I was flying into Sydney this week in heavy rain.
We were coming into land and almost touching down when suddenly the plane pulled up sharply in a strong ascent.
Cool as you like, the pilot announced that a sudden burst of rain had made it too risky to land, and that we’d circle for 20 minutes before trying again.
Imagine if the announcement had been, “OH MY GOSH! HOW CLOSE WAS THAT! HOLD ON FOLKS, THIS IS GOING TO GET BUMPY!”
The second attempt was a success, and all of the passengers disembarked the plane, almost like aborting a landing and shooting back into the sky was a common occurrence.
When you are in a high-stress situation at work or home, is calm your default? It can be so easy to default to a negative emotion, and whichever emotion you choose will be contagious to the people around you.
And before you say that this pilot has had a lot of training to keep calm during these moments, why can’t we train ourselves to be calm too?