The 20...not the 80!

If you are an advocate for the 80-20 rule even amongst professional circles, if not personal, you would quite easily understand the context of this post.
The importance of mindset for AME’s and AME students, covered in the last 3 posts, is that 20 percent of the solution that accounts for 80 percent of the problem. And it is precisely this 20 percent that you really need to build up during all the 3 years of AME training that you go through. No doubt there are academics to be engaged in, classes to attend and assignments to be completed on a daily basis. However, day after day, you need to remind yourself about this mindset you need to fit into.

The question to ask is, 3 years? Does it really take that long?? For some students, yes. Others pick up quicker, but then when you have 3 years, there is no real advantage to be had by picking up this mindset and start running a virtual rat race that really does not even exist! Most students start becoming impatient, trying to grasp more than they can really handle. I know, I did! Everyday you have the question “When am I going to become? When am I going to ‘arrive’? When can I really let myself loose (on all these nice airplanes?!”

Ease yourself into the curriculum, taking note of all there is to this vast, engrossing, exciting world that is Aviation. Try and get a wider or larger perspective to this world rather than limit yourself to immediate concerns of assignments, practicals, exams, competition (“I’m better than you!...any given day!!” mentality), syllabus, etc. Bear in mind you’re practically already in a profession. “Then why the 3 years of training?!” Do you really want to know? Well, quite simply, so that you don’t hurt yourself, and a thousand others, in your enthusiasm and excitement of having the opportunity to work and perform tasks on those “sleek/neat/awesome” flying machines! It is the ‘growing-up’ phase if you get what I mean.

In the following posts we’ll discuss how we can largely help ourselves, to focus our minds more on soaking in the larger picture that aviation is, rather than limit ourselves to the nitty-gritty daily’s.