Taking Flight

I am sitting in a hotel at the Portland, Oregon airport. I happen to have a room that is on the side of a couple runways so I have a great view of the planes landing and taking off.

If there is one thing that truly fascinates me it is how planes fly. I never really flew that much and to be honest it used to scare me to death. I would aways here things like "it's safer than driving..." and all that but still the control freak in me never really liked it.

I don't mind it so much now. I actually find it's a great way to get work done.

The other thing that I used to hear about flying was that take offs were harder sometimes than landings. As I watch these planes I am thinking about why that is.

Landing a plane seems to me like it would be harder to do. You have the forces of gravity pulling you down and to me that seems like it could be tricky. After all it is a pretty hard surface you have to contend with.

Taking off seems like it would be easy. You get everything set, all the details completed, hit the throttle and off you go. I am told it's not exactly like that.

I am wondering if getting your plans and actions for life are similar to flying. You get everything set, but them sometimes we fail to "throttle up" with them. We also know that we have to fight against forces that try to keep us from flying.

What are the things that keep you from throttling up?
What might you do to work through those things?
Who can help? Do you have a flight crew to help with accountability?