This past summer I spent almost two weeks sailing with my family. I’m sure you’re thinking “oh that sounds fun” – let me repeat… I spent almost 168 hours, on a boat, living, sleeping and using a miniature toilet, all in a confined space with 4 other adult human beings. Okay now you can have a probably more appropriate response.
There are a lot of things you can learn being on a boat with the same people for two weeks; personal space is non-existent; do not pick a competitive natured person to be your card game partner when you don’t know how to play the game; jumping off the boat into ice cold saltwater is not a good escape plan; when one person is awake, everyone is awake, and everyone cannot have their coffee at the same time, when there is only one miniature toilet on board.
But there was one thing about sailing that makes a great analogy for you and me as deliberate creators.
When you are on a sailboat and you start to feel sick from the waves tossing the boat around and swaying side to side, the advice and sure solution is ‘Keep your eye on the Horizon’. It’s so simple and easy, if you take your focus off what is directly in front of you and turn your focus to the constant steady horizon that lays ahead, you feel better. It is one of the best analogies I have heard about keeping your focus on your goal. It probably rings home because I have actually physically experienced the seasickness in my gut and then spent time with my eyes on the line where the water meets the sky, to slowly observe the nausea leaving my body. If you are ever feeling yuck about what is going on in your life, all it takes to feel good is a simple re-direction of your focus on the ultimate goal. What are you sailing towards?
Many times, we can get so distracted by what is going on in our immediate moments, giving our now “reality” way too much significance. If something is happening that we don’t like or don’t agree with, we have all the power in the world to choose to re-direct our focus on to what is it we want.
The key is being aware of those thoughts that don’t serve us, so we can change them, or re-direct our focus.
It’s easy to feel when we are about to yak over the side of the boat right? It is a pretty clear sign that we don’t want to continue down the same path, and that we need to do something different, or its going to get messy. Well it happens the same way in our everyday life. As we are having thoughts, taking actions or in a situation that is uncomfortable to us, that uneasy, not good feeling is what is guiding us that we need to make a change, do something different to get back onto the path that will get us where we want to go. The formula is very simple, notice you don’t feel good, observe what you are thinking, and simply choose to think of something that you want, think of something that brings you joy, or totally stop thinking and take a nap 🙂
Observing a physical reality that you don’t like, doesn’t serve you or feel good, and with consistent focus, will only make you sick. We all have desires that we are moving towards in life, how many of you catch yourself thinking in the moment about the fact it’s not here yet? In that moment, remember keeping your eye on the horizon will create a much easier journey to your desire.
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