As a girl, Adele would often dream of the skies, but sheād write off being a pilot, because sheād never seen anyone she could relate to in a similar role. Her life changed one summer after a chance encounter with a female cherry-drying helicopter pilot, and today Adele finds herself in the captains seat of an air ambulance helicopter in Kenya.
In a career thatās taken her from Canada to Africa, Adeleās learned to understand fear in the most riveting of workplace environments, in order to literally fly higher.
Why are we afraid even when we love our work? How do we rewire our minds so that we no longer feel paralysed? What actions should we take in the face of crippling challenges? How do we silence our deepest fears once and for all, so that we can be our most creative selves, and become the best leaders we can be? Adele shares invaluable lessons backed with anecdotes from her own journey for others who find themselves held back by their fears.
An honest and refreshing part-memoir part-guide, āFree to Flyā inspires readers to unleash their fullest potential and go where few others have gone before.
As a girl, Adele would often dream of the skies, but sheād write off being a pilot, because sheād never seen anyone she could relate to in a similar role. Her life changed one summer after a chance encounter with a female cherry-drying helicopter pilot, and today Adele finds herself in the captains seat of an air ambulance helicopter in Kenya.
In a career thatās taken her from Canada to Africa, Adeleās learned to understand fear in the most riveting of workplace environments, in order to literally fly higher.
Why are we afraid even when we love our work? How do we rewire our minds so that we no longer feel paralysed? What actions should we take in the face of crippling challenges? How do we silence our deepest fears once and for all, so that we can be our most creative selves, and become the best leaders we can be? Adele shares invaluable lessons backed with anecdotes from her own journey for others who find themselves held back by their fears.
An honest and refreshing part-memoir part-guide, āFree to Flyā inspires readers to unleash their fullest potential and go where few others have gone before.
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āYou gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
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You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.ā
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āĀ Eleanor Roosevelt
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Table of contents
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DedicationĀ
Why I decided to write this book
A quick timeline of my life
A little bit about me
A fateful encounter
The day I became a pilot (and what it taught me about fear)
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PART 1 | The truth about fear
What scares you can change
Time passes anyway (aka the power of purpose)
Youāre probably in your own way
Why your brain wants to kill you (and it's probably not as scary as you think it is)
Are your fears your own, or othersā?
What does failure mean to you?
Why your fall-black plan is your enemy
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PART 2 | Mind-work
It all begins in the mind
Which voice in your head do you listen to?
The power of habit (it does get easier)
Get used to doing scary things to callus your mind (aka practiceĀ making difficult decisions)Ā
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PART 3 | Turning fear on its head
The role of preparation
Don't think, just do (aka how not to overthink everything)
Embrace the suck (and type 2 fun)
Building activation energy (getting started is the hardest)
Call yourself a leader (aka fake it till you make it)
Carpe Diem (and donāt be a baby)
Acknowledgements
References and Additional Reading
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Dedication
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This book is dedicated to the valiant women who braved the skies before I did.
Without them, I would not be in the captainsā seat today.
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Why I decided to write this book
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If Iām being honest, the idea of writing this book absolutely terrified me. I am a fairly private person, and I squirm at the thought of receiving either judgment or praise, as both make me uncomfortable. However, Iāve learned to go ahead and do the things that scare me, because they also happen to be the most rewarding things I can do. And perhaps more significantly, Iāve learned to believe in the power of coming across the right story at the right time.
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My path in life wouldnāt have been what it is if I hadnāt met a pilot who I thought was ālike me,ā and was doing what I could only dream of doing. Itās my turn to give back. So, if there is a single person out there who is looking for someone ālike themā and is trying to make their way through their fears and carve their path, this book is for you.
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Before you dive in, Iād like you to keep in mind that I donāt promise reading this book is going to magically make your fears disappear. Facing fear is a lifelong endeavor. I find myself battling newer and bigger fears at my work every day. I often struggle, as you probably do, to face those fears and get ahead anyway ā and if I can do it, so you can you! Facing my fears has taught me how to recognize things that are truly worth my time and sacrifice. I know Iāll never be fully rid of fear, but Iāve learned to live with it and to use it to my advantage. I hope this book helps you do so too.
