Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes

A couple of days ago, my family and I stopped at the local airstrip. My nephew wanted to see if there were any planes out. There were, and one was just about ready to take off. I’d never seen a plane take off right in front of me and I have to say that it is a pretty amazing sight.

That got me to thinking about the steps a pilot must go through before take off and how they apply to the things I do, especially blogging. Surprisingly enough, they parallel pretty well with each other. Let’s take a look at the things bloggers can learn from pilots!

1. Preflight Checklist

   Every pilot has to go through and check out the plane before take off. They have to be sure the landing gear works, the engines are in good shape, there is enough gas to get to a fuel stop or their destination and much more.

   We bloggers should have a pre-blog launch checklist and a pre-publish check list I think. Check lists help you be sure you hit the important things, and are better than relying on memory (mine is horrible!). Each person’s check lists would probably be a bit different depending on their goals, but having one would make life easier, don’t you think?

2. Starting the engines

   Before he can go anywhere, the pilot much start the engines on his plane. For us bloggers, our engines are our brains. Getting those going may sometimes be way harder than starting an engine, but one thing that can help is keeping a list of ideas for later.

3. Taxi down the Runway

   The next step for our adventurous pilot is to start his voyage down the runway. He will need to get started so he can get to the next step. For the adventuring blogger, she will need to get those ideas flowing. She might put on some music that gets her in the writing mood, go for a walk or to get some exercise, pet the dog…anything that gets her relaxed so her mental magic can begin!

4. Gain momentum

   As the plan taxis down the runway, our pilot needs to make sure he is speeding up at a rate that will get him to take off speed before he reaches the end of the runway. Now, as bloggers, we don’t have the end of the runway looming at us. But we may have our self-imposed deadlines towering over us. We need to be sure we are writing at a pace that will help us meet our deadlines without stressing us out. This is a difficult task at times, but breaking it down into bite sized pieces can help. You could pre-write on the weekend, polish a day or two later and then schedule when you are done polishing up those awesome posts. The key here is to keep your momentum going by doing something to help your reach your blogging goals every day!

5. Take Off!

   Once he gains his momentum, the pilot finally gets to leave the ground and get going towards his destination. The blogger does the same when she either puts up her site OR publishes her newest post. Each is a point of take off for her goals. And just like the adventuresome pilot, we get to take off again and again, enjoying the rush of leaving the ground we were on and moving towards the new.

6. Refueling
   
   

   This step is the most important for both the brave pilot and the brave blogger. If the pilot doesn’t know how to gauge when he will need to refuel, he will crash his plane and get hurt. If the blogger doesn’t know when she needs to refuel her mind and soul, she too will crash…just not as spectacularly and with less chance of loosing her life. As a blogger, we need to be sure to take time out to do the things we love that have nothing to do with blogging or our business goals. We need to take time to smell the proverbial roses. If we don’t, we run the risk of burning out and loosing that precious momentum and fire that makes us great.

Your Turn: Can you think of ways to help bloggers with any of the six things mentioned above? Share them in the comments!
Bonus kudos for anyone who takes this idea and changes it up to how these steps apply to running your business or something similar

Image Credit: © Patrick Allen | Dreamstime.com

If you enjoyed this post, sign up for my free e-book and exclusive content!

Welcome back! So good to see you again. If you've not subscribed to my RSS feed or by Email, I hope you take a minute to do so. Thanks for coming back. Looking forward to seeing you again soon!