girl my dream was to become world
champion and limp wood to win an Olympic
medal in in sailing and I also dreamed
that I wanted to learn to fly an
airplane and later on I actually found
out that flying an airplane and sailing
driving a syllabus is not that different
whatever your dream is small or big
becoming a dancer getting that
university degree becoming a teacher
winning the school hockey tournaments or
maybe even saving our planet the way of
achieving all these dreams could be
quite similar actually and I’d love to
challenge you tonight to find out
whether you recognize some of the
lessons that I’ve learned in my life
while achieving your own dream now think
of your dream keeping in mind and then
land back on earth and set the goal and
make a plan because a dream or goal
without a plan is just a wish let’s
start with long-term goals we need a
long-term goal we need to set the
desired outcome or results because they
will improve your focus they will give
you a sense of direction and they ensure
commitment and motivation of the whole
team and even at certain times thinking
of your long-term goal can help you
overcome minor or major setbacks that
will inevitably happen along the way but
during your race during your exam or
rehearsal or training you should prevent
yourself from thinking of that results
because thinking of results and outcomes
in the middle of a race will bring you
stress and it will distract you from
what’s needed right now the results your
long-term goal is to direct consequence
of what you’re doing right here right
now think and focus only on your task
you’re both handling find at airplanes
the skills you’ve learned and focus on
whatever effort you need to make your
boat go faster in the right direction
and that’s where short term goals come
in very helpful settings shorter term
goals like what you need to do this week
or today these flights or this training
can help you break down a seemingly in
achievable distance goal in more
tangible smaller steps and your focus
should not be to be perfect in the end
but your focus should be to be better
today in flying before the start of each
flights we have departure crew briefing
and before the start for descent we
shouldn’t approach crew briefing and of
course we fly in and out Amsterdam
Schiphol Airport several times a day
year-round and you’d expect we know
every detail of this Airport by now but
it’s the small exceptions the specifics
of that moment of that flight maybe it’s
the weather like fog strong breeze snow
ice the technical status of the airplane
at that moment the amount of traffic
into the airport passengers car goes
anything specific we discuss the
specific challenges and possible threats
and we define mitigating measures and
what to focus on that flight in sailing
we never just sail we never just train
or or go out on water and and still
around some mark snow in we always have
specific goals for the day each day
before we go out we discuss our
carefully chosen goals for the training
or death race because I believe that
when you focus on for the full 100% each
and every day on your daily goals that
the end results will follow
automatically so you can write them down
like I did in my boat write them down on
your desk your action points your focus
points write them down in your hands
whatever suits you and those short-term
goals connection
help you to contribute to an effective
evaluation because evaluates in your
progress is very important and actually
essential for continuous improvement and
continuous learning trying to be the
best of yourself every day in aviation
one of the safest means of transport
nowadays we have a strong learning
culture most definitely within the
airline I work for in the aviation
industry always learns from past
incidents a reactive approach but
because there’s so little incidents
nowadays especially within the Western
aviation standard there’s less and less
data to learn from the aviation world
with the European US and Canadian legacy
carriers as forerunners has switched to
a new approach of continuously improving
their safety standards they now learned
from situations in which in a very
remote case could maybe have contributed
to an incidents but where timely
correction was made by the crew or by
checklists or by airplane design and
these type of situations happen much
more frequent which means more data to
learn from and with this way of learning
you can ultimately try to predict where
a possible future instance of may take
place and of course make change to
prevent it from happening and we call
this type of continues learning
continues improvements predictive safety
management in sailing evaluating our
training and races and giving each other
feedback was an important daily routine
for us and of course after a tough day
when we were exhausted or gutted about a
bad result and we were not always
looking forward to debriefing stepping
out of your comfort zone again going
through every detail again to ambitions
girls in a very small and fast sailboat
on the road for over 200 days a year
completely dependable on each other to
achieve one single goal can be quite
challenging I can
tell you from experience but if we
wanted to improve we should not let one
single day pass without evaluating our
progress and give each other feedback
and once we had finished difficult and
sometimes emotional debriefing we’d
always give each other a hug and wrap
our arms around each other’s shoulders
and we were charged up with new insights
new motivation to improve ourselves the
next day and keep good track of your
progress of course by notebook or use
your digital tools this bits
old-fashioned Ironhide miss right draw
