Last time we talked about becoming more teachable. This week we're staying in John Maxwell's Success Is a Choice with the next choice on the list: developing strong character.

Character can mean a lot of things. 

We'll go through what Maxwell says and then look at how it applies to us as air traffic controllers, and to those of you working to become one. I have some ideas for how it pertains to us.

I want to start with a line from the book that stopped me when I first read it:

"The absence of strong character eventually topples talent. People cannot climb beyond the limitations of their character."

Our main goal in this series is to increase and expand our talent and our abilities, and really our leadership abilities. So we have to ask a question: will my character hold me back and restrict how far my talent can expand?

People are like icebergs. 

About 15% of an iceberg is visible, and that's your talent. 

The other 85% is invisible, and that's your character.

That bottom 85% does something important. 

It keeps the iceberg steady. 

In the same way, character holds us steady no matter how rough the storm gets. And if you've been through the Academy, or talked to anyone who has, you know there will be a storm.

Maxwell breaks character into several components. Let's go through them.

Without self-discipline, a person's other gifts, however great, will never reach their maximum potential.

You need self-discipline at the Academy. 

You have to be willing to practice, and practice, and practice some more, until you can give some of those clearances in your sleep. Practice a clearance until, if you say it any differently while running a problem, alarms go off in your head. You think, Wait a minute. Correction. I'm not giving my initials. Go back over it. What was wrong? 

If you've practiced that clearance enough, you'll find the error quickly and correct it.

Let me tell you what that does in an evaluation. 

Say you give a clearance wrong, but you catch it before you give your initials, and you correct it and do it right. That evaluator is going hallelujah. 

They know you're going to make mistakes. 

What they want to see is how you handle them. 

If you can sit there in an eval, make a mistake, and catch it yourself because it doesn't sound like the way you practiced it thirty times last week, the evaluator thinks, This person knows what they're doing. This person is going to be an air traffic controller.

When you get the evaluators on your side, it's huge. And it comes from self-discipline.

A core value is something you simply can't go against. Here are the ones I'd suggest you set for your time at the Academy.

Practice until I can't do it wrong, or I immediately realize I've done it wrong. And then keep practicing even after that point.

Get better every day. Don't settle for reaching a certain level.

Be a member of the team. I'll probably go deeper on this one in the next podcast. You have to be a member of the team that is your class. Some people in your class are going to be able to help you, and you'll be able to help them, and they may be the same people. You may have strengths they don't have, and they have strengths you don't. Staying a member of that team has to be a core value.

Answer the question: Who am I?

It's okay that you're not an air traffic controller yet. 

You're not supposed to be. 

But this helps establish your emotional security, and your sense of security, or lack of it, often drives what you do. You have to know what your core values are, because they form your identity. 

At the Academy, your identity needs to keep going back to those core things you set up: I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. 

And you don't stray from them.

Integrity is when you align your values, your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions. 

When they're in alignment, a person becomes focused. When they're not, it creates confusion and internal conflict.

Integrity goes back to those core values. 

If you set some core values before you get to the Academy, I'm going to be like this, I'm going to be like this, I'm going to be like this, put them on paper. Put them where you'll see them at least once a day. 

If you start to drift from them, you'll lose focus. 

You'll have internal conflict, because you'll know you aren't doing everything you can to get better and to succeed.

Maxwell says character communicates several things, and each one matters at the Academy and beyond.

Character communicates consistency. 

The people around you see that you're doing the same thing every day. Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way:

"What you do thunders so loudly in my ears that I cannot hear what you say."

Think about that. 

What you do speaks so much louder than what you say. Character shows that who you are and who you appear to be are the same thing.

Character communicates choices. 

It shows what choices you're making. If those choices trace back to your core values, you'll stay focused. If they don't, you'll start to lose focus.

You're going to have an influence on your class and on other classes. That influence expands far beyond the Academy. Your friends and family will see what you're accomplishing and how much you're changing in a very short span of time. You'll influence a lot more people than you realize.

Character communicates longevity. 

Character protects your talent, and it can guard you against regret.

I've seen students with regret, and those are some of the most heartbreaking moments. You see someone suddenly regret not sticking to the core values they had. Or they never set any. They came in thinking they could wing it, and you can't.

Here's something I can say with 100% certainty: you're going to face adversity at the Academy. I've never seen a student who didn't face some kind of adversity. Character is how you get through it.

So don't give up, and don't give in. 

Always try to do the right thing when it comes to air traffic control. 

And take control of your life. 

You have choices to make when you go to the Academy, and some of those choices are going to determine your success there.

It isn't all about talent. It really isn't. 

Sometimes it comes down to character: whether the person can get through the moments that knock others down, and walk and fight through them. 

That's how you succeed.

Here's how this pulls together for you right now:

And make becoming more teachable one of those core values. 

Then build the strong character to follow through on it.

I'll end with one more quote:

Each and every one of you has God-given talent. 

Develop it. 

Commit to becoming the best person you can be while you're in Oklahoma City. If you do that, you're setting yourself up for more success than you can imagine.

Thank you for reading. If you want to talk, head to sidebysideatc.com. Email me, text me, or sign up for a free call. I want to help however I can, and we'll worry about cost later. What matters is that you don't feel alone going through this. The goal of this podcast and of the coaching program, and my core value in all of it, is to walk this journey with you.

Don't try to navigate your ATC journey alone. 

Let's do it side by side.