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A little bit about me
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I love being a pilot. More specifically, I love being an air ambulance helicopter pilot. I would trade anything to always be able to do what I do: cruise the skies and see the most beautiful places on this planet from the air, while simultaneously helping people. And besides, when youāre a pilot, youāre never done learning. You can never have too much flying knowledge; there are always advances in navigation systems, weather patterns, air law, and aircraft configurations to stay on top of. You can never have too many experiences; thereās a vast spectrum of unique aviation challenges to figure out and a whole world waiting to fly over.
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My journey from being a starry-eyed little girl in small town Alberta to the captain of an air ambulance aircraft in Kenya has been fascinating, unique, and insightful.
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My career effectively began when I won scholarships from the āWhirly-Girlsā. It allowed me to begin training for a career in aviation (specifically on the subjects of mountain-flying and night-vision flying). About a decade later, I was a civil helicopter pilot working primarily in air ambulance. I proceeded to move quickly through roles that inspired me, and eventually found myself in Grand Prairie, Alberta, in a leadership capacity as part of one of Canada's best air ambulance operations teams. I worked there for a few years before accepting a similar role in Kenya, where Iām currently based.
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Working as an air ambulance pilot is both thrilling and humbling. Whether itās half of Western Canada or a majority of the raw vast expanses of Africa, access to critical care is limited. A few hours here or there can mean the difference between life and death for the people that reside, work, or travel in these lands. Air ambulance helicopters, such as the ones I pilot, function as mobile ICUs. Each day is an adventure; our destination for the day is anywhere we are needed, whether it be at a rural hospital to pick up a patient who needs surgery, or on a highway to pick up someone who has been in a car accident. With the help of the Air Medical Crew comprised of highly qualified nurses, paramedics, and doctors that do their best to stabilize the patient.Ā We offer safe and hopefully timely air transport.
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Iām no expert at anything; Iām figuring out my life and career as I go along. Iāve gotten many things wrong along the way, and some of them right. Iāve done the grunt work (Iāve mopped the hangar floor as part of a job in the middle of nowhere), and Iāve reaped the rewards (Iāve put on night vision goggles that pick up each photon of light to see the Northern Lights burst across the Canadian winter night skies). Itās not been easy, but today, I find myself living my dream. I get to see places in the world that no one else gets to, from Haida Gwaii and the Willmore Wilderness to the Jasper National and Monkman Provincial Parks. And on most days, flying in Kenya is a surreal experience.
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I certainly hope I have many long years of flying in front of me, but this felt like a good time for me to begin giving back. I could think of two ways of doing so.
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The first - by being a mentor. I was a part of a Whirly-Girls Educational Panel on Leadership, and I presently mentor the Elevate and The Whirly-Girls groups.
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The second - by writing this book. Iāve struggled to fight my inner demons at several crucial career milestones, and Iāve learned a thing or two about facing my fears in an uncommon career the hard way. I want every person that reads this book to benefit from my learnings, so that they in turn, can forge extraordinary journeys as they chase dreams of their own.
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A fateful encounter
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Sometimes, a chance encounter with a stranger can change the course of your career forever. The profoundness of it doesnāt necessarily sink in at the time, but when you look back and realise how one conversation shaped your life, you shudder at what your life would be if it never happened.
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But Iāll back up a little. I spent my early twenties often feeling lost and disoriented, unsure about what I wanted to do with my life. I dropped out of university after my second year. I always loved math and the sciences, and had chosen to study biology and physics, but I just didnāt know what I would do with my bachelorās degree. I saw my friends partying away, which I sometimes went along with because I didnāt have anything else to be doing. I saw older friends who were graduating go on to work in retail or at cafes, and I couldnāt see myself doing that either. So I took a gap year. I figured Iād make an income while I explored different avenues, trying to find where I fit best, and to articulate who I was and what I wanted to do with my life.
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The gap year was one of the toughest years of my life. I took up multiple part-time jobs. I drove around horse wagons. I helped out at a family historical park. I installed sewer pipes in new housing developments. And I sold fruit in one of those caravan trailers you see on the side of the road, displaying vivid āFresh Fruitā signs. The fresh fruit gig was one of the best Iāve had; I would spend days sitting in the sun, reading books, and eating fresh peaches and nectarines until my stomach hurt. It was on one of those days that I happened to discover who I was going to be.
