KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- Chief Master Sgt. Travis Chadick, 377th Mission Support Group superintendent, took the time to discuss four life lessons that could be learned from characters people will meet in their life with Team Kirtland Community Nov. 13, 2018.
The Kirtland Talks discussion was conducted as Chadick prepares for his fourth deployment. Chief said the deployment prompted him to discuss life lessons that he has learned over the 24 years that he has been in the Air Force. His key message centered on the epic battle of life and the four characters people will meet along the way. Those four characters happened to come from The Wizard of Oz.
The Scarecrow wanted a brain.
Chadick expounded on how we need to use our brain and learn from our mistakes, not ignore them.
“General Goldfein and Chief Wright have said to learn from your failures,” said Chadick. “We can experience a lot of growth from our failures.”
Chadick believes that people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy trying to ignore them, espousing humility as a companion to the wisdom sought by the Scarecrow.
“We are always playing the game, pin the tail on the villain,” said Chadick. “We have to get away from name calling and labeling. Sometimes it just comes down to us just saying, ‘Yeah, that was my fault. I messed up.’”
Owning up to mistakes and learning from them, is wisdom, said Chadick.
“Humility is a companion of wisdom,” Chadick said. ”Most the time, we don’t think of our key leaders as somebody that needs to be humble, but they should be. Some of your favorite leaders that you aspire to be like were both humble and wise.”
The Tin Man wanted a heart.
“The Tin Man wanted the heart that expressed emotions,” said Chadick. “He wanted to relate, to be a friend. He wanted empathy, sympathy, rage and fear. He really wanted to experience compassion.”
According to Chadick, compassion is characterized by the ability to see or grieve with someone through their hardships and emotional intelligence is ability to recognize what the hardship is so the wrong thing is not said at the wrong time.
“I’ll promise you this, we all carry burdens,” said Chadick. “We all have struggles. For me about five years ago it was a divorce.”
Chadick suggests that compassion will build the resilience that you are looking for in your unit or squadron.
“Do you work with people that are never happy, never satisfied and can never say anything nice?” said Chadick. “What is going on in their world that makes them that way? Maybe if we have compassion, we can make a difference in the world.”
The Lion wanted courage.
“Courage is the ability to overcome fear,” said Chadick. “Do you have fear? Are you afraid of success? Are you afraid of failure? Are you afraid of being lonely? What is your fear?”
Chadick offered a suggestion on how to overcome these fears.
“What I would submit to you, is that if you share your burden with someone you trust, they can increase your ability to have courage,” said Chadick.
The Wicked Witch was lonely.
Chadick proposed that the Wicked Witch showed signs of burnout and exhaustion, which contributed to her irritability.
“Harvard Business Review did a study,” said Chadick. “They determined that 50 percent of the workers that they interviewed were suffering from signs of exhaustion or burnout. What they further determined, is that it contributes to irritability.”
Chief suggested that in addition to exhaustion, they were lonely. They didn’t have connective, meaningful relationships at work.
Chadick implored people to find those meaningful relationships at work and at home. Continuing to quote the Harvard Business Review Study, Chadick said, “Loneliness, not having connective relationships, interpersonal relationships at work and in your home life, decreases life expectancy by a whopping 70 percent.”
Chadick hoped that the life lessons from these four characters could be applied in the lives of those of his audience. His short-form summation was six words that he has tried to live by throughout his Air Force career.
“Work hard,” said Chadick. “Be nice. Stay humble.”