Ep 249 It's Hard to See the Road...When You're On It

Ready 4 Pushback

Nik Fialka

Business, Careers, Leisure, Aviation

4.8 • 716 Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this solo episode, host Nik Fialka reflects on the perseverance, purpose, and the long journey to becoming a professional pilot. Drawing inspiration from the grueling 21-day stage races of professional cycling like the Tour de France, Nik dives deep into what it means to keep going, even when the finish line feels out of reach. Whether you're buried in flight school, grinding it out at the regionals, or facing setbacks that make your goals seem distant, this is the reminder you didn’t know you needed. Success in aviation, like in cycling, is about showing up daily, staying consistent, and investing in yourself—especially when it's hard.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

Why the pilot journey is a marathon, not a sprint—and why that’s okay How to navigate the feeling of being “stuck” in your aviation progress The importance of trusting your process and pacing your progress How to manage fatigue and mental burnout during long aviation seasons Why real relationships—not just transactional ones—can shape your career The value of rest, refueling, and staying mentally and physically healthy How daily incremental effort pays off in the long haul

CONNECT WITH US Are you ready to take your preparation to the next level? Don’t wait until it’s too late. Use the promo code “R4P2025” and save 10% on all our services. Check us out at www.spitfireelite.com! If you want to recommend someone to guest on the show, email Nik at [email protected], and if you need a professional pilot resume, go to www.spitfireelite.com/podcast/ for FREE templates!

SPONSOR Are you a pilot just coming out of the military and looking for the perfect second home for your family? Look no further! Reach out to Marty and his team by visiting www.tridenthomeloans.com to get the best VA loans available anywhere in the US. Be ready for takeoff anytime with 3D-stretch, stain-repellent, and wrinkle-free aviation uniforms by Flight Uniforms. Just go to www.flightuniform.com and type the code SPITFIREPOD20 to get a special 20% discount on your first order. Big Rock - Take the Lead by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, pilot, welcome back to Ready for Pushback Solo Show. Hope you're having the day of days. I have
0:09.0	been up late recently working on show prep and getting things ready. And it's been good. It's been
0:17.9	really good. One of the things that I like to do in my spare time,
0:22.4	if there ever is, I follow professional cycling. And to me, that's very fun. Probably because I have
0:28.8	my dad's from Europe. And so that's a pretty popular thing. But I watch things like the Tour de France
0:36.3	and the Giro de Italia and the Voilted
0:39.3	España and like all the spring classics and things like that.
0:43.3	And it just kind of got me thinking the other day about in a bicycle stage race, usually
0:51.2	they're the big ones, the big three are are 20 to 21 days long has a long time to be racing
1:03.6	every single day and to be going after things every single day and then you just get up in the
1:10.5	morning and you do the exact same thing
1:14.0	again and again and again. And it gets harder and steeper and it's miserable. But they keep doing it
1:22.9	and they keep going after it and they keep putting the effort forward every single day for the opportunity
1:30.1	to succeed and the opportunity to get to the finish line. And that is something that is really
1:37.1	resonating in my mind right now because it's hard to see the end of the road when you're on it.
1:43.8	Most pilots don't understand what career opportunities are available in the world of aviation.
1:50.1	They're making career decisions based on advice from friends or posts on internet forums,
1:55.9	meaning they are taking huge risk with their livelihood without having all the details.
2:01.0	This podcast was created to help you understand the aviation industry so you can find your dream job.
2:08.0	Let's get ready for pushback.
2:10.2	Here's your host and my dad, Nick Fialca.
2:14.2	I know that you feel that when you grind it out every single day and you're pushing
	...

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