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-------* Someone Like Me *-------
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One day at work, a lady came by to purchase some cherries, and we started to chat. I explained to her that the cherries we sold were sourced from the Okanagan in British Columbia, where helicopters are used to āblow dryā the cherries. I explained that the cold nights and hot days in the interior cause condensation, and the dew has to be removed from the cherries as fast as possible. Otherwise, as the day gets hotter, the fruit ruptures and rots, rendering the entire crop a waste. I knew that initially, people would use big trucks with fans on them, but somewhere along the line theyād started using helicopters because they could cover a field in a matter of minutes. Flying helicopters for cherry drying was a common job now, I told her.
As I narrated my story, the lady replied, āYeah, I do that!āĀ
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I hadnāt expected that! We chatted some more; she told me she worked for her fatherās company in Washington, and she left. I could not stop thinking about our conversation. I had always admired pilots, but it hadnāt even occurred to me that I could be one, because I had never seen anyone who looked like me be one.
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The lady I met changed the course of my life, and to this day I donāt even know who she is.
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That day onwards, I became obsessed with flying. I got myself a copy of the classic manual āFrom the Ground Up.ā I started to learn the phonetic alphabet. And I began to spend a lot of my time looking up at the sky, completely distracted.
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-------*Ground to Sky*-------
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In accordance with what seemed like the most logical next step, I decided to sit for the medical check-up. I wanted to see if I physically even had what it took to be in aviation. I needed some extra cash to pay for it though, so it was time for another gig.
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A few friends working in silviculture whoād plant trees in the summer and harvest the pinecones in the fall told me I could earn some money from āpinecone picking.ā While this might sound like fun work in a beautiful forest to help make wreaths for Christmas, itās wrist-breaking and back-breaking work. It involves carrying burlap sacks and a 5-gallon bucket into an active forestry site, where logging equipment is cutting and stripping the downed trees. Youāve got to run from one downed tree to the next, collecting as many pinecones as you can to fill the sacks. (Just so you know, pinecones arenāt easy to pick like, say, berries; theyāre made of wood, so you have to break and snap each one). Next, youāve got to secure each sack shut with a zap strap and add your unique colored flagging to be able to tell them apart. You then haul the filled sacks through the forest and over slash piles to the logging road for collection. Each sack weighs ~90lbs and fetches about $60 CAD. And all of this happens in about -25 Celsius.Ā
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I went ahead and began to work. Two weeks down the line, I was starting to feel shattered waking up in the freezing cold to go hunting for cones. My hands would be curled in a knot each morning from being overworked, and I started to see everything in pinecones terms.
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One particular afternoon, I was having a really tough day, and was struggling to fill each pail. Ā I was on my third (as opposed to fourth or fifth), and pushing myself, I could just see and think āpinecone, pinecone, pinecone.ā Everything I thought about was blurred. Like Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Last Pinecone. Pine-Cone Heads. Lord of the Conesā¦ I pushed and pushed and finally put my last bucket into the burlap sack. I sealed the sack and heaved it onto my back. I picked my way up the snow-covered embankment to get to the drop-off point, and this involved climbing over a pile of downed trees. As I carefully made my way over the fallen logs, the zap strap ripped and came undone. The cones flew down quickly, one by one, into the pile of logs, never to be seen again.
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I literally fell to my knees, welled up with defeat.
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And just then, a Bell Jetranger helicopter flew overhead in support of the loggers.Ā
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I decided at that moment, this was absolutely what I would do with my life.
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I would fly.
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I would do whatever it took to become a pilot.
While the conversation with the cherry-drying pilot had opened my eyes, the pinecone gig forced me to decide to take complete charge of my life. There was no place for excuses of any sort anymore. There was no time for delays. It was time to be bold.
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I had realised, without a shadow of doubt, that I was going to be a pilot, and that I was going to get started then and there.
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I took whatever money I had, went for my medical, and got through it. Soon thereafter, I moved to a different city and began flight training.Ā
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The day I became a pilot
(and what it taught me about fear)
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The day I got my Commercial Pilots Flying License is not the day I remember as the day I became a pilot. That day came a lot later.
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-------*A Solo Sunrise*-------
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The day I became a pilot ā and a captain ā in my own mind was a day on which I was left entirely to my own devices and to make the right calls. I had to make the terrifying decision as to whether to ditch the aircraft into the water, or to continue flight, and I chose well. I remember feeling like a gymnast who has just nailed the landing at the Olympics. I remember truly and confidently feeling like a pilot for the first time, because I knew that from then on, I would know how to react in difficult situations and pull through.Ā
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The incident occurred when I was working for a company in British Columbia and flying single-pilot around Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands).
