Wisdom Hacks and Inverted Perspectives (AFW Oct – Dec 2025)

This article was published in the October – December 2025 issue of Aviation for Women Magazine.

#WIP. Work in Progress. This phrase describes my writing projects—some more ‘in progress’ than others—and me as an ever-evolving human. I am, and forever will be, a Work in Progress. I’m always hunting for new frameworks that offer fresh ways to navigate the joys and challenges of life. Covey’s 7 Habits changed the trajectory of my life and career. I revisit The Bullet Journal Method and Atomic Habits annually. I rely on French Women Don’t Get Fat, Younger Next Year, and Fast Like a Girl to keep my physique in check. 

This year, I added a couple of new life operating manuals: Captain Patty’s Wisdom Hacks: 20 Tools for Clarity, Direction, and Self-Leadership by Patty Bear and The Flipside: How to Invert Your Perspective and Turn Fear into Your Superpower by Michelle “Mace” Curran. You’ll remember Patty from her memoir From Plain to Plane; Mace from her picture books, Upside Down Dreams and What’s Your Callsign?, her WAI2025 keynote, and season 1, episode 9 of WAI’s On AirPodcast. 

When Patty Bear asserts she has wisdom to share, everyone should stop and listen. Patty survived searing public scrutiny from her father’s excommunication from the Mennonite church and the decade-long scandal that followed, graduated from the Air Force Academy, served as a KC135 pilot and Gulf War veteran, and retired as a Captain at United Airlines. Appropriately, as a heroine herself, she based her life coaching business on Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey. Clarity is a lofty and worthy goal, something I’m constantly seeking. Patty takes a lifetime of hard-earned wisdom and distills it into useful tools I wish I’d had in my pocket when I was starting out. She frames concepts I understand from my own life experience in fresh ways that bring them into sharper focus.

With Mace’s background as an F-16 and Thunderbird pilot, I expected insights on improving performance through fighter pilot procedures, lingo, and metaphors. That’s exactly how things were going until chapter three: Stop Playing Dress-Up. I leaned in as Mace offered the best description I’ve heard of what it feels like to operate in an environment where you don’t fit in, but you must assimilate to survive. You compromise increasingly larger chunks of yourself—not to be accepted, but to be allowed pursue the thing you’re just as passionate about doing as everyone who doesn’t want you there. You play dress up.

If I’d been reading instead of listening, this is where I would have thrown the book across the room and raged in a BookTok screaming fit. Why? Because she was describing the cultural norms women who preceded me by twenty years survived, yet she commissioned ten years after I winged. As galling as it was to hear the misogynist shenanigans she endured from people who are supposed to be our most elite and professional warfighters, I appreciated her honesty and vulnerability in sharing it, and her straightforward guidance to move toward an authentic version of yourself in those challenging situations.

This is what I love about seeking new frameworks, new operating manuals for this journey of life. Patty reminds us that wisdom is already within us—we just need the right container to understand and apply it, whether that’s learning to ‘pay yourself first’ early in your career or knowing when it’s time to ‘leave your neighborhood’ and step into something new. Mace’s metaphor for viewing the world inverted—The Flipside—is exactly how I navigate life: staying curious and seeking the clarity that comes from new perspectives. 

With holidays approaching, these are two inspiring gifts for the person you’re hoping to mentor. Their insights compliment the collective wisdom of our sisters across aviation history. Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find books, listen to inspiring stories in my author interviews, and join us in the Aviatrix Book Club discussions.

Blue Skies, and Happy Reading!