PAR < EXCELLENCE

Say you’re up, soaring locally with no special plan except to have fun and stay safe. Good for you.  Still, even the most casual soaring involves making crucial decisions whether you enjoy that part or not.  Deciding not to decide is… you get it.  One choice that’s always yours to make is, would you rather have a beautiful flight or a mediocre one?  That's entirely up to you!For a mediocre flight just stay with what you usually do, maybe bring music or some of your favorite foods.  It’s easy, but less rewarding and less safe than continually, fiercely pursuing excellence.Why repeat the same old meaningless victories?  Pick some uncertain goal, like soaring to a far edge of the neighborhood and back more quickly — or simply staying up when no one else has the imagination.  Not something easy, something with a fifty-fifty chance.If success meant avoiding failure, playing checkers with two-year olds would confirm your fancied eminence.  Better to challenge yourself, learn a lot, and find new forms of personal satisfaction.  View every flight as a singular adventure or opus, expressing your unique relation to our limitless sky here and now.  Then weave each little gem into the mosaic that will one day comprise your entire soaring career.  You need not achieve greatness to make it worthwhile, but failure to strive toward excellence will drag your flying down into mediocrity, or worse.Honor the art by engaging other pilots however you can, and learning their secrets.  It’s treasure for the taking.  Be gracious but not bashful, for after all, the only stupid questions are those you never ask!Excellence is within your reach any time you care to embrace it, always bestowing greater knowledge, pleasures, and safety to boot.  No one can ask for more.