Stratosphere Strategy

If I could spend one hour a day, somewhere between thirty and thirty five thousand feet, I truly believe my productivity, imagination and clarity in life would improve exponentially. I love to fly. I love the vantage point of it all, surveying miniature landscapes, frozen in appearance, peaceful and surreal. The colors seem brighter, the weather phenomena entrancing and just the process of flight has always had a special effect on my mind and soul. Yet a unrecognized and under appreciated trait of flying only began to become more obvious to me in the past year or so. I love to think when in the air. Something in my mind activates, doors typically closed to thought and curiosities are blown open, ideas pour in and unfurl like a snowball down a mountain. I have planned my life many times from a window seat in the past five years and the trend seems sure to continue. 

But why is it that a often cramped, leg restricting, belted, lumbar lacking  seat can provide the necessary medium for so many fresh and invigorating thoughts? Is it the purified oxygen pumping aggressively through the cabin, feeding the mind ? Perhaps it is the consistency of the engine noise setting the tone for the journey? It very well could be the powerful panoramic scenes slipping silently beneath the wings, or even something as trivial as the honey roasted, scratch that, now salted peanuts. Whatever the source, the aforementioned ingredients of flying blend melodiously perfect for me and my cerebral capabilities. 

I suspect many great events have been directly planned or influenced while in aerial transition. Every global leader flies countless miles annually. Globalization of the worlds business scheme has demanded more and more corporate Goliath's to take to the skies. Sports executives, agents, and athletes travel incredible distances to negotiate and barter, all before the first play. The symmetrical examples are infinite. And then there is me, a twenty six year old vagabond semi-professional hockey player with developing business aspirations who with every take off and ascent feels oddly more driven, focused and creative with no solid reasoning to explain. Flying just does it for me. 

Whatever the scientific explanation is, if one does exist, it is of little importance. I will continue to embrace and utilize my time in the skies, applying it's altitude induced benefits to every text, spreadsheet, Venn diagram or life outline I may contrive. Where others might feel fear & unease, I find solace and view life and it's questions with a new sense of lucidity. The miracle of flight has always been there in helping me reach my desired destinations. It has also taken me to some great places as well.