Hold on!
Two Lady Whirls? This is getting so confusing....
Lady Whirls 1
(*) said:
Most of us have this extremely strange idea that people are learning to fly....for fun.
& then Lady Whirls 2 said:
It's no real indication of your progress!
Both are absolutely correct, and with the benefit of hindsight I guess a lot of us can look back and agree with that but at the time it feels much different. I suspect here that learning styles may come in to play as well, some people may take it all in at the beginning of their lessons and keep it in mind. But a lot of us need it repeating later on.
Personally I started with all the good intentions, but got lost in the mist of "I must land this thing properly or else it stops me going solo" and went downhill from there.
Partly it was a gentle chat on the clubhouse veranda with my instructor whilst watching the sun sink slowly into the evening that helped me to get it back in perspective after about 10 hours of instruction, but also (echoing Lady Whirls 1) when on final an exasperated voice next to me said "You're doing this for fun, just have fun".
Frankly it was the fun message that fixed it for me, I'd forgotten that I was doing it to have fun, and after that I used that as my mantra.
I'd say that reminding folks down the line, when their mouths are dry & they're trying desparately not to mess up again, that it is fun could be a huge boost.
(*) Numbering of Lady Whirls does not imply anything. I just worked it out on the fact that if I were flying from Ooop North, I would pass the good Whirlybird first before I got to the good Whirlygig - which would be embarassing if I thought I was heading for Northumbria.