Ep 255 Pilots Struggle with Self-Awareness

Ready 4 Pushback

Nik Fialka

Business, Careers, Leisure, Aviation

4.8 • 716 Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this solo episode, Nik Fialka dives deep into one of the most underrated skills in aviation—and life: self-awareness. Drawing from personal reflection, his experience coaching pilots, and insights from the book Atomic Habits, Nik explores how understanding yourself is the foundation for meaningful growth and career success.

From confronting ego to developing habits like journaling and seeking real feedback, this episode serves as a reminder that becoming a great aviator goes far beyond stick and rudder skills. Whether you’re deep in training or prepping for your next big opportunity, this message will help you reflect, recalibrate, and realign.

This isn’t about being perfect—it’s about being honest.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

Why self-awareness is crucial to your growth as an aviator and a human being

How ego and confirmation bias can hold you back

Simple ways to build a habit of daily reflection

The importance of seeking honest feedback—and how to handle it

Why external validation won’t fuel long-term success

How intentional self-awareness can improve your interviews, relationships, and overall mindset

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

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, pilot, welcome back to Ready for Pushback. My voice is almost gone because I'm recording
0:08.6	lots of solo shows. Today's conversation is about self-awareness because it's an art.
0:15.4	Most pilots don't understand what career opportunities are available in the world of aviation.
0:21.6	They're making career decisions based on advice from friends or posts on internet forums,
0:27.6	meaning they are taking huge risk with their livelihood without having all the details.
0:32.6	This podcast was created to help you understand the aviation industry so you can find your dream job.
0:39.6	Let's get ready for pushback.
0:41.7	Here's your host and my dad, Nick Fialka.
0:45.8	I think that pilots really struggle with self-awareness.
0:52.3	It's a funny thing because we are in such a focused job that requires
0:56.8	us to do hard things and deal with stressful situations in environments that are non-typical.
1:04.5	And because of that, we push out a lot of internalization and a lot of understanding of who we are as people. So I've been reading
1:14.7	the book Atomic Habits a little bit. If you haven't read that, I highly recommend. Definitely a good
1:19.9	one. Kind of a manual, like a how to for everyday life. But self-awareness is a couple things. And the first thing
1:29.9	self-awareness is, is understanding emotionally who you are, recognizing what you're feeling
1:39.1	and then identifying the root causes for those feelings. That's an easy one for me to skip over, for me to move
1:47.0	past. The next thing I think is interesting about self-awareness is knowing where your strengths
1:53.1	and your weaknesses lie and assessing that and be able to understand those capabilities,
1:58.3	because when you do, you can identify where the blind spots are.
2:01.9	But then you can recognize your thought patterns and the things that you're considering and why you're
2:06.9	considering it. And then once you do that, you can zoom out and then understand how somebody else
2:13.4	perceives you. And that is probably the hardest thing I can imagine is like how somebody else is
	...

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