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Each summer, we would ferry our fleet of Sikorsky 76ās to a place called Massett, which is ~450 nautical miles (834kms) along the West Coast of Canada across the open ocean, the islands, and the Hecate Straight. Our job was to fly passengers to remote fishing lodges dotted around the islands of Haida Gwaii. Passengers would arrive by airplane to the remote airports around, and we would ferry them by helicopter and drop them off on little, floating, postage stamp helipads.Ā
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I loved working there; I felt like it really made me cut my teeth as a pilot. Weād fly heavy, with intense pressure to deliver, and in terrible weather.
Weād often do grocery runs. This meant that we would wake up before sunrise, remove the seats from the back of the SK76, and fill it up with cargo which included fresh groceries, beer, and anything else needed for the lodges. The only other way for them to get those things was by barge. We would depart at first light, so that we could drop off the cargo at the designated fishing lodge. Weād then fill up with the frozen fish that the guests had caught in the previous days and depart back to the airport so that the fish could be sent back down to the city where the passengers would collect their package and take it home.Ā
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One day, it was my turn to do the grocery run. That morning, the sunrise was absolutely incredible. The island I had to get to is covered with towering old growth trees, mountains, beautiful lakes, and many cut-block scars from its history of logging. As the sun rises, the pastel sky reflects on the mirror-still lakes below, nestled between the misty hillsides. I was absolutely in awe as I flew, and grateful that the weather was clear ā no fog, no intense winds. The island backs onto the open Pacific ā so if you take a wrong turn, you might end up in Japan! But under the clear skies, the flight that day was blissful. I remember thinking to myself, if this was the last sunrise I ever saw, I could die happy because it was just that stunning.
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I arrived at the resort, shut down, and as usual, the deck staff came out to unload the cargo. They filled it up with nearly 2500lbs of fish and secured the load with the cargo net. I did my checks to make sure it was all fastened. As usual, I took a last walk around to make sure all hatches and latches were secured. Then I hopped in to take off.
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-------*Engine Down*-------
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I was up and running and everything seemed the usual. I checked my instruments and warning lights, finished my departure checks, and began to lift into the hover.
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Then, just as I had rotated away from the helipad, I heard what sounded like an old man take his last dying cough from one of the engines as it began to lose power. I looked at the instruments and everything on the number one engine was climbing fast. The most dangerous time to lose an engine in a helicopter is when youāve already flown off the helipad, but you donāt yet have enough forward airspeed to rely on the second engine to carry you away safely. And thatās exactly the spot I was in.
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I lowered the collective which controlled the power. I put my thumb over the button to deploy the floats, preparing in my mind to ditch, readying myself for the worst. But as the power decreased, the number one engine came back within limits and started to run up again. Great, I thought. I quickly raised the collective to get away from the water, but as I did, the engine made its cough again and all the instruments started climbing towards the red once more. I lowered the collective again; it came back on once more.
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I was finally able to milk the aircraft into forward flight, and slowly gain some altitude to reach about 200ā. I ācleaned upā the aircraft, or in other words, finally raised the gear enough to reduce the drag.
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I continued to fly on one engine, grateful the weather was in my favor ā but I knew it was going to get harder before I could land. I had to gain enough altitude to get over the mountain range between me and the airport, the lowest point of which was about 1500ā above sea level. I maintained the best rate of climb speed and gained as much altitude as possible. But where was I going to land? I didnāt have line of sight!
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I tried to radio the base. I tried to reach one of the other pilots. But as I had been the first one out the door that day, no one else was in range. Finally, I was able to get one of the boats from the fishing lodge to reply. I told them that I had a malfunction and asked if they could get a hold of my manager and tell her I was delayed and would need the runway for a run-on landing. The boat tried and tried to get a hold of the lodge, but no one was manning the radio.
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I ran through my options. It was high tide, so there were no beaches to land on. The pop-out floats are typically only for emergency and wonāt necessarily keep the aircraft upright for an extended length of time. So it turned out that landing at the airport was my only option, but it was still 20 minutes away.
