Superiority complex

As sort of a follow up to my last post about why we’re here and what we’re doing this for, I’d like to take a moment to talk about an issue that’s been weighing on my mind a bit.

The Skydiver Superiority Complex. Now, I’m not talking about those people who rag on other people within the sport – like freeflyers who think their better than belly flyers or wingsuiters who claim “this ain’t no head down bitches!” (one of my favorite lines, btw), as most of this is said in jest, giving others crap around the dropzone – it can be a favorite past time.

What I’m talking about are those jumpers out there who think that, simply because they are skydivers, they are superior to everyone else in life. Like skydiving is this club that, until you’ve gotten in you’re just not cool enough.

Sure, I’ll be the first to admit that skydiving has this way of changing your perspective on life, but that doesn’t mean that, in order to get the most out of life you MUST skydive. Certainly, I’d love to have all my friends experience what freefall is like, to understand the change that this sport can bring about in your way of approaching the world, but that certainly doesn’t mean I think that I’m better at life than those who haven’t jumped – that’s just pure foolishness.

Too often I hear skydivers, especially the newbies, talking about how they just didn’t get the meaning of life until their first skydive. That until you save your own life, you just can’t understand what it means to truly live. Well, here’s the reality of the situation –  just because YOU didn’t get how to fully embrace life until you experienced flight, doesn’t mean others don’t get it.

I mean, sure, if you grew up in a middle class family (or above) that sent you to college and you’ve either been in school or working on your career since then there’s a good chance you fall into this category (I certainly did). But I know plenty of people who had different paths who, most likely, know the value of living just as much, if not more, than I do.

I guess the questions here is, do you really think you’re superior to others now that you’ve fell from 14,000 and successfully saved your own life, or is it that you just encourage everyone else to seek out this opportunity as well, but you have a really strange way of conveying it? I’d like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt on this one and say the latter, but I truly believe there are people out there “knowing” and speaking of their superiority because skydiving has become their favorite past time. And for all those, there are an equal number of rock climbers and motorcyclists and other extreme sports junkies scoffing because in reality, their sport is a whole hell of a lot more dangerous than ours.

Next time you think about opening your mouth about how someone just can’t know what living is until they jump out of an airplane, maybe take two seconds to remind yourself that you have no idea what others have been through in their life, and there’s a good chance they know so much more about life than you. Instead, swap some life stories – you might actually learn something interesting about them.

Love and Blue Skies!

Ashley

What it’s all about

When I talk about skydiving, with skydivers and whuffos alike, sometimes I can’t help but step back from the conversation to wonder what it’s all about. Thing is, when you’re a skydiver, or painter or writer, or whatever it is that gets you out of bed in the morning, there’s something deep down that’s driving you.

Listening to skydivers chatter on incessently about how great they are can seem like fingernails on a chalkboard to even the most interested audience. One thing to remember though, is that it’s not just that we like to hear our own voices go on and on about ourselves – though so often that is also true – it’s that we have a true passion for this sport.

It’s easy to get caught up in the madness of a dropzone, the drama and politics that come along with a group of highly connected, type-A personalities who are all working toward the same goal. Thing about that goal is this – you’re truly only fighting with yourself to get there. And I think that’s what I like most about this sport. If you’re good enough, and you practice enough and you put enough of your heart and soul into it, you can get exactly where you want to be.

For some, they crave the ability to be instructors – to get their ratings in order to give back to the community some of what they were given as young pups in the sport. For others, they are focused on getting invited to that next big way invitational. Others spend hours in the tunnel in the off season and bucko bucks when it’s nice out to get extra coaching needed in order to compete at nationals. And some of us just want to be good enough in our discipline to know that on every jump we’ll be a part of the formation and can keep on having a blast! Whatever the goal is, most of us out here have one, or two, or three – all of which include a desire to improve ourselves.

So, it’s not just about being on a record or being the “best” or even having trained with the “best,” but it’s about being your best, and really making something out of the passion in your heart. If that wasn’t the case, I can guarantee 90% of us wouldn’t be here in the first place.

Love and blue skies!

Ashley

A look at Gen Y from the inside

I recently stumbled across a blog post about Generation Y. My guess is most of you have seen some commentary on our generation from time to time. How we 20-somethings are all self-absorbed, career-minded kids with entitlement issues. And though I’m not about to say that isn’t accurate (at least 50% of the time), it’s refreshing to see someone looking at our generation from a different angle.

In this article, Penelope Trunk dives into 5 characteristics that Gen Y “doesn’t know about themselves.” Though I think there’s so much accuracy to what she says here, I do have to argue the overall premise  for a sec, before I take a look at just how much this applies (well, to me anyway).

One theme of this article is that Gen Yers are generally self-absorbed to the point where they treat themselves and their online personas as if they were of the celebrity variety. But I’d like to argue that this type of attitude goes beyond just those who were born in the years that now categorize them as Generation Y.

As someone who spends a decent amount of time practicing a highly ego-centric sport, I see attitudes like this come from all walks of life. It’s not just the upper-middle class 20-somethings who think they’re hot shit because they have 1,000+ Twitter followers. No matter where you look, people of all ages are out there talking themselves up, becoming part of a group in hopes of setting a world record (my hand is raised here) or posting pictures of themselves doing something cool on Facebook. Hell, if you look the Facebook statistics these days, more Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are out there Lifebooking each and every day. So I’m not entirely sure it’s fair to stereotype Gen Y with having an ego complex, when it’s quite clear that this spans a number of generations.

That said, I’m all about self-awareness, and I love to read pieces like this that make me sit back and go, “ha, I’m TOTALLY like that!” After all, if you can’t acknowledge your flaws, how are you ever supposed to improve?

