in September i am joining the crew of the 'clipper round the world yacht race' so i got invited to another 'clipper party' last week. 'Parties' to the mind of an 18 year old involves glitter eyeshadow, a bottle of vodka and a lot of talk about other peoples sex lives between bouts of raucous laughter.
i travelled to the party on foot, to the eastern themed bar 'Kazbar' where i eventually located a lonely looking group of people in the gloom. people eyed me sipping their beers, wondering what i was doing there probably. only one fairly sceptical guy has had the nerve to say 'you doin't look like a sailor' probably because i was wearing a mini dress at the time. everyone was excited about the impending race. i immediatly got stuck into a conversation with a woman doing leg 6 (California, through the panama canal, to her old home NYC) and she told me a great story about achiving your goals:
Achieve your goals in only 13 years!
I was 17 years old (she said) and in Sunday school that week our teacher made us write down everything we wanted to achieve by the time we were 30. so i wrote my dreams down and the envolope was sealed and i never saw it again. i left home to go to university, got a degree then a job, and visited my parents at the age of 29.
my mother rushed to me and told me 'your sunday school teacher is looking for you' of course i had forgotten about the envolope and i was interested to find out what my 17 year old self had written.
to my surprise i had acomplished nearly everything- to get a degree with honours and so on. only two things i hadn't done... to make a certain amount of money per year and to go swimming with dolphins. i was rising quickly in my company so i found that i got a pay rise a few months later, and as a surprise my boyfriend took me on a trip to swim with dolphins.
now, this lady had the help of a rather odd though passionate sunday school teacher (who keeps a letter from their students for 13 years???) but you can DIY. that is the power of writing down your dreams.
later on she started a list of what she wanted. she went on to complete a half marathon after only 3 months of training.
i am starting a list.
- to raise money to circumnavigate the world in any way possible.
- to do something crazy every day to write about in my blog.
- to write a book, but not just any book. THE book- the one you are always looking for in bookshops and libraries but can never seem to find.
- to run a marathon. nuf said.
