ep. 234

The speaker shares three different stories. The first one is about a failed solo sailing journey to La Paz, Mexico. The second story is about the speaker's experiences with sailing, including a memorable sailing lesson and various sailboats they owned. The third story is about the speaker's goal-setting habits, including making daily and annual lists, and accomplishing big goals by breaking them into smaller tasks. Testing one two three four testing testing Call this is The Morse code says I love my granddaughter, so if you want to just break that out, and then I'm gonna start Now on my first one, and I'm gonna just continue through I've got about you can break this down to about three different different stories Sometimes you just can't get there I could begin my story with the rundown on all the terrible things that happened on my journey However, I'll just take it a step at a time and introduce you to the various events that led up to my to me boldly Titling myself the worst solo sailor in the world. I Began really in the middle of my journey Just accept the fact that everything went wrong at sea it didn't all happen at one time one catastrophic event No, God played it out a day at a time About the third week at sea I was living on cold cans of Spam and ravioli Because I had no way of heating my food I was having a hard time finding out the weather forecast my marine radio was broken my Satellite phone connection was sporadic at best I'd opted to not head to Panama But to head up to the sailboat friendly port of La Paz in Mexico I even had my brother Mark Contact them and reserved me a boat space at Marina de la Paz. I got within 111 miles of La Paz when a strong wind from the north came out and 20-foot swells appeared in my boat sailboat Missing its front sail could not tack around the strong wind and my little motor couldn't even help me push toward my destination I hope to in the middle of the Sea of Cortez Now hope to means to turn your boat into the wind and turn your tiller in the opposite direction to your sails This forces your boat to sit still theoretically however, the current was so strong that I would hope to and Go below to sleep and when I woke my boat was 20 miles further away from La Paz than the day before. I Calculated that if the winds and the seas subsided I had just enough fuel left to motor to La Paz I tried three days in a row to go toward La Paz and failed each day I was farther away on day three. I figured I didn't have enough fuel to motor there Oh, and the winds were still tremendous. I finally cried out La Paz is Just not worth it. Sometimes you just can't get there That is my message to everyone Sometimes in life you have a plan a desire a place you want to go or there's something you really want and it's just not Going to happen Sometimes you just can't get there Garth Brooks the country music artist sang a song about thanking God for unanswered prayers You don't know what God has planned for you And sometimes it has to get pretty tough with stubborn old you to force you to another direction Sometimes that hurts. I was not meant to go to La Paz I was meant to turn 90 degrees and head to Mazatlan on the other side of the Sea of Cortez I never planned to go there But my fuel gauge said I can make it the wind was in the right direction And because of the current I would go to sleep at night and wake up 20 miles closer to Mazatlan. Oh And when you hope to add it on the ocean hundreds of miles from shore You can visualize yourself as a giant bobber on a fishing line The waves breaking over your bow even over the top of my boat. I got tossed and turned like a fancy Greek salad Everything I had stored away below deck so securely was in the middle of the floor I was thrown around so much my knees were bloody my head had a huge knot on it My peabody bucket had turned over and I had urine all over me and my boat I'm really stubborn and sometimes it hurts when God decides that there needs to be a change in your plans. I Get angry like anyone else But sometimes you just got to back up and say it's not meant to be I'm just not going to get there That's the end of the podcast Now I'm going to start the second one for you Cole The wind is free The first sailing lesson was my first sailing lesson was in 1979 it was on my honeymoon at a Club Med in Cancun, Mexico Learning to sail was one of the free activities at the club I was immediately smitten with the sailing experience having a topless French female sailing instructor Only heightened my memorable sailing lesson. I'll be at a slight Obstruction in my learning curve as well The next year I bought my first sailboat a 14-footer with a leaky centerboard on a rusty trailer. I Called it a home dinghy We had fun sailing around the freshwater lakes of Tennessee She was a step above a sunfish and loads of fun to hop on and get wet It had a little cubby cabin for storage of beer If we didn't make much headway that was okay a day in the Sun was good enough Life happens, of course and change is constant After a divorce, I bought my next sailboat a brand new Beneteau first 285 or 28.5 rather it was a fast boat with a wing keel and a Volvo diesel engine