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As I approached the mountains, I was finally able to get a hold of one of the other pilots in the air. I told her what was going on, and that I couldnāt reach the base by radio. I asked her to help ā I asked her if she could radio to let our manager know. Her response was, āOh, just another Tuesday!ā as she tried to lighten the mood. As I got closer, finally, and just in time, I got a hold of the flight service station and declared an emergency, so I could expect priority landing for the runway. I could finally see our little airport. I was almost home! The worst was over. The wind was in my favor and would help my landing. All the other aircraft were waiting on the ground to stay clear for me. I meticulously went through the āFinal Approach Checksā, and obsessively ensured the gear was down and that the wheel brakes were off. I coasted into a wheel taxi to proceed to the ramp. I had done it!Ā
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In case you were curious, what I had faced with the aircraft was a ādiffuser stallā.Ā It had happened because of a busted off ādiffuser vaneā - a stationary part in a turbine that helps the compressor to shape the airflow in the engine to avoid large pressure losses. This wasnāt something I had heard of or been trained in; weāre usually taught about a ācompressor stallā, which sounds like a gunshot and occurs because the airflow is disturbed when it passes over the spinning compressor of a turbine engine at high power settings. I am incredibly fortunate that the engine didnāt actually die; this story might otherwise have had a very different ending (me floating upside down in the Pacific Ocean).
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-------*Focus versus Fear: A reflection*-------
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I had made it through one of the most terrifying incidences of my life (up until then). I had made a series of decisions and actions in quick succession, that had turned out to be right. Above all, at every turn, I had let focus, not fear, win. I wanted to assess and remember the feelings I had processed and choices I had made in the thick of things, because internalizing them could help me face similar situations in the future.
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The first thing I had done right was that I had cut off all the noise. When I was put in the position where I had to choose between ditching the aircraft into the water or continuing to fly, I had been forced so wholly into the moment that I absolutely had to pause everything else around me and look at the information in front of me, so I could choose well.
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I couldnāt focus on the water below. I couldnāt think about the fish in the back. I couldnāt begin to wonder what people would think about me if something went wrong. The only thing I had to do ā and successfully managed to do ā was look at what the gauges were presenting. I had to put the pieces together to diagnose exactly what the aircraft was doing and if it could still fly.Ā
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The second ā I had calmed myself. Panicking would have resulted in things spiraling out of control, one after another, to a point of no recovery. Say, in my fear, if I had popped the floats and ditched, or tried to fly back to base with the floats inflated all the way, it may not have worked.
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From the outset of the conundrum I found myself in, Iām glad I decided to stick to my training. I had done obsessive re-runs of emergency checklists. As I prepared to isolate the volatile engine, I had said each action out loud so it would be documented on the cockpit voice recorder: āIdentifying number one engine. Confirmed. Number one engine going to idle. Confirmedā¦ā and so on. This had helped me slow down and bring back from memory the items I needed. I had repeated to myself, āAlright Adele, donāt chicken out now, youāve got to make this one workā¦ā
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When youāre afraid, you tend to mess up with the most obvious things ā things that you would otherwise get right in your sleep. I had wanted to be doubly sure I didnāt make some such mistake. When it was time to land, for instance, I didnāt want to stuff up the landing having come so far, by forgetting to do something simple but crucial, such as putting the wheels down! So I had kept reminding myself over and over, āJust like in training!ā¦ā as I looked at the three little green lights that indicated the wheel position, 1, 2, 3 green ā Great! Wheels down, I had gone on to land.
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My last success ā if I can call it that - in thinking and acting calmly during the episode had come right after I landed. As I parked and shut down the aircraft, my manager had come over to ask what had happened. I had narrated the events, to which she responded, āā¦But you were late.ā My jaw dropped, and I went on to explain that I could only go half the speed because I had flown back on one engine, and she said, āYou still left the helipad 5 minutes late.ā I had the good sense not to argue with her, and I had just gotten on with my day with my adventure behind me.
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The third thing I had done right was that I had remained grateful. In a humbling realization, I had come to realise, even while still flying, how I lucky I had been as the events unfolded. I was lucky I had been flying by myself; if Iād had a passenger up front as I very often did, and if he or she panicked, it would have made it extremely hard for me to focus. I was lucky that the engine hadnāt actually failed, forcing me to land mid-route. We talk about the bag of experiences and the bag of luck; I had been fortunate to get to fill my bag of experiences before my bag of luck had run out.
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You canāt, of course, expect luck or depend on it. But if and when you do get lucky, you can certainly be grateful. It keeps you grounded.
