Make A Collage

Be it sailing, racing, writing, singing, or underwater basket weaving, if you want it to be a part of your life, create it. Making a collage is an excellent tool to help you visualize your dream life. If you can put all the images together in one place and then put that collage where you can see it every day, you will be planting seeds in your subconscious. Without realizing it, you will see opportunities to let your dream into your life in ways you never imagined possible.

Some people call collages Vision Boards, and that's okay. To me, the difference is that a vision board is more broad covering many aspects of the life you are creating, but if you want to make one for just your dream, I say do it!

There are many benefits to cutting and pasting images and creating a collage, but for now, just focus on your dream to sail. Make more than one, big and small so you can put them in multiple areas where you live and work. The more visual reminders you have of where you want to be, the sooner you will be there!

Still Too Much!

Okay, I hear you! "I don't live near a lake and I don't have the cash right now to travel to take sailing lessons. Because of my current situation, it seems impossible for me to make sailing a part of my life." The Intentional Winning in Life way of thinking always finds a way.

Start small and simply make a list of all the ways to bring sailing into your life, don't let any considerations like time, money, or how close you live (or don't live) to a lake factor into the equation. Go back to my final post on all the Orange Roads to working with animals, you will see how many possibilities there really are. Put everything on your list from making the list, to creating a collage of every aspect of sailing, to even decorating a room in your house with a sailing motif. The idea is to get you thinking sailing, opening your mind to other ways to bring this dream back to life, all the way to just being stimulated visually with images in your home or work space. I will never believe that there is no way to get started, I simply know there are too many ways to get the ball rolling. So hop to it! Get going! You can do it!

Start Small

Instead of looking so far ahead to oceans and 40+ foot yachts, look for a place you can learn to sail a Laser - a little single person sailboat.

These boats are simple to set up, rig, and operate. My friend Julie has one and she encourged me to take it out. Let me be the first to tell you, I am not a sailor! That being said, my hubby Dave went with me and though it was tight with two of us on the boat, it really was easy - and fun!

More often than not, we need to build our confidence at the proper gradient. If you get into the advanced study of something too quickly, you could become overwhelmed and suddenly feel like you can't do it, or maybe it's not the right thing for you after all. I believe everything can be of interest if you are open to learning about it and learning at the proper speed.

Speaking of speed, these little sailboats can really fly! Don't be fooled by their miniature size, if you have some wind to play with, play you will! These boats were designed to teach a beginner and to win races for the most advanced sailors.

You can learn more about Laser Sailboats here and as far as getting out on the water in one, look for the recreation centers at a lake near where you live and ask them where you can learn to sail.

Make It A Vacation.

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I have friends who sail and part of living their love for the sport is to vacation on a sail boat.

I did some on line research and one of the websites I found easy to navigate and was chock full of information is SailingVacations.com. There is a place on the site for people wanting to learn to sail -- you! The only thing about this site I didn't like was I couldn't find actual prices, even on the page that says "Pricing."


If this is something you would like more information on, I would be happy to get the information from my friends regarding how they arrange their sailing vacations (yes, some of my friends have done this more than once!).

If I were interested in integrating sailing into my life, I would take this kind of vacation. It would serve multiple purposes; I would be having a great time, I would be finding out what it is really like to live on a sail boat, and I would have the chance to find out about other professional opportunities. I call this Orange Road a win-win-win situation!

Orange Road Number Fun!

Learn to tie nautical knots! If you have an interest in sailing then this will be something fun to learn. What are the different knots and what are they used for?

The Bowline makes a reasonably secure loop in the end of a piece of rope. It has many uses, e.g., to fasten a mooring line to a ring or a post. Under load, it does not slip or bind. With no load it can be untied easily. Two bowlines can be linked together to join two ropes. Its principal shortcoming is that it cannot be tied, or untied, when there is a load on the standing end. It should therefore be avoided when, for example, a mooring line may have to be released under load.






The Anchor Hitch, or Bend is also known as the Fisherman's Hitch, or Bend. It is an excellent knot to use for attaching an anchor line to an anchor. Logically, as a knot to attach rope to an object, it should always be called a hitch. However, the name Bend derives from a time when when it covered "tied to" and was not restricted to joining two ropes.

You can find many knots and animated how-tos at Animated Knots by Grog.

Sailing As A Way Of Life?

Where does one start? I answer this question easily - Learn! Okay, maybe that's elementary but the fact of the matter is, even if you are already making your living on a sail boat, there is still something for you to learn. If you think this is what you long to do, find out.

It's no secret that I feel that two main components of making your dreams come true are to get educated and volunteer. I am not a Sailor but I am certain that there are many ways to be involved in the field of sailing. I've got some of those ideas up my sleeve for this month, but if this is your dream, you need to find out what exactly it is you want to do, and how you go about doing that.

Have some fun, take classes pertaining to areas of the profession of sailing including some that you feel you don't want to do, you may find there is more to it and you are interested. Either way, you will have learned something more or new and that will put you one step closer to your dream - in fact, you will have brought the dream to life by simply taking the class!

Through taking classes you are positioning yourself to have many opportunities present themselves to you. From meeting other people who share your love of sailing to finding out that there are jobs you could do that not only pay good money, but you would love to do! When was the last time you hopped out of bed excited to get ready and go to work? Even if you like what you do now, wouldn't it be great to love what you do? I say, "Yes!'

Let's get to it, Orange Road number one is learn all the avenues available to you in this field and get signed up for a class. It's the first step that will set you sailing into so many other navigable waters!

Welcome to May!

This month we are going to look at Orange Roads for the dream of Sailing. I have many friends who love to sail and several who would like to make their living on a sail boat. I've done some homework on this one and I beleive, one way or another, we can put you on course to be sailing off into many beautiful sunsets!

Just what is Intentional Winning all about? It's about making your dreams come true by taking the paths in life you had not considered. Some might call it getting there in a round about fashion, but I call it taking lifes Orange Roads.

So many of us had dreams when we were younger that for this reason or that, we let go of pursuing. Even as adults, things come up that seem exciting or worthwhile, but we believe we aren't qualified, don't have time to learn, don't have the money, or simply don't feel we can reach the goal. Whatever you think, you're right! So if you don't think you can do it, maybe you could think about it in a way that does seem doable to you. Just maybe, there is another way to bring that dream into reality.

Here's an example: Let's say your dream is to go from San Francisco, CA to New York, NY. Most would agree that the fastest, most direct route would be to travel eastbound on highway 80 in one strait shot - the pink road. You'll see a little piece of green on the pink route which is a planned detour where there's a break in highway 80. As we do this, plug in life goals and normal activities that come along the way such as going away to college, getting married, having kids, changing jobs, etc. If you think about each of the events in your life that stop your progress to your dream destination, it's easy to see how we get stalled and eventually "settle down" in Anytown USA along the way. If you look closely at a United States map, you will see that there are hundreds of other roads to get you to New York from San Francisco - the orange roads. Will it take longer? Yes. Will it cost more? Possibly. Will the journey be full of surprises? Absolutely! When you realize that all those other roads can get you where you want to go, you can see that not only can you make your dream come true, but you may also find other things that make you happy and bring you joy along the way.

As you can see, we are defining IWIL each month. Do you have a Dream Not Come true? Share it with me and let me show you some of the Orange Roads you can take to restart the engine on your dreams and start feeling their joy this very minute!