for auxiliary power There was room for me and my kids and we spent most every weekend on it I got tons of experience running aground in the soft muddy bottoms of the Tennessee Lakes I once had to put the engine on forward extra slow and hang off the transom To reduce the weight trying to rock off a low spot in the lake while it's so low sailing One time I was sailing with a first-time sailing companion. It was hit by a squall I was busy motoring into the storm and hauling down my sails when my companion called out to me from below deck that my floorboards were floating a Host of the engine had worked its way loose and hot water was pumping into the bilge I took a swig of Jagermeister and headed below to figure out what was going on It turned out. Okay, and the storm soon passed in the late 80s I got rid of my sailboat and moved to Houston There I crewed with the crazy Cajun by the name of Captain Ken on his 40-foot Morgan the premium He would call me early on Saturdays or Sundays and whisper. Hey winds up an hour later We'd be out there in Galveston Bay sailing Usually until midnight that is where I truly learned the remarkable feeling of the Freedom that you get when you turn off the engine and pull up the sails and the wind is free We used to always say the wind is free That's the end of the second one So I'm going to go into my third one, which is actually I think the fourth Podcast and you can just because you can just do that Ipod I mean the the Moores code every time I want you to start it off Setting goals I'm a natural-born goal setter. I make lists every day and check off the projects Completed on the list as I do them setting goals helps keep me motivated and moving in the right direction I Usually put a few easy items to accomplish on my list along with the tougher ones that way I can motive Motivate myself into checking off items on the list Once you've knocked a few of them off the momentum is there to keep going forward on my boat I had a a panel of wall with Room for seven rows of post-it notes the little miniature post-it notes one row for each day I usually start my rows on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning along with one with drinking my coffee I can add to the post-it notes move them around when necessary and throw them away when the projects are completed It's great to see the rows dwindle as the week goes by. I Also make a list of things to accomplish for the year on January 1st of each year I read over my list from the previous year and then I write a new list of goals for the year If I didn't accomplish something on the prior list I decided if it was important enough to put back on the annual list I went for eight years putting I want to take flying lessons on my list and finally I accomplished the task I normally only have Ten goals for my annual list I pull those goals from six major categories and try to have at least one goal for each category family health finances education Travel and religion. So under family, I may set a goal to see both of my children twice during the year health would be to lose 20 pounds Or get an annual physical the finance would be investing in a particular stock, etc I always try to learn something New or get a new certification for my education goal I once had the goal of getting my Coast Guard captain's certification Travel is elementary, of course And the religion goal is not only reading the New Testament or the Old Testament Which I try to read a page each day But learning about other religions that I want to understand more about Some of my some of my bigger annual goals that I obtained were hiking the entire Appalachian Trail running Pikes Peak Marathon hiking the Inca Trail in Peru Climbing the stairs of the Empire State Building in New York City Getting my PhD becoming president of a college Publishing a book and sailing 50-foot catamaran in the Bahamas and now solo sailing the world Some of these goals when I first put them on my list seemed insurmountable However, I had experience back in the 80s that helped me understand the goal process I had just moved into a new home in the Tennessee Hills outside of Nashville Across from my house was a very steep hill or a mountain if you will It was wooded and on the very top was a level spot Every year about the same time I was writing my annual goals I would go to that behemoth and begin climbing straight up. I had to take it in phases I would climb to a tree that I'd picked out and then on the high side of the tree I would lean against it and rest then I would pick another Out another tree a little farther up and go to it and then rest taking it into little pieces I was eventually I could would eventually make it to the very top and lay flat on my back on the level spot at the top and Reveal and revel for a while in my accomplishment. That's how you take on big projects or insurmountable goals Do it in little pieces Don't think about the whole think about the little Accomplishment or the tree right in front of you. The big goal will come along on its own You Okay, that's the end of these you can do them any way you want to Cole just wanted to get them out to you Thank you. Love you, babe