Living a Bucket List Dream: Earning a Private Pilot’s License
Living a Bucket List Dream: Earning a Private Pilot’s License
I’ve supported people in achieving their bucket list dreams for over 1.5 decades now. And in those years of bringing heartfelt energy into my client’s dreams, I’ve walked the walk by fully investing my own. One of my oldest bucket list dreams was to become a pilot. This dream was born over 30 years ago and just wouldn’t go away. When dreams do that, it’s worth acting on them.
Early last summer, I was in a deep coaching conversation with a client and we were exploring their hidden list of dreams, the ones quietly filed away until X had occurred. And X could be anything from having a different job, living in a different place, or once the kids are older. As we played in this space of dreams placed on hold and tapping into the signs that it’s now or never for un-pausing the dream, I had my own insight → it was time to finally act on my aviation dream.
These are beautiful moments in the coaching profession where the coach receives an insight at the same time the client does, perhaps even a different insight, but a new perspective nonetheless. After that session, I supported my client on their new challenge and also acted on my insight by immediately signing up for flight school.
And now, 10 months later, I earned my private pilot’s license!
This was by no means a light project. It required an enormous time commitment, which stretched me to the limits as a business owner. It was constantly humbling, especially the phase leading up to the first solo. And it brought me life lesson after life lesson → confronting childhood resistance with math problems, dealing with adversity that requires calm execution of fundamentals rather than simply “toughening up,” and much more. There’s a book’s worth of material in this experience alone.
For anyone considering chasing this dream as well, here are some of my stats to earn my license:
- 60 hours total flight time
- 15 hours PIC (solo)
- 10 months in duration
- 144 landings (my 100th was my first solo landing)
- 200+ hours in theory and ATC courses and studying for those exams
- countless moments of joy, fear, doubt, frustration, excitement and numerous other emotions!
Learning to fly in the Alps was a dream come true, scary at times but incredibly beautiful. The instructor team at Ecoflight were the best and taught me how to fly safely in the mountains. Now, I will build experience and continue the journey and aviation dream.
If you’ve got a bucket list dream that keeps showing up, feed that energy, even if it’s uncomfortable to do so! If you want it bad enough, there’s a solution out there to each obstacle you can imagine.
