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These are photos from a race from Summerside to Charlottetown, my longest voyage of the year!

Most of us have “big dreams”, that we hope to “someday” accomplish. They often stay as “someday” projects as they seem to ambitious or distant.

In my case, my “big dream” is to sail around the world, this is a dream I’ve had since sailing on the tall ship “Sorlandet” as part of the Class Afloat program.  I didn’t make progress on this objective… until this Summer.

Why didn’t I make headway on this project? Because I was focusing on the end goal, i.e. get on a boat and leave to go around the world. I was PROCRASTINATING! What I realized is that what I needed to dowas take the first step. But how does one actually take that first step? And what is that next step?

What I did is reversed engineered the process and broke it down. I needed some experience sailing in blue water sailing or crossing oceans.

Ok, so how to do that?  I know that sailors are always looking for crew to help them sail. So maybe I can hop on with someone going from Halifax to Europe?  Ok, great!

Now, next question: How do I become valuable to them? Well, I need to get some skills and experience!

Great! Now next question: how do I get skills and experience?

The answer was simpler than I thought: the Charlottetown Yacht Club. The local yacht club has 2 races every week, and they sail in all weather conditions. That’s the start point!

So for the past Summer, I’ve been sailing as part of a crew, and boy did I learn a lot! I’m light-years closer to my “round the world” goal, than I was 4 months ago.

The lesson here for me is twofold: 1) To get to the long term, one must focus on the specific next step; 2) The “journey” is really fun, and fulfilling. I’ve had a great time sailing, and I’ve loved it. So “dreams” aren’t just about “the end goal”, it’s the whole process. By sailing here locally, I’m already embarking on a grand journey around the world. Exciting!

How about you? What are you “big dreams”? Have you started on the first step? If not, what is holding you back? Share in comments please!