Andy Stumpf

At about one minute out on a helicopter, for me, and I can only speak for me, your entire, you know, we're talking about time, your entire circle of concern goes away, completely gone.

And there are very few times in my life where I've ever been able to get into that headspace.

but it might be the most powerful headspace I've ever been able to arrive into.

And my ability to find my way there lasted for months afterwards.

Because overseas, yeah, they ask you to do some bizarre stuff, but you also likely at some point in your career will have a family, maybe your first house, whatever it is.

And like, fuck, the washing machine just broke.

And you're dealing with real life stuff.

Did I write enough checks before I left, before the digital age?

Did I write enough checks before I left?

to make sure that the rent was already paid.

Now, these are the things you're thinking about, just normal everyday life, an argument with your spouse, your kids, the holidays you may have missed, all that stuff.

Get on a helicopter and you start heading towards an objective and all that stuff starts to go away.

And in about, for me, about the one minute and in until it lands or you're stepping off, it becomes this focus on the next three seconds of your life is the only thing I was capable of thinking about.

And that is such a beautiful place.

God, you want to talk about the ability to perform and not feel like you're necessarily, you're not trying to force it.

You're just, there's books been written about the flow state for lack of a better term, incredibly impactful.

And I didn't realize how much I needed that.

And I didn't realize how much that job was providing for me until it was gone.

And then the static of everyday life just is overwhelming.

Skydiving, I guess you could get that or maybe I got that when I first started.