The Airport Test

I scanned through my Kindle today, looking at the books I have in my library, deciding what to read to kill 10 minutes.

I opened Will It Fly by Pat Flynn, a podcaster and online entrepreneur, someone I have followed on and off for many years. The chapter I opened featured one of the exercises to complete called “The Airport Test”. I have read about this before as well as heard covered on his podcast and others.

Imagine that five years from now, you run into an acquaintance at the airport whom you haven’t seen for the past five years. They ask you how things are, and you truthfully respond with, “Things are absolutely amazing! They couldn’t be any better.”

What is happening in your life 5 years from now that makes you respond like that?

Get out a piece of paper and divide it into four sections.

Write down the four most important areas of your life as headings for each section – for example, family, professional, health and finances.

Fill in each section with the ideas that come up for you as you imagine that airport scenario and how it would feel to talk about all the wonderful things happening in your life. Why is your life so awesome 5 years from now?

The idea being that as you imagine these things, visualise them, it will help you to focus on moving towards those as goals. It gives you something to aim towards, especially if you don’t know which path you are taking in your life.

I find these scenarios scary and almost impossible to complete. They remind me too much of “manifesting”, “mood boards”, “The Secret” or the collective minds of people in a Tony Robbins seminar. If you can think it, it will become true. Whilst they are good thought experiments, they can leave me feeling empty.

I am not a planning type of person. I go with the flow, uncover each day as it comes and take myself where my life leads me. I don’t even plan my running route, often finding my mind and feet at odds with themselves. As I am running and coming to a fork in the path, my mind plots the route in one direction and I find my feet leading me the opposite way. I can hear myself saying “Oh. So I am going this way now…”

What the hell are the 4 most important areas in my life anyway? Tea, Peanut Butter sandwiches, Star Wars and more cups of tea…

Another reason I find these things hard is that I struggle to follow through on the ideas.

I would need a coach or mentor to keep me accountable and help me see and take the next steps. It’s fine to imagine yourself driving to that airport in your Maserati, but harder knowing and understanding that you need to quit your current job, get more qualified and move onwards and upwards if you ever expect to get one.

I am not focussed or competent enough to know how to do it on my own - but I am ok with that.

I have done alright so far in my life.

So, what is your take on The Airport Test? Intangible ideas or a plan for your future?