Airline Pilot re-employment ?

[BendyFlyer]

BUSBITCH and others - A very good question. Some of us have been on that merrygoaround several times in our lifetimes. The best advice I would offer anybody is I have no advice but I would highly recommend a very good book called :

"WHAT COLOUR IS YOUR PARACHUTE by Richard Nelson Bolles"

Cheap book but priceless assistance - it simply gets you to focus on yourself, your attitudes, likes dislikes, where you want to live etc through a series of really well thought out exercise that help you re-examine yourself and where you want or need to go. If you do the various exercises and steps conscientiously you may come up with a range of possibilities that you can then focus on doing or looking for. Have lots of butcher paper handy you have to make up a lot of lists about a lot of stuff about yourself etc. It got me out of the rut of what do I do now, where is a job etc and a lot of self indulgent reflection to focus positively on a whole lot of stuff particularly related to work and what we do and where we do it.

It helped me actually discover the jobs I had done and thought I had done I never really wanted to do and actually hated and where I lived was not where I really wanted to live either. So yes, never lost my passion for aviation but rejigged it into a realistic outcome, did I get rich nah who gets rich in aviation? but I actually have enjoyed my life and where I got to live ever since. Still plenty of crap comes your way but thats life. As for the other half, if your in a relationship well this should help as well got to negotiate with yourself and others I guess. No miracle cure for that one except learning to listen.

And yes I guess there is the issue of luck and fate we all need it and some of us miss it but recognising that because someone else seems to have done good in some way just means they were lucky not blessed. Ernest K Gann dealt with an aviators luck in his classic "Fate is the Hunter".

For a lousy $36 from a whole bunch of booksellers really worth the effort and time. The outcome will keep you focused on where your going for yourself even if you go sideways every now and then on the journey.

Take care.

PS - the book has been around a long time I first worked my way through it about 1989 if I recall over 30 years ago now. Has pride of place on my bookshelf. And yes, no regrets ever since then about where I decided to go and do it all worked out fine.