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You are here: Home / Archives for Die Happy Today

Self-developement: What spin are you in?

February 11, 2008 by diehappy Leave a Comment

We believe that the path of self-development is upward. We want to go to the next level or rise up to peak performance. I believe self-development can occur by spiralling downward.

Hop into the cockpit as we take off to a new spin on self-development.

Even as a 4 year old I dreamed of being a pilot. I was transfixed as the old propeller Trans Canada Airlines Vanguards and Viking planes would fly into the Regina airport. My dream was defeated because I was colorblind. My father told me that because I was colorblind I could not fly. I loved my dad but we should be cautious of what anyone tells us, even the people we love and who love us.

Dad was wrong.

I could not get a commercial licence but I but I could qualify for a private pilot’s licence. There was nothing so uplifting as flying solo for the first time.

Yet, as in landing and taking off, flying has its ups and downs. In learning to fly we practice incipient spins. The start of a spin that we cessnapull out of before it goes into a full spin.

On a Tuesday afternoon I was practicing this manoeuvre. I flew up to 4000 feet, stalled the aircraft (on purpose) kicked the rudder hard to the left (on purpose) and moved into the incipient spin. Although the plane was moving my brain froze and in two seconds I was into a full spin…spinning out of control towards the ground.

The airplane seemed to be stuck in the air while the ground started to spin up to suck me and the airplane into the earth. The instruments jerked over the red line and I panicked as I tried to correct by pulling back on the wheel, away from the ground, and kicking the rudder hard to the right, away from the spin.  This evasive action merely intensified the spin I was already in.

During the next few moments there were a bizarre chain of events. My life was about to end but nothing meaningful was flashing before consciousness. I had hoped for more and then a momentary curiosity flashed across my neurons. Would I see some kind of light just before I died?

Just as I was drifting into a contemplation of the afterlife, I heard someone scream, “F _ _ K”. That somone was me. What a way to go, an obscenity as my last spoken word on earth. Yet the obscene scream jolted me into action.

The way out is through.

I pushed the control wheel towards the ground.

I kicked the rudder further into the spin.

The cessena shuddered.

The ground paused.

I levelled out with under 100 feet to spare. I had flown the plane through the spin rather than fighting the spin and making it worse.

You can call it a near death experience, you can call it a miracle, but I call it ineptitude with a dash of obscene good luck.

Below are lessons spun from this experience. I offer them to you as invitations so that you can pull out of your own “incipient spin.”

Be careful what you dream for, you never know how it might end up.

Don’t always trust people who tell you that you can’t do something but they might be more helpful than you know at the time.

The key lesson not just in flying but in life from this for me was: The way out of something is through it. We often need to push into what we fear and experience what we dread.

If you are not competent it may be best to stop before you hurt yourself of someone else. I was the best ground school pilot that year at the Winnipeg Flying Club but I sucked as a real pilot. You will be happy to know the sky is safe and that I only fly as a passenger now – but be careful if you sit beside me as I might want to tell you my story.

Sometimes our toughest moments become our best stories. When we transform experience into story we can change the past — not the facts of the past but what we take away from it.

Although I embrace respectful language I discovered that swear words, at the right time and place, can be quite liberating and maybe even put a whole new spin on our life.

Photo Credit: Cessna 172R by http://flickr.com/photos/lonetown/712037662/

If this were your last day, would you die happy today?

David Zinger

Filed Under: Die Happy Today

Facing Death (and life) with a Smile

February 9, 2008 by diehappy Leave a Comment

Where is your smile?

It is all right to smile near death, even to laugh. God is said to have made the anteater and the horned toad. Each time I gaze on them I smile, knowing somehow it’s all right to be human enough to smile, even to laugh, around anything human or divine. Even around death. God made funny-looking animals and he made man weak enough to die. ~ Robert E. Kavanaugh, Facing Death.

anteater

Photo Credit: Giant Anteater by http://flickr.com/photos/gchpaco/3849678/

Filed Under: Die Happy Today

Psssst…you want to hear a secret?

February 7, 2008 by diehappy Leave a Comment

Most secrets are not secrets at all.