make photos videos whatever suits the
activity with as much detail as works
for you your dates and numbers feelings
cases insights lessons learned
everything because don’t let any
available lesson big or small be
forgotten or lost and look back to it so
once in a while I mean everybody needs
repetition right you’ll see patterns
things fall into places and seeing your
so some say change is the only constant
whether it’s advances in technology or
changes in legal regulatory or industry
requirements or increased competition a
desire to improve maybe or a change like
Seder faces in the wind waves currents
or weather systems learning how to steal
in these winds of change is essential
first of all expect change it’s gonna be
there anticipate and change even when
you know don’t know if and when and
where it will happen it will be there
consider possible obstacles this allows
you to come up with a plan and the shirt
you’re fully prepared I think our
different scenarios in advance on the
fly that we always include a briefing
for a missed approach what if we can’t
land here what are our options what’s
our fuel States but they’re endless
situations where you can’t plan for and
that’s where the resilient and flex
mindset is needed some things are up to
us some things are not up to us
detach from the things you cannot
control and focus on the ones you can
and know that sometimes the only thing
you can control is your attitudes toward
something as a sailor I love change I
love the unexpected change in winds
because it offered opportunities
opportunities that we could grab and use
it our to our advantage and with the
resilient and flexible mindset and
communication within the two of us we
get our head around to change as quick
as possible and maybe gain a few places
or extend our leads or pass a few boats
trust that you and your team with all
the training and the teamwork and the
skills that you have together you can
deal with the change better than you
competitors can and like change setbacks
and failures are on the road on your
choosing your dreams will be inevitable
as well there will always be storms and
rough weathers who navigate through six
months before the Olympic Games we were
– absolute favorite to win a third
consecutive world title but we didn’t we
screwed up we failed and after that’s
failure the only thing we wanted to do
was run away and hide and forget
everything as quick as possible and
quickly focused on the next tournaments
but because like that would be a wasted
opportunity
you should never waste a good mistake
because after every step back ask
yourself a couple of questions what can
I learn how can I use this setback to
improve my performance for the next time
and don’t come up with excuses because
they’re outside of your control empower
yourself to make a positive change and
get up every time you face a step back
it’s gonna happen a lot
life is a marathon it’s not a sprint
and yes it is going to be hard work
there is going to be blood sweat and
tears tears of joy and happiness but
also tears of disappointment as an
Olympic athlete I both hate it and loved
at the same time the emotional highs and
lows that you will encounter it can be
quite a roller coaster and on your route
to achieving your dreams you’re gonna
need to make sacrifices as well you’re
gonna need to push yourself constantly
each and every day and all of this it’s
gonna be awesome trust me because it
makes you feel alive in sailing we
visualize sports and general movements
maneuvers boat handling like Tex and
jibes and starts maybe you know races
and in flying each and every flight I
visualize landing during had the sense
descending through 10,000 feet
I imagine the last part of the approach
where do I look where do a scan and
what’s the crosswind what’s the runway
characteristics is it why there’s a long
runway is it any slope or down slope and
then I visualized the last part when do
I shift my vision to the end of the
runway to the horizon to register the
descent rate in my peripheral vision and
then I pick up a little to flare the air
to start to flare then I maybe I use a
little rudder to align the airplane with
the centreline and a little aid room to
keep the wings level then I reduce
thrust from the engines and I make it
safe and hopefully smooth landing in a
touchdown zone and we only know this
type of visualization probably from
sports where we visualize two imprints
specific situations in our mind to
prepare and to train ourselves well what
the Olympic golds medalists in track and
field once told me was that you should
visualize yourself achieving your dream
achieving your goal
visualize the moment your dream comes
true visualize yourself on that podium
with a medal around your neck
holding the national flag hugging your
teammates listening to the national
anthem don’t consider that dream as
something far away in the distance
something only others can achieve
vividly imagine and visualize this can
be you after all the training you and
your team have put in after all the
effort you can win that medal you can
start up their business and you can get
that laude degree or maybe even
changed the world and you’ll get that
medal around your neck and you’ll
receive full credits but never forget
that the performance in the achievements
was made by a large team a great team
because what Jimmy Spithill winner of
the America’s Cup once said on your own
you’re worth nothing but a team like
this around you will make you look great
it’ll start with the dream it with a
dream then set goals focus evaluates
keep track of your progress deal with
change deal with the setbacks work
hearts visualize trust your team do it
good luck thank you
[Applause] [Music]