Pilot Fire
  • Start Here
  • Tools
  • Fuel
  • Steering Instructions
  • +
  • Roles
  • Goals
  • Plans
  • +
  • Balance
  • Passion
  • Flow
  • Yay, I Failed!
  • About
  • Contact
Pilot Fire

Pilot Fire

Tools, Fuel, & Steering Instructions
to Make a Life You Believe In

Start Here
  • Start Here
  • Tools
  • Fuel
  • Steering Instructions
  • +
  • Roles
  • Goals
  • Plans
  • +
  • Balance
  • Passion
  • Flow
  • Yay, I Failed!
  • About
  • Contact

Roles

Throughout this site, the term “role” refers to the different parts we play in different situations. Our motivations, our goals, even our behavior can vary greatly depending on the role we play. In the Pilot Fire Simple System for Everything, designing a balanced, passionate life depends on learning about our roles and tuning them for our unique skills and interests. The power comes from understanding why we do what we do, pursuing what it means to be our best, and finding people who support us through their modeling, honest feedback, inspiration, collaboration, and love, especially when we fail.

Every decision, goal, every plan, every action we take is enhanced by our understanding of our roles.

As we grow in our roles, they become very powerful and help us:

  • Focus on what is most important in every situation.
  • Develop deep skills in areas that matter most.
  • Achieve goals that give us purpose.
  • Feel better about who we are and why we make certain decisions.
  • Stay motivated.

To get started, try this simple exercise.

More Articles about Roles

I Know a Gunslinger, and You Can, Too.

Every time I talk to a new student about roles, I get all wound up and giddy about the richness of the world we get to inhabit. Humans are each so complex and deep. I’m not kidding. And yet I feel like our complexity scares a lot of us. Indeed, it feels like too much

read on ...

Lance Armstrong: Why I Cheated

  “Good … [clears throat] Good morning. I’ll get right to the point. “Yes, I cheated. “Yes, I lied about it. “I lied because you wouldn’t like me if you knew I was cheating, and you wouldn’t have let me keep winning. I love to win, and you loved it when I won. What a

read on ...

Meet this Heroine of Reinvention

“I was Nobody. When I was anorexic I did not know who I was. I had no identity. I was 10 years old, still, when I was in my mid-20’s. I was a baby inside. Just a year ago I was a tiny mouse. I didn’t talk on the phone. I didn’t talk to anyone. I

read on ...

Get a Little Hard Core on Your Relationships

(Yes, the title soft pedals a gnarly approach to a big subject.) Your environments are major contributors to your energy, your happiness, and your ability to focus, and the people in them are probably the most important variables. Let’s take a particularly stark look at your relationships. What follows is a simple (maybe simplistic) exercise with big ramifications.

read on ...

Stop Sucking Your Vitality

Early results from the Stop Sucking Survey† suggest that a few more basic Vitality habits could make a big difference to some of you, so today’s article is about training your role as a Stoker, the one who takes care of your body’s energy. While I’m not one of those expert channels to physical well-being, even

read on ...

Getting Relief from the Day’s Anxiety

Anxiety wields a proper noun like a hurricane or an ill-favored in-law. This morning It showed up because I hadn’t finished writing an article to post today. I had reviewed a bunch of drafts and started a really good one, but none were ready for your attention. I made a commitment to get two into

read on ...

Shadow Roles Drive Us from the Back Seat

Our shadow roles whisper old familiar stories in our ears and, without our realizing, slip the wheel from the Pilot’s hands and steers us over an old familiar bridge. We’ve been here before, the same argument with a boyfriend, the same feeling of shame at an interview, the repeated internal declaration, “lazy,” as we soak

read on ...

Son or Lover? Boss or Father? Mother or Child?

He gnashed his little pearls.

“All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful,

read on ...

Goodbye Is a Pantoum

They hand me my shadow and my bricks of gold, I leave, not disappointed or disenchanted, I need my way without them, I’m feeling old, It’s time to get on with that thing I said I wanted. To not be disappointed or disenchanted Is a fairly recent development if you consider all the years I

read on ...

Reconciling Lao Tzu, Ego, and the Autopilot

My t’ai chi teacher, Martin Inn, used to describe a teacher of his who claimed to have no attachments to the past or the future. He seemed to embody the Taoist roots of t’ai chi, removing all intention, all ego, all attachment to outcome and previous experience so that all of his attention was focused

read on ...

Post navigation

  • ← Older posts
  • Newer posts →

Sign up for inspiring updates and receive some of our best guides FOR FREE

Learn More
We never share email.
It's easy to unsubscribe.

Pilot Fire is the energy you put into steering your life.

More Fuel

  • Day's Plan
    Plan a Great Day in 2 Minutes
  • Week's Plan
    Plan a Great Week in 20 Minutes
  • "Do What You Love," Bullshit Advice for Financial Success
  • The Power and Problem with Yes
  • Lance Armstrong: Why I Cheated
  • Roles
    A Simple System for Everything
All content © 2026 Pilot Fire. All rights reserved. Ask instead of stealing, please.