Which brings me to the last point I’d like to argue (I swear, I really do think her post was incredibly accurage, you’ll see), and it’s this: The title of  ”What Generation Y doesn’t know about themselves” strikes a bit of a nerve with me, mostly because of what you’re about to read below. Although many 20-somethings have these or other similar undesirable traits, how can one assume that means they must not know they have them? We’re all a work progress as human beings, and (hopefully anyway) most of us are working toward smoothing out the rough spots and picking up good habits along the way; none of which happens over night. So yes, I am flawed. And yes, I have a number of the flaws listed in her article, and so do thousands of other 20-somethings like me, but that certainly doesn’t mean we’re oblivious to ourselves. After all, self reflection must come before self improvement, no?

Off my soapbox now, and onto a little Gen Y bashing, shall we?

Okay, so not really, but I do want to dissect Ms. Trunk’s thoughts a bit and show, by personal example, how much of what she has to say is f-ing spot on. I’m going to paraphrase the content from her article, as I’m not here to regurgitate her thoughts and you’re all big boys and girls who are completely capable to reading it for yourself if you so choose. I’d like to examine a few specific mentions from the article now, rather than the overall premise – so here goes:

* The conservative nature of Gen Y often leads to a group that croudsources in order to make decision. YELL YES. As a blogger who talks about all kinds of things, including providing insight on positive and negative experiences with products and services (reviews, if you will) I’m a big believer in utilizing the knowledge of others in order to make the best decision for yourself. Learn from other’s mistakes, learn from their fortunes.

BUT, I do agree that this has a tendency, if you’re not careful, to lead to a need to get approval from others before making any decision at all. Until recently, I consulted my parents on just about every life decision I made. I even needed approval from them on choice of my next apartment to live in (if they didn’t love the layout like I did, forget about it).  A little independent thought can go a long way in realizing that you can make decisions for yourself that will result in a positive outcome, you just have to sack up and do it. To this day, I still struggle, but I truly believe this is one of those baby steps kinda deals where you just have to learn to do it over time. The more good decisions you make on your own, the more you’re able to decide without stewing on it for ages. Practice the art of decision-making, or whatever.

* So consumed with self-image they’d rather LOOK like winners more than BE winners. Hello Facebook photos that flatter, in whatever way you’re going for. Blogs that allow you to speak incessantly about yourself, to feel good about your thoughts and have your ego stroked by your followers (and allows you to moderate out negative comments from those who may not think you’re all that). I’m on board with all that! In fact, she even mentions not having the money for a wedding and eloping to save funds while spending what you do have on photography to make it look awesome. I’m so on board with eloping to save $$ – though I’m not sure how that has much to do with my self-image. Regardless, I do think our generation is lacking when it comes to risk taking. I know plenty of my peers who blame that on their parents for raising them to be conservative, career-minded individuals who are constantly striving to be financially independent and stable before they do anything with remote excitement, but c’mon folks, let’s go back to point 1 here – have some independent thought and just do it.

*Gen Y Misunderstand entrepreneurship. I couldn’t agree with this more! So many times I’ve seen friends quit their jobs after 1, 2 even 5 years of experience to go out on their own, only to come back to corporate America months later. With little to no leadership experience and no team around you to continue showing you the way day in and day out, I can’t imagine what it’s like to go out on your own at such an early age. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing here, not in the slightest, more power to you if you can do it and pull it off. What I’m saying here is that yes indeed, as Penelope indicates, I’m much more comfortable with the security that my company provides – that and the awesome team of people I get to share my work day with. I’m a lucky gal in that sense.

So those are my big three – I’m choosing to leave the last two alone because I go in swings from being uber practical to “hello dumbass, where was your head on that one,” and I don’t talk religion.

Let’s hear it out there guys, what do you think about Gen Y, this article by Penelope Trunk, or my response to it.

Cheers y’all!

-A

Flying through the fear

Fear is one of those things that we skydivers are facing each time we exit that airplane door. I don’t care how ballsy you are, this sport is still scary from time to time. If it’s not, you might want to do some internal searching as to why – have you become complacent? Do you think you’re that much of a badass that it just can’t happen to you?

Simple food for thought for all daredevils out there, not the point of this post.

Fear can be a good and a bad thing. Fear is good because it puts your senses on high alert – right where they need to be for a sport like skydiving. It keeps you focused on the goal. Fear also challenges you. Working through fear to get to a positive end result can help you grow as a person. You learn what you’re truly capable of – that’s good stuff.

But, fear can get so intense at times it’s crippling. How many times has fear gotten in the way of your goal in life? For me, I’m finding that fear is standing in my way of accomplishing my current wingsuiting goals. I want nothing more than to be right there with the flock, flying in to take a dock, but I’m fearful of a collision. What if I’m not precise and I take out my fellow wingsuiter? Of course, it’s not just for lack of self-confidence in my flocking skills (though, I do have a bit of that going on), flying at that speed is scary, especially when you’ve got a handful or more of other flyers at that speed to worry about.

So, how to get past that? Well, honestly, that’s what I’m trying to figure out. I’m a zen skydiver of sorts, having an extensive background in practicing yoga, so I’m giving meditation a shot. Really focusing on the fear and how to not let my mind get in the way during a skydive. This does tend to be difficult though, as the fear is only there moments before the jump. Maybe meditation on the plane ride to altitude is the ticket?

I do know that in order to progress I need to hurdle this fear, or maybe channel it in a productive way – use the fear to get to that next step?

This is definitely a question I’m posing to the group. How have you overcome your fear, in any aspect of life, in order to come out on the other side, more successful than you imagined?

Love and Blue Skies!

Ashley