We won’t die happy if we keep thinking someone has a secret and if we just hear it our lives will be transformed.

According to the definitions offered by a Google search of “secret” a secret is:

  • not open or public; kept private or not revealed;
  • clandestine: conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods;
  • unavowed: not openly made known;
  • not expressed; “secret (or private) thoughts”
  • privy: hidden from general view or use;
  • confidential: (of information) given in confidence or in secret;
  • something that should remain hidden from others
  • information known only to a special group
  • mysterious: having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding
  • mystery: something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained; “how it got out is a mystery”; “it remains one of nature’s secrets”

This makes me question the book about about the five secrets you must discover before you die. How will I ever DIE HAPPY TODAY if I don’t know the secrets? I like John Izzo and I think he writes well but I don’t think he needed to rely on secrets to present his book on happiness and meaning based on 235 interviews.

His book is titled: The Five Secrets You Must Discover before You Die.

Here is a snippet from the publicity for the book:

From town barbers to chiefs to CEO’s, these people had over 18,000 years of life experience between them. He asked them questions like, What brought you the greatest joy? What do you wish you had learned sooner? What ultimately mattered and what didn’t? Here Izzo shares their stories – funny, moving and thought-provoking — and the Five Secrets he learned from listening to them.

secret passageway

18,000 years of life experience, are you ready to hear the secrets:

  1. Be true to yourself
  2. Leave no regrets
  3. Become love
  4. Live the moment
  5. Give more than you take

Wow, who would have ever guessed?

I don’t know about you but I thought this was good common sense even if it was not all that common. Perhaps the secret is that we keep this information from ourselves rather than acting upon it.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think you’ll get hurt reading this book, and I do believe the “secrets” can help you if you practice them but can we stop trying to lure people in with clever titles that make people feel that they are out of the loop and out of the know.

Oh, by the way, I am sorry I revealed the secrets, I am such a blabber mouth, but then Jim Bolt shared them over at Fast Company and that’s how I found out.

Photo credit: The Secret Passage Way to the Treasure by http://flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/799314036/

Filed Under: Die Happy Today

Preview: Die Happy Today & Ground Hog Day

February 2, 2008 by diehappy Leave a Comment

This site will formally launch today – February 2, 2008.

ground hogI hope you have a Happy Ground Hog Day!

For the 117th year on February 2nd, millions around the world will breathlessly await the most famous furry forecaster, “Punxsutawney Phil’s” annual prediction of an end to winter. February 2nd brings the most-watched weather forecast of the year — and the only one led by a rodent! Legend has it that on this morning, if a groundhog can see its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If it cannot see its shadow, spring is on the way.

The result: PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — Brace yourself for more wintry weather. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow Saturday, leading the groundhog to forecast six more weeks of winter.

What does Ground Hog Day have to do with Die Happy Today? Not much unless you believe in shadows, ground hogs, or they both have 3 words in the title and end in day. Now that is a stretch but not much more of a stretch then placing your faith in Phil and his forecast.

I think February 2nd is a nice break in the middle of January and February.

Why are you writing Die Happy Today?

The title came to me on a flight from Winnipeg to Halifax in December 2007. I would have preferred an extra Diet Coke or cookies but the flight on WestJet left me with the question: If the plane crashed, would I die happy today?

This is not a theoretical question as I was a private pilot, took a plane from an incipient spin into a full spin, fell from about 4,000 feet, waited for my life to pass before my eyes – it didn’t happen – and I ended up with about 100 feet to spare from literally going six feet under. I often suppress this especially when I fly but at 53 it is time to unleash the learning.

I want this site to be useful to you – not to make you afraid of flying -and I also want it to function as a daily reminder…

If this was my last day would I die happy?

If the answer is yes, we are on track and doing well.

If the answer is no than we better figure out what we need to do.

By the way, happiness to me is not being some goofy looking yellow smiley face, it is a lot more complex than that.

We’ll get into that over the next year.

Photo Credit: Goundhog by http://flickr.com/photos/bluestonestudios/2235473238/

Filed Under: Die Happy Today

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David Zinger

Email: david@davidzinger.com
Phone 204 254 2130

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