Translator: Helen Chang Reviewer: S Sung
Have you ever wondered what it must be like
to experience the complete and utter freedom
of sailing a yacht across one of our oceans?
I was lucky enough to experience that freedom firsthand
when I got to captain a super yacht around the world.
Come back with me to July of 2013
and join me onboard LUSH
for one of our voyage across the Pacific Ocean.
You would meet Audrey, my first mate.
Audrey got long, blonde, curly hair,
a beautiful smile,
and a great sense of humor.
She is not just my wife,
she is also my soulmate, as well.
You would meet Alan, our engineer,
and Lucy, our hostess.
For them, this is not just a profession,
but also an adventure of a lifetime.
I feel so grateful.
Grateful to be alive,
to be in this moment now,
to be sailing one of the most sophisticated yachts on the planet,
to be sailing with this team around the world.
This was picture perfect!
I will take you along with me.
Are you ready?
Okay. Let’s go.
We are heading out into the blue now,
and are about to begin to rise and fall with the ocean swell.
We are off to sea once more.
It’s a couple of hours before sunset.
I’d better just go and download the latest weather.
Oh. Looks like we’re having a bit of wind tonight.
Nothing major, but I’d better let the crew know.
Okay, guys.
So we’ll probably expect about 25 to 30 knots of wind tonight.
Nothing major, but let’s shorten sails,
let’s tuck LUSH in for the night.
Make it nice and safe.
Wait a minute.
Look at the horizon.
Something is not quite right.
Now you can see those dark, foreboding clouds on the horizon
advance towards us.
As the light dims even more,
the barometer is falling six millibars in the last hour.
That isn’t right.
The wind now is rising quickly.
The ocean is beginning to grow,
and there is whitecaps on the top of the waves.
This just doesn’t feel right.
Have you ever had a time in your life
where you felt restless
and you didn’t know why?
That’s how I feel in this moment.
There must be a storm brewing.
How did I miss the subtle signs?
Why didn’t I notice,
because I just wanted to believe
that everything is just perfect?
The clouds are now closed in around LUSH.
The light has dropped completely.
I put my lifejacket on.
I harness myself,
and I step out into the blackest of nights.
I could hear Audrey in the crew,
but I couldn’t see them.
The ocean was really loud.
The wind was now howling.
Wow. A massive flash of lightening
had just lit the whole deck of LUSH.
Oh, my. Huh.
I can actually see the size of the waves now.
It’s as high as the three-story building,
coming towards us,
and I’m just getting that shrinking feeling inside
as I realize how small we are in this ocean.
Bang!
Now something major has gone wrong on the boat.
In fact the whole world is now shaking violently.
Something major is broken onboard,
one that’s gone wrong.
I’m going to …
Look!
The mainsail.
It’s out of control.
This is an area of sail cloth
that's twice the size of a tennis court,
and there's only four of us to fix it.
Have you ever doubted yourself
and wondered how on earth you ended up in this situation?
That’s how I feel in this moment.
Fear is racing through my body.
Anxiety is purging through my veins.
What am I going to do?
The whole crew is looking at me.
I know that I’ve got to act.
Okay, guys.
We’re going to have to go up there and drop this mainsail.
It’s going to be tough and wild.
Remember your safety must come first.
I don’t want to lose any of you over the sides tonight.
We step out into the elements.
Massive waves now are sweeping down the deck of LUSH,
kicking up cold salt water
just blinding our eyes as we try to work on deck.
After three hours of the most horrendous conditions,
we finally fixed it and we were all alive.
Huh.
That was one hell of a test.
Have you ever been tested?
Ever felt everything was against you?
That’s what I felt in that moment.
But consider this.
What if the storms of our lives are nothing more than a test?
I’m not just talking about the physical storms,
but the mental and the emotional ones too.
Wouldn’t that change the whole game,
if the storms of our lives were nothing more than a test,
because that means that there’re ways to get through a test?
I learned that night
that you can sail through any storm
when you just focus on four particular areas.
You might be sitting there thinking now,
“Hey Paul, come on.
I’m not a sailor.
How does sail apply to me?”
Well. The first step in sail is "state".
I’m talking about your emotional state.
That’s how you feel from moment to moment.
When that mainsail broke, I tell you,
I felt so fearful, so anxious.
But that state was never going to serve me,
because I will never make the right decision,
and certainly will not be able to communicate with the crew with clarity.
I have to change it.
I had to make a shift, and it started by focusing on what I could control.
It’s so easy to focus on what we can't control, isn’t it?
I couldn’t control the wind, the waves,
the lightening, the thunder,
even the gear failure itself,
but I could control my attitude.
By doing that, it gave me the inner strength to sort it out.
To support this, you also need to have your inner voice on side.
That’s the voice inside your head that tells you things.
You need that voice to say, “You can.”
So, how about you?
Do you focus on what you can control,
or do you just think, "I can’t?"
Now for the next step in the learning to sail - action.
When you take action, take effective action.
When you are in an empowered state,
you’ll take the time to evaluate the situation fully
before you act,
and that can be just a split second.
That means you won’t just act on impulse,
and it means that you’re far more likely
to make the correct choice to sort the problem out.
So, how about you?
Do you take effective action,
or do you act on impulse and ends up all over the place?
The choice is yours.
But that’s not enough to get you through the toughest storms in your life.
You can manage your state.
You can take effective action.
But you must ignite your passion.
Ignite a burning desire inside of you to get the job done.
Your passion needs to be fueled
and it’s intrinsically linked to your inner strength.
So, you must fuel your passion and build your inner strength,
and then turn it up and let it shine bright in the night like a lighthouse.
So, how do we fuel our passion?
We find all the reasons why we want to do something.
We go and grab them and we bring them in internally,
and we start stacking them one on top of the other, on the other,
on the other, on the other,
and that’s what will give us the drive
to push us through when the going gets tough.
So how about you?
Do you take effective action,
or are you addicted to turn your inner light down?
“L” might be the last part of sail sea sequence,
but it’s just as crucial to your success.
“L” stands for lead.
Leading is such a common word these days.
But is it really that easy?
Think about it.
When the pressure is on,
you must lead from the front.
You must awaken that inner leader inside of yourself
so you can lead yourself,
or your family,
or your team,
through all that uncertainty,
all the unknown,
and the fear.
Take the responsibility to set the example.
So many of us talk of change,
but leaders act.
So what is it in your life right now
that if you’ve just awoken your inner leader,
the whole game will change for you.
Are you willing to take the leading position?
I’ll never forget that morning.
As the sun broke the horizon,
there was this beautiful, yellow, orange light
that flooded the ocean and warmed my face.
I remember feeling so grateful for being there,
and, yes,
even to have come through that storm.
Here is the lesson I learned that night -
what followed every storm on our planet
is a period of settled weather
and then the most beautiful new time I had.
Not just the physical storms,
the mental,
the emotional,
real-life illness,
and, yes, even death itself.
A new day had begun that morning.
A new course was set.
A new decision had been made.
And now, you too can make a new decision.
And that is to sail through whatever comes your way in life.
Because there is one thing that we know,
and that is we only have one life.
And I really believe that your job is to live it.
And if you do that, I promise you,
I promise you,
you will also feel that complete and utter freedom
when you sail your yacht across your life's ocean.
All you’ve got to do is to remember to set your sails,
adjust your course,
and sail through whatever weather comes your way.
We all can become sailors.
(Applause)