 minutes long for a reason - it's because that's realistically the longest time that we can concentrate for before getting 'Candy Crush' withdrawal symptoms and ruining our focus.....

http://www.fastjetperformance.com/podcasts/5-essential-productivity-tips-to-fighter-pilot-performance

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