Defer Your Dreams No More

by

C. Edward Young, BA, MPA, JD, CFI/I, MEI, & other various initials and stuff

Adjunct – Baker University Kansas State University - Salina

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Warning – This is not an academic document. Resist the urge to grade based on merit. Vague references are provided to tempt pedantic audience members to chase the stories and fairytales presented by the author. While this work started out as a legit academic endeavor, the research was making me unhappy, so I went with squirrel.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................ 1

ACADEMIC MUMBO JUMBO ............................................................................................................................. 2

WHAT DOES HAPPINESS “LOOK LIKE” ....................................................................................................... 2

HAPPINESS IS WALKING PAST FEAR ................................................................................................................ 3

DREAM INTERPRETATION HOCUS POCUS ........................................................................................................ 3

COLORING BOOK INTERMISSION ..................................................................................................................... 4

REGRET MINIMIZATION ................................................................................................................................... 4

EXPLANATION OF FACTORS IN REGRET MINIMIZATION ............................................................................... 4

CHALLENGE AS A KEY COMPONENT IN LIFE ................................................................................................... 5

DREAM DEFERRED BY LANGSTON HUGHES .................................................................................................... 5

WHY FLY? ....................................................................................................................................................... 5

DEFFERED DREAMS IS NOT JUST ABOUT FLYING ............................................................................................ 6

MEET THE FOCUS GROUP ................................................................................................................................ 6

ABOUT THE ADHD AUTHOR ........................................................................................................................... 8

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ACADEMIC MUMBO JUMBO

Happiness is joy, contentment, or positive feelings combined with a feeling that one’s life is good, meaningful or worthwhile. The Greater Good Science Center, a project of the University of California, Berkeley, put these words together to arrive at an understanding of happiness. According to the Center, which bills itself as pursuing “The Science of A Meaningful Life,” happy people are healthier, wealthier, more generous, cope better with trauma and stress, and are more creative.

Defining personal happiness is not easy. The subjective happiness scale by Sonja Lyumbomirsky1 attempts to arrive at a happy score.

1. In general, I consider myself: not a very happy person 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 a very happy person

2. Compared with most of my peers, I consider myself: less happy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 more happy

3. Some people are generally very happy. They enjoy life regardless of what is going on, getting the most out of everything. To what extent does this characterization describe you? not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 a great deal

4. Some people are generally not very happy. Although they are not depressed, they never seem as happy as they might be. To what extent does this characterization describe you? not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 a great deal

WHAT DOES HAPPINESS “LOOK LIKE”

According to Lyumbomirsky, Americans think about happiness, on average, once a day. In addition, people can identify and list the people in their lives who are cheerful in the face of adversity and people who are chronically unhappy, even in good times. It is commonly believed that sufficient wealth can provide happiness; however, recent research indicates that happiness values rose only until Americans achieved an income of $75,0002, after $75,000 is a plateau.

1 Lyubomirsky, S., & Lepper, H. (1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social Indicators Research, 46, 137-155. The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com.

2 Robinson, Jennifer. “Happiness is Love – and $75,000.” Gallup Business Journal. 11 Nov. 2011.

Ha ppi ness

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Social connection is the key component of happiness according to Greater Good. Relationships, not just romantic relationships are important to self-fulfillment.

According to Nobel Prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, another essential element of life satisfaction is having goals that you can meet. “Setting goals that you’re not going to meet sets you up for failure.” The progression of goals through life affects emotional wellbeing scores.

HAPPINESS IS WALKING PAST FEAR

Roy Master’s argues in Meaning and Happiness: Overcoming Stress, Fear and Pain that all conflict and unhappiness in life is based on repressed feeling and desires. While Masters is more noted for his talk show than his educational acumen, someone quashed a dream you had as a child. Can you identify that moment? Did you challenge the information that quashed the dream?

Between 20 and 30 percent of the population is apprehensive about flying. In a 2014 Washington Post article about American’s fears of flying, the less than 1,000 people who died flying that year received 43 percent more attention than the 1.24 million ground fatalities. By comparison in the United States, roughly 400 people die annual in small aircraft accidents, the majority in Alaska. By comparison, roughly 400 people die in traffic collisions on Kansas roads each year.

Is your fear of flying rooted in fact? Could you be happy moving past it?

DREAM INTERPRETATION HOCUS POCUS

Dream Stop, an organization of unknown validity, claims that dreams of flying, particularly flying well, provides a sense of virility. The dreamer is empowered upon waking. Succeeding in flight in the dream may be able to be connected with succeeding in a life activity upon waking. Frued, of course, believed that flying dreams represented a sexual release – flying meant that the subject was “free.”

