Sailing Into Deep Waters - Part II
In the last blog post, I recounted a conversation I had with podcast guest Paul Trammell, who turned his dream of becoming a writer and sailor into a living reality (Episode #83). And he does so by intentionally designing his life to align with what matters most to him.
While intentional living brings happiness to Paul’s everyday life, it’s a necessity when he’s sailing solo offshore. When he’s surrounded by nothing but water, Paul has to contemplate every move he makes when he’s on deck and is always tethered to the boat by lines attached to his lifejacket to make sure he doesn’t go overboard.
But the payoff is a life where mindfulness, depth and presence abounds, with nature providing the perfect backdrop for meditation and contemplation. There are hours upon hours of staring at the ocean waves, sunrises, sunsets and an endless array of stars.
It’s an uncomplicated, stress-free life, but one that necessitates ongoing learning and growth. And it’s a life that is carefully curated to maximize the things that make Paul happy.
Paul recommends that we all spend some time thinking about what makes us happy and what our ideal life would look like by walking through a simple process:
Develop a short list of the activities and things that make you smile and feel happy.
Determine why they make you happy and note any overlap.
Design your life to amplify those things and activities and begin taking steps toward that vision.
When Paul put himself through this exercise a number of years ago, some of the activities on his list included riding a mountain bike in the forest and scuba diving. The overlap was the outdoors but what made him happy wasn’t the biking or diving – it was being deep in nature. He continued with this life review process until he pinpointed a list of four things that made him happy: nature, adventure, creativity and solitude.
The convergence of those four elements is palpable when you speak with Paul. During our conversation, he recounted what it’s like to be on the ocean at night by himself, looking up at the stars, steering the boat, finding his way, feeling the wind, waves, rudder and keel and becoming one with his environment.
One of his favorite things to do on nights like that is to steer by starlight by finding a star that intersects with his mast and navigating by looking at the heavens. He spends the night listening to the water moving across the hull and the wind moving across the sails. It’s what he loves and what makes him happy.
I put myself through a similar exercise when I was launching Athena Wellness in 2018, continuously refining my vision until I could spend my days doing the things that made me happy. Along with autonomy and freedom that are automatically built into the entrepreneurial dream, the things that topped my list were: location independent, creative, of service and lucrative.
These guideposts serve as the perfect blueprint as my business develops and grows, helping me keep the focus on activities that motivate and light me up – my version of steering by starlight.
How about you? What does intentional living mean to you and how might it increase the level of happiness you experience each day?
Journal Reflections: What are the four or five activities that light you up and make you happy? Where is the commonality or overlap among them? How might you begin to intentionally design your life to align with these themes and what matters most to you?