Overcoming Adversity — Amelia Rose Earhart

We live in extremely challenging times. Collectively and individually, we’re all faced with overcoming some degree of adversity, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, in our professional and personal lives. These are of course in addition to any existing challenges we might be facing due to other causes.

At PepTalk, we’re fortunate to have direct access to experts in overcoming adversity. Many of our coaches and keynote speakers have faced nearly insurmountable odds and have gone on to success and a sense of peace in their lives. They speak from a place of experience in life, and in many cases having built accomplished careers in various fields. We decided to ask for their advice on the challenges of 2020.

Introducing Amelia Rose Earhart

Amelia Rose Earhart is an expert in turbulence — literally and metaphorically. She is an accomplished pilot who completed a 28,000 mile flight around the world in a single-engine airplane. Her journey had many ups and downs, even before she left the ground. Amelia credits her success to her ability to “learn to love the turbulence” of life.

How do we learn to love our own version of turbulence? Amelia recommends that we see ourselves as being in a “holding pattern” — a common expression, and an aviation term for the scenario where air traffic control won’t allow a plane to land right away. The pilot is instructed to keep circling, conserving fuel, and waiting until they’re cleared to land.

Amelia believes a holding pattern is a strong metaphor for the situation we find ourselves in today. But she reminds us that we’re built to handle the turbulence of living, and we should use this time to take care of ourselves and prepare for the future — to be ready when we’re cleared to land. “The only airplane that never experiences turbulence is the one that stays locked up in a hangar,” says Amelia. “That’s not what planes were built to do, and neither were you and I. We were built to take flight.”

“The only airplane that never experiences turbulence is the one that stays locked up in a hangar.”

That’s your PepTalk for today. You’re welcome. Amelia loves to deliver keynote speeches to Fortune 500 companies, schools, and women’s organisations. She is the founder of the non-profit Fly with Amelia, that helps to send young girls to flight school.

If you’d like a PepTalk from Amelia, or a longer talk on a topic such as “The Art of Navigating the Holding Pattern,” email us at hello@getapeptalk.com or send us a message via the chat. You can also call us on+44 (0)2038352929.

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