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-------*The Thing About Fear*-------
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Flying has broadened my perspective on fear, mainly because it has provided me with multiple opportunities to show up for myself. Each time Iāve succeeded, Iāve become less afraid. Iāve had to deal with many different emergencies, both as a captain of a crew and by myself. Iāve pushed myself through terrifying public speaking sessions. Iāve dealt with overbearing and challenging authorities and made my stand.
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Through it all, Iāve learnt that fear never leaves. Sometimes, itās quiet. Sometimes, it hides. Sometimes, it changes form. But it never entirely leaves you. You fight it. It comes back. And you fight it again. You fight till you win.
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On some days, fear is a fleeting nudge; you feel under confident, or you feel like an imposter, and you go ahead with your work anyway.
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On other days, during incidences such as the one I just narrated, fear is deafeningly loud. But itās those same days that offer the opportunity to beat that fear. Those days can change everything. They can change the way you view your fear. They can change the way you feel about yourself. They can make you feel brave.
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Feeling brave is the most empowering thing of all.
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And the only way to feel brave is by beginning to conquer your fear.
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PART 1
The Truth About Fear
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āNothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.
Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.ā
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...to be continued...
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In Free to Fly: Lessons in Managing Workplace Fear from an Air Ambulance Pilot, Adele Dobler chronicles her journey to becoming an air ambulance pilot. Air ambulances transport critical care patients across enormous swathes of terrain, making them a vital service, especially in the author's region of Kenya. Although the book describes Adeleās story, the main focus is on how her experiences helped her develop strategies for overcoming her fears, and how she hopes readers will be inspired to incorporate these tools into their lives. The writer provides a tutorial on how to overcome fear as well as a glimpse into her life. Although it reads like a biography, this narrative resembles a life-coaching manual. She recounts the experiences she had along the way and describes how she confronted her insecurities, from outside sources and internal dialogue. Adele invites the reader to reflect on how the world has influenced their lives. The fundamental argument of the publication is anything we want in life is worth the effort to acquire it and whatever we seek lies on the other side of fear.
The author has been interested in aviation from a young age, but she did not consider it a viable career option until she met a female pilot of a cherry-drying helicopter, who inspired her to work in the air sector. Adele was unaware that her life would lead her halfway around the world and high into the skies.
Anecdotes from Adele's own life and examples of how she has applied the principles presented support the premise of the book. She mentions how positive self-talk helped her overcome her fears and not give up. She asserts how she always tries everything and if she doesn't succeed, she considers herself successful because of the learning opportunity.
Adele has a unique viewpoint on aspects of fear because she works as a female air ambulance pilot in Kenya. The writer discusses the challenges she encountered in her field along with the day-to-day difficulties she encounters while working, such as flying through dust storms and having to land the helicopter in an unfamiliar location. She presents the reader with a variety of detailed approaches to conquering anxiety, soothing the mind, and developing good habits. Most importantly, it is advantageous to prioritize our assumptions about our capabilities over the judgments of others. We tend to engage in self-destructive behaviors and repeat our negative self-talk to ourselves, making it more difficult for us to achieve our dreams.
Adele reminds us of Newtonās First Law of Motion, while an object in motion tends to stay in motion, an object at rest tends to remain at rest. In this reminder is the suggestion that starting the process is the hardest part of achieving our goals. Anxiety can dissipate quickly and taking the first step might be the most difficult. Then we have to do it ourselves and overcome our fears while disregarding other people's good intentions and adverse internal dialogue. When we can get over the fear, those days can change everything.
The author hopes writing this book will give her a chance to give back to the people who inspired her and helped her become an air ambulance captain, particularly the Whirly-Girls Organization, which she credits with propelling her career. Adele wants to reach people who can relate to her life and guidance.
The premise of the book is admirable with several teachable moments. The writerās goal that we must confront and overcome fear to pursue our passions is presented in a sincere manner. In its pragmatic, and upbeat tone, the text aims to inspire, educate, and encourage the readers to live their dreams and overcome their fears. Ā The text is intended for a vast audience, but it is geared specifically toward younger people who might identify with the author. Adele encourages the reader to confront their fears and pursue their goals, regardless of anyone else's doubts. While she acknowledges that there are aspects of the job she dislikes, she can start her day grateful for the opportunity to do work she enjoys. The writer wonderfully achieves the goal of encouraging the readers to follow in her footsteps while also blazing their own trail.