Achieving Goals; A 16 Year-Old Sails Around The World

To read the entire story, and experience the entire trip, go here:

http://www.zacsunderland.com/blog/2009/07/ship-in-night.html

Achieving Goals
When dreams become real goals, reality overcomes the fantasy.
People dream of doing things, becoming someone of recognition and hoping one day to fulfill a dream. Many never realize the achievement, many make excuses for why it didn’t happen when years pass and they look back on all they might have done or could have achieved. They become resentful and feel cheated; as though life didn’t give them what they wanted.
In this world, anyone can achieve mostly anything they set their minds to doing. It’s a world of opportunity. Learning how to get where one wants to be is the key. Taking the steps to reach the final destination with patience and perseverance and not looking for instant gratification. Without giving the time necessary to learn or practice or prepare, true achievement can never be found.
To ride the Tour de France, one must put the miles in on a bicycle. To learn an instrument, one must learn and practice. Theory behind anything is also key. Learning the why and how allows for the doing. Knowing which leg to keep up rounding a turn on a bicycle, knowing the notes which make-up a chord are the theory but getting on the bike and picking up the instrument are the first steps. The desire to learn and tenacity to continue to an end are also keys in reaching goals and fulfilling dreams. It’s the individuals who have the dreams and have the tenacity to turn the dreams into goals and move forward to fulfill tem who are the role models for everyone else.
There is a young man from California who had a dream to be the youngest person to sail around the world on a solo trip. Think about it. Circumnavigate the world alone on a sailboat. A hefty task for anyone. Even the most experience sailor. Yet this individual took his dream and turned it into a reality. He’s now on his last few miles of having reached his goal and will, 13 months later, return home barely 17 years old. An incredible feat.
Many people have never been on a boat and here’s a 16 year-old kid sailing around the world, by himself on a sailboat. The old-fashioned way, with wind for the major part of his propulsion. Following his trip on his own blog, he has met with weather, presidents, dolphins and experiences most people will never have. The average person would never know the experiences he has lived.
Forget the kid-stars of the day who kids look-up to as role models. There is little to no real talent for what they do and put out to the world. It’s the marketing person who deserves the credit. Role models are people who have actually done something in life. They are the ones who persevered through adversity, through times of wanting to give-up but didn’t because they knew if they did, the only place to lay blame would be upon themselves. These are the people who need to be role models for everyone else. These are the people others should look-up to and the level of their achievements is what everyone else should aspire to.
The person of whom I’m speaking is a young man named Zac Sunderland. Is entire trip can be found and read here.

http://www.zacsunderland.com/blog/2009/07/ship-in-night.html

We have not heard the last of this incredible young man or his trip.

The Bluesman