(Image: Rockwell Collins)

Navigating Beyond the Storm.

That time has come and again it has passed. The rigorous review of my aviation medical status which comes around every six months now that I have turned sixty.

Having undergone open heart surgery in late 2022, there are numerous additional tests that I have to pass in order to be deemed fit to fly. Fortunately, I came through the process successfully and surpassed many of the benchmarks with a generous margin. However, rather than it being a case of luck, I credit the outcome to the hours that I continue to put in at the gym and the lifestyle that I choose to lead.

There is a lot of discussion these days about resilience in the modern world. I suppose it has been a quality that I have needed to call upon through an airline collapse, a pandemic grounding and then the heart surgery. Even so, to me, resilience suggests weathering the storm and surviving, whereas I have tended to take a slightly different approach.

When I have been confronted with adversity, I haven’t just wanted to survive. I have actively set long term strategic goals that will inspire me well beyond the immediate duration of the challenge. Through this, there is always something to strive for, rather than just doing enough to get by. The byproduct of this approach is that I have always managed to emerge on the other side of adversity even stronger and more motivated than before.

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t wish these life events upon anyone but realistically, they were all beyond my control. The only way in which I had any influence was how I chose to respond. Undoubtedly, each time this was made easier by the amazing support of my family and friends. Even so, we never quite know how we will react until the situation arises. It is then that we need to find strength in adversity.

This was something that I reflected upon this week when my Class One Medical Certificate was renewed. I had taken the Bruce Protocol deeper on the treadmill than the cardiologist had seen before and far beyond the aviation standard. Yet for me, it wasn’t about that one exercise. It was the hours I have put in week after week since my surgery nearly four years ago. The trips to the gym on cold, dark hours when it would have been easier to stay in bed.

We will all have life throw obstacles in our way and we will each need to find a means to best counter them. Personally, I believe that these challenges aren’t just sent to try us, they seek to shake our comfortable foundations and call us to action. We have the choice to yield or thrive and at those moments it isn’t merely about avoiding the weather ahead, it is about navigating beyond the storm.