Hi! I'm AP2. A published author, high-flying aviator and amazing father. Expert in stalling. I combine lessons in aviation with modern psychology to help people navigate their emotions and take command of life.
What On Earth Are You Thinking? What is External Self-Awareness? Most people think about self-awareness the same way they do sex. They believe they’re great at it when, in reality, no-one knows where on God’s green earth the G spot is (or that there even is one). One of the major components for building self-awareness … More The Three Areas of Self-Awareness: What On Earth Are You Thinking?
What on Earth Am I Feeling? “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal Disconnecting the autopilot is the practise of noticing when you’re distracted and then actively bringing your attention back to the present. But there’s a problem. It’s called turbulence. (Namely, your emotions.) … More The Three Areas of Self-Awareness: What on Earth Am I Feeling?
The Three Areas of Self-Awareness According to Tasah Eurich – author of Insight: The Surprising Truth about How Others See Us, How We See Ourselves, and Why the Answers Matter More Than We Think – there are 3 major blindspots to self-awareness. Those are: Behaviour blindness is being oblivious to your own actions. Not noticing … More The Three Areas of Self-Awareness: What on Earth Am I Doing?
There’s a type of tree that’s planted all over Singapore. It’s known as the rain tree because of its iconic umbrella shape. Not only is it incredibly striking to look at, the sprawling canopy provides the perfect respite from the oppressive heat we experience here year-round. It’s planted extensively throughout Singapore for this reason. It … More Nurturing Our Roots
I came across something called the Map of Consciousness in a book I’ve been reading recently – Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender by David R. Hawkins. In it he talks about the different emotional levels we operate on. He presents them in a way I’ve never seen before – as a kind of ladder … More The Ladder of Enlightenment
So my kids have started doing this thing. Every evening before bath time – after we take their clothes off before they get into the tub – they run around the apartment like crazed feral wild cats. Screaming and laughing. Pure unadulterated joy. It got me thinking about the clothes we wear, metaphorically speaking. A … More The Joy of Running Around Naked
If there’s one aviation disaster that darkens my knickers more than most, it’s AirFrance 447 – the scheduled passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1st, 2009. In a very simplified nutshell, this is what happened. Approximately 2 hours after takeoff, AirFrance 447 entered a storm … More The Automation Paradox
The other night my wife and I celebrated our 6-year wedding anniversary. We went to a restaurant called Absurdities. It was, without a doubt, the weirdest dining experience of my life. The restaurant itself was comprised of various rooms or “worlds.” In each world (6 in total), we were served a different course. We had … More Absurdities
“Time doesn’t heal emotional pain, you need to learn how to let go.” ― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart During my adolescence, I was bullied relentlessly for over two years. It was one of the most challenging periods of my life. I was at boarding school at the time. Halfway across the … More Regaining Lift: A Stall Recovery Guide for Life
“The harder we try with the conscious will to do something, the less we shall succeed. Proficiency and results come only to those who have learned the paradoxical art of doing and not doing, or combining relaxation with activity.” – Aldous Huxley Drown-Proofing When it comes to our psychology what’s happened is this. Our hands … More Stalling: Why Letting Go Is the Key to Regaining Lift
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” ― George Orwell I hate criticism. Yet, I open myself up to it all the time. Not just because I’m an idiot, but deliberately with my writing. As some of you know, I sometimes write about … More The Write Thing To Do
“What does nihilism mean? That the highest values devaluate themselves. The aim is lacking; “why?” finds no answer. — FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE The Elephant in the Universe Now, the elephant in the existential room known as the universe here is God. It’s not uncommon to hear atheists deride the idea of God while failing to see … More Stalling: The Death of God
Imagine the following terrifying scenario. You’re on a flight that is out of control and destined to end in a fatal crash. There is nothing you can do about it. The engines have flamed out. The pilots are incapacitated. No one else knows how to fly. Now for some devastating news. This is you in … More Stalling: The Paradox of Meaning
So I hit a roadblock with my writing recently. I stalled. Ironically while writing a book about stalling and the need to let go to regain lift in life. Instead of doing that, I kept smacking my head against a brick wall. I am the master of not following my own advice. Eventually, I ceded … More Writer’s Roadblock
The Paradox of Progress The story of Buddha is well known. He was born into a palace and given every indulgence he could wish for. At the same time, he was shielded from the outside world. And yet, it wasn’t enough. He knew something was off. (Sound familiar?) One day he went against his father’s … More Stalling: Why We Lose Lift (2)
Last week I said the reason we stall in life is because we lose meaning. Of course meaning, lift, purpose (whatever you want to call it) is the reason we do anything. The meaning we give our life is the reason we get out of bed in the morning. Otherwise, why bother? In its deepest … More Stalling: Why We Lose Lift
The Four Forces of Flight There’s an analogy I want to imprint on your mind today. It’s one I intend to come back to repeatedly as I go about writing my high-flying book. It concerns something known in aviation as the four forces of flight. To give you a quick lesson in aerodynamics, those are … More Stalling: The Aerodynamics of Life
I realise that writing a book is like doing a giant jigsaw puzzle. Except you have to make the pieces first. You make the pieces and then work out where they go. You move them around until everything just sort of clicks into place. Then you flesh out the spaces in between. The hardest part … More Piecing Together My Thanks
Just imagine, you’re sat fat, dumb and happy when BAM! Your engine shits itself. (And so do you.) Suddenly you’re forced to divert. You need to get on the ground pronto! Before you know it, there you are. Grounded with a bum engine – a million miles from the original destination you had in mind. … More A Radical Idea. (I’m Going To Write a Book.)
It occurs to me that I’ve gone through something of a divorce over the past year or so. Only, it’s not been to a person but a place. Of course, there have been others. York for one. We had a few difficult years together. Then there was Oxford where I went to university. That was … More A Singapore Fling