A Calm Sea Never Made A Skillful Sailor sergeivanbellinghen.com/a-calm-sea-never-made-a-skillful-sailor/ Sergei VanBellinghen
No matter what, a calm sea never made a skillful sailor. Since the ocean of life is often infested with struggles, you have to swim in waters full of tides and different currents. In such times, persistence and resilience are what helps you rowing right until the end of whatever you are going through. Whoever said that life is supposed to be easy? Why do we struggle? What is the reason things are rarely going smoothly? Why do we have to keep rowing to get our efforts rewarded? Like most people in this world, you want to reach your chosen destination. You can see it in the distance, but it also seems so far. No matter the waves, you keep rowing your boat, learning how to be a skillful sailor in the process. There are times where you may find yourself in a calm sea, and you may rest, but it never lasts for very long. Yet, the struggles of life rush in again, you might get tired, but you never have to give up. You have to keep your eyes fixed on the horizon and continue rowing. So, you row all the time. You experience trials so that you can learn and grow from them. It means that you are a survivor.
In Becoming a Skillful Sailor 1/4
So far, you went through many ups and downs in your life, and it teaches you to become a skillful sailor. You have to realize that life is not a short adventure with a defined ending, but rather an unknown journey. It is an ongoing, daily grind full of highs and lows tides. But when a calm sea shows up, it feels great. These highs of life are when everything seems to be going just as you planned. You know, those times where everything and anything falls into place. As if, just about everything gets perfect. On the other hand, when the rough waves come crashing on the shore, the lows of life are quite unpleasant. Quite frankly, you could do without those down moments. I do not think anyone seeks out or enjoys going through the low points, but it is a part of becoming a skillful sailor.
Calm Sea or Rough Waters I believe that if life were a calm sea and that easy, then it would not worth the living. Don’t you? Let’s imagine for instance where you do something simple. We can agree that you can figure out the problem and just solve it pretty quickly with simple actions. But does it make you a skillful sailor? Of course, easy is fun at the beginning, but you will soon get bored. There is no challenge. Therefore no thrill involved. As a child, I was always lost in my own world and thoughts. I always imagined and pictured what I would be, what I would do and what I am meant to achieve. It was going to be tough! And the reality is that life is acting more often like a rough sea. The reason for it is that it has events which you must go through, and great things which you have to learn. Life is a never-ending adventure worth sailing when you are a skillful sailor. You can spend it working your way to succeed and fail a myriad of times.
The Option of a Skillful Sailor When you think about it, it is a fair statement to say that it is only human nature to seek the path of least resistance. There are not very often two ways to go through life. Of course, a calm sea is always much more comfortable than a rough one. And yes, most of us would choose the sea of tranquility. But life does not always agree by throwing you an easy task, does it? It rarely offers you stress-free choices. Often, there is only one way to get through something, but what life does give you are multiple choices in how you are going to respond. And it is up to you to act like a skillful sailor. However, you can either give up saying life is too hard or you can suck it up, put your head up and push forward. Those are genuinely your only two options. Struggles create persistence or quitting. So, to be an expert seaman, which way would you choose?
Persistence and the Skillful Sailor At times, when you are in a situation where you feel like throw your hands up in defeat, 2/4
don’t give up. Just like a smart fighter, you have to be resilient, dig in, get through it, and see yourself learn in the process. You need to possess persistence. The word persistence means to remain constant for a purpose, idea, or a task despite the obstacles in front of you. So you have to face and persist, no matter your situations or circumstances in life. It also means that you have to discipline yourself to become a skillful sailor on the ocean of time. So, you have to keep your eyes on the prize and allow nothing to distract you or get you off course during your journey to reach your goals.
The Waves of Life Build the Sailor What happens when you have persistence and keep going through your struggles? If you think about it, when you do fight through your difficulties and make it to the other side, you always look back and realize that you learned a great deal and are usually better than you were. Even as a skillful sailor, or when traveling on a calm sea, there are things in life that you have absolutely no control over. You do not choose your relatives or your physical features, but you do decide how to build your personality. Without the rough waves of life coming through, you would not need persistence and resilience. And as you drift on an endless calm sea, you would not learn anything. So, in life, there is an easy way which is doing nothing and a more difficult route which is fighting back.
The Skillful Sailor’s Last thoughts Both of those ways do not lead to the same result. So to be a life’s skillful sailor, which would you benefit from in the long run? Anyway, life is like the horizon. It has no real end as long as we are alive. For everyone, it is endless, with painful and happy rowing along the way. But then why are you rowing? The only answer I can give you, as you row harder and farther, is that the sailor in you will one day reach his destination. The horizon might still be far away, but it is closer than when you started on the shores. Just realize that when in the middle of life’s ocean, you may be one of the very few people in this world that has the opportunity to reach beyond the horizon. You have to experience struggles. In this way, you can learn and grow from them. Know that, a calm sea never made a skilled sailor, and so, you have to keep rowing. If you ever feel like giving up, then contact me and let’s talk. Related articles or blog posts
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Sergei VanBellinghen, Founder & CEO of First-Class Lifestyle, currently a Personal Growth & Success Expert Consultant, using self-development techniques to help you succeed and have a better life. Visit my personal growth page or check who is Sergei
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