The dream suggests that you’re feeling good about the situation and are in charge of it. You feel as if you’re invincible, that nothing can stop you from achieving your dreams. These dreams suggest that you are currently at the top of your game and your future is bright. – Stephen Klein

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COLORING BOOK INTERMISSION

REGRET MINIMIZATION

The University of Denver studying the science of Texas Hold ‘em produced the following formula for minimizing regret 2

player large tree regression. I have no idea what this means, but I liked the wording “regret minimization” and a really complicated formula should follow a coloring book page.

EXPLANATION OF FACTORS IN REGRET MINIMIZATION

• Let ut (a) be the utility (payoff) of the action taken at step t

• Let σt (a) be the probability of taking action a

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• Recall that a strategy is written as σ (Lecture 3)

• Internal regret at time T of not taking action a, RT a, is: • T

• Σ (ut (a) - Σ σt (b)ut (b) ) • t=1 b

• The second part is the actual payoff returned

• The first part is the payoff that we would get if we could swap the action we took with the action A

CHALLENGE AS A KEY COMPONENT IN LIFE

Surprise stops us in our tracks and our emotions increase by 400%. Google Tunia Luna’s Ted Talks for great images of surprise3. Luna argues that surprise can result in learning. Early learning is based on surprise. As we get older or non-traditional, humans by nature attempt to hide surprise. The positive benefit of surprise, both physiologically and psychologically occurs when we allow ourselves to experience wonder, new and challenge experience.

DREAM DEFERRED BY LANGSTON HUGHES

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore--

And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

WHY FLY?

Aviation is a tight-knit community offering support and encouragement to its members.

Aviation requires goal setting.

Aviation offers surprise.

Aviation provides a mentor who is literally touching shoulders with you during the process.

3 http://tedxteen.com/talks/tedxteen-2013/167-tania-luna-taken-by-surprise

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Aviation is frequently a dream established in youth.

Flying can be a fear overcome.

DEFFERED DREAMS IS NOT JUST ABOUT FLYING

When I think about ___________________, I regret not _________________________.

I regularly (list activity): List adjective or adverb that describes the activity

(Ad suggestions: Positive, Negative, Good, Bad, Pleasant, Unpleasant, Happy, Sad, Afraid, Joyful, Angry, Contented)

MEET THE FOCUS GROUP

Diana

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George

Mike

Tiffany

Manju

Manju

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ABOUT THE ADHD AUTHOR

C. Edward Young plays “geezer ball” (45+ fast pitch, hard ball) on Monday nights at Mid-America Sports Complex. He earned his pilot’s license in the wake of 2001. Ed is a certified flight instructor at Vinland Valley Aerodrome, a small grass strip North of Baldwin City. Ed is also a commercial pilot single engine and multi-engine, a single engine sea plane pilot, and instructor for instruments and multi-engine. Ed is an attorney

specializing in aviation and law enforcement. His current fulltime employer Jviation (an aviation consulting, engineering and planning firm) sees the value in harnessing Ed’s inability to focus on only one task. He also serves as the professional standards officer for the City of Rossville, Kansas. He served as a satellite coordinator for a law enforcement training academy. He is a certified peace officer instructor, a fire instructor, and a medical first responder instructor. He attended SWAT school in 2001 and Police on Mountain Bike Academies in 1994 and 1999. He was the director of the Kansas Department of Transportation Aviation Division from 2005 to 2013. During his tenure, KDOT Aviation won the ACEC International Honor’s Award, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials President’s Award for Aviation, The National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO) Most Innovative State Award, National Center for Aviation Research and Education Outreach Award, the NASAO Center Best Practices Award three times, the ACEC Kansas Chapter Award twice, the Kansas Chapter of American Public Works Association “Excellence in Program Operations Award” and two KDOT Orange Hero Awards. He served as a city and county manager prior to KDOT earning various recognitions for the communities including an ACE award for a landfill partnership, two National Association of County Awards (Seward County, Kansas), and a Missouri Community Betterment / 5 Star City Award (Eldon, Missouri).

Ed teaches Airport Law at K-State Salina. Ed’s Baker courses included business law and government regulation, corporate social responsibility and accountability, legal environment of business, principles of mediation, and negotiation and conflict resolution. At Webster University, he taught finance for manager, administration law, procurement law and MBA finance 1. His favorite class room course is conflict resolution.

Ed’s book, Strategic Airport Marketing: The Seven Day Plan, is available somewhere on the internet.

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