A641.9.3.RB_Melissa Burns

 A641.9.3.RB_Melissa Burns

Personal Transformation

Dear Melissa,

            The past 4 years have involved a lot of change and transition in your personal and work life.  After going through a divorce with your partner of 9 years and leaving your airshow career to start a new family, you finally were ready to re-enter the workforce as Covid hit.  You have moved from California to Florida to Alaska and back again.  You have had 2 children and worked as a glacier pilot for a Part 135 operator in Alaska and as a ski and float flight instructor while pregnant.  You are finishing your MBAA that you have been working on for almost 5 years, while raising 2 babies and launching a new podcast.  What is next?  

It is time to for you to focus and to make a plan of action. Your vision is one that involves your family, aviation, fittness, teaching and building a dream life.  You have had several opportunities present themselves to you over the last few months that are doors opening to your future.  Several doors closed with the airline that you were going to work for going bankrupt and your full time move to Alaska turned into a refinance of your home in Florida.  With these doors closing other opportunities are opening up such as the chance to live 30 minutes from the Daytona Beach Campus of ERAU and remaining on an airpark in Florida where you can fly and train in the winter.  Let’s focus in on three specific learning goals and the milestones, action steps and key people who will support you in your path to achieving these goals. Remember to practice the plan that you lay out and the new routines to turn them into action and don’t forget to set time aside to be mom and to get the rest that you need to succeed in this plan after having two babies (Capetta, 2007).  This is a big transition!   

Learning Goals

(Boyatzis et al., 2008)

Learning Goal 1

Build a successful family run aviation business that allows me to be a full-time mom and to operate in Alaska in the summer and Florida in the winter months 

Milestone 1:  Start Ride Hopping Business in Alaska

Milestone 2:  Start Airshow Business Back Up 

Milestone 3:  Launch First Season of Podcast

Action Step:  Purchase A Waco and Create a Business Plan

Action Step:  Get Edge540 Back and Re-instate Low Level Waivers

Action Step:  Schedule Guests and Start Recording and Editing Episodes

Key People to Help Me:  Trent my husband with everything; Lisle, Chuck and Joe for flying the Waco, Parents on both sides to help with the kids and backup financially, Skip and Carol my airshow partners, Scott for the skydiving and crew support, Colin and Bill for the airplanes  

 

Learning Goal 2

Teaching as a professor in the Aeronautical Science Department and ERAU Daytona Beach

Milestone 1:  Complete my Master’s Degree

Milestone 2:  Get a part time adjunct teaching job

Milestone 3:  Get my PHD 

Action Step:  Apply for graduation 

Action Step:  Apply for the position 

Action Step:  Apply for the PHD program at ERAU

Key People to Help Me:  Frank Ayers, Bill Thompson, Carolina Anderson, Michelle, Nicole Stott, other fellow Alumni Hall of Fame Members and Advisors

 

Learning Goal 3

Have a family cabin on our lake property in Alaska.  

Milestone 1:  Get permission to build from family

Milestone 2:  Build the foundation, well and septic

Milestone 3:  Complete the final build

Action Step:  Speak to husband and in laws and get permission in writing 

Action Step:  Put aside enough money to set the foundation and schedule it 

Action Step:  As we have the money take steps to keep the project moving forward

Key People to Help Me:  Trent, in-laws, local friends who can help with the build and contractors, everyone working to keep our ride hopping business a success in Talkeetna  

 

            This does not encompass all of your dreams and goals, but it is a plan that can help to keep you focused and productive with your time and energy.  Yes, becoming world champion and running the Denali 135 ultra marathon can be additional goals along your path, but these fall under the three major action plans that are laid out in this letter.  This plan can be refined and improved over time but stick to it and, no matter what.  I want you to work to keep out the distracting noise and keep that forward momentum and positive thinking happening.  Stay true to your values and always put your family first.  Continue to work towards resonance by asking yourself if you are inspirational, if you are positive, if you are in touch with those around you and if you are demonstrating compassion and being authentic and mindful (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005).  These practices will help you to remain grounded and true and from pushing yourself to a breaking point or into dissonance.  Your continued renewal through connecting with others through mindfulness, hope and compassion should remain a part of your daily meditation and mantra (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005).  Put away with self-doubt and shift your limiting beliefs as they will only hold you back and change your belief in yourself (Ditzler, 2011).  Stay positive and keep your ideal image of yourself and your life in focus with your thoughts and self-talk structured as if you are already that person.  Practice these things in your daily mediation.  Remember what David Clark said in his book Out There, when he decided to be a new person, he was that person and started living as that person every day and seeing the world through the lens of his ideal self (Clark, 2015).  I will end this letter with a quote from the late ultra-runner David Clark:   

            “I had witnessed first-hand that once I changed my vision of who I was in my career, my actions and behaviors in my work life changed immediately, permanently. Conversely, other times when I just tried to modify what I was doing daily in my behavior (follow up more on calls, be more organized, etc.), those changes were fleeting, and I ended up right back where I started. The bottom line is this, we act in ways that support our true image of who we are. We do it without effort or struggle; we simply are that person.  How we view ourselves and define ourselves is perhaps the most essential paradigm we have as human beings. It determines all of our actions and reactions.  (Clark, 2015)” 

 

References

Boyatzis, R.; Johnston, F.; & McKee, A. (2008). Becoming a Resonant Leader Develop Your Emotional Intelligence, Renew Your Relationships,Sustain Your Effectiveness.  Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.  

Boyatzis, R. E., & McKee, A. (2005). Resonant leadership: Renewing yourself and connecting with others through mindfulness, hope, and compassion. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Capetta, A. (2007).  Going Back to Work After Baby.  Retrieved from https://www.parents.com/parenting/work/life-balance/going-back-to-work-after-baby/

Clark, D. (2015).  Out There:  A Story of Ultra Recovery[Audiobook].  

Ditzler, J. (2011).  The 5 Principles of Personal Transformation.  Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/personal-transformation_b_860240

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