“Never Quit” is the only way to make your plan and purpose happen when you encounter setbacks.  The first seven steps are a waste of time unless you take the final one.  When many people encounter trivial levels of resistance, they quickly decide their dreams are impossible, and they surrender.  That approach never works.  You must be willing to do whatever it takes to make your dreams happen, and “Never Quit” must become your watch word.  When “Never Quit” is your constant companion, adversity and setbacks are only detours on the road to your dreams.

In the winter of 2000, we sailed our yacht nine hundred miles from New Zealand to New Caledonia in the South Pacific.  We waited for nineteen days for bad weather to clear before we could leave New Zealand.  We sailed through a narrow weather window, heading north on the nineteenth day.  Seas were down to twelve feet and the wind was down to twenty knots with higher gusts.

We sailed one hundred and eighty miles north during the first twenty-four hours at sea.  The second day we made one hundred sixty miles north.  On the third day, the weather window closed, and we were captured in a squash zone of compressed isobars between a low and a high pressure area.  The weather deteriorated as seas piled up and the wind increased.  Before long, the winds were in the vicinity of fifty knots, and the seas were having their way with the yacht. 

When sixteen foot seas hit the catamaran, and instantly knocked it six feet sideways, we knew we were in trouble.  We took a beating for eight hours, and before sunset, it was clear we had to take countermeasures to protect ourselves.  If conditions deteriorated further after sunset, we would be in major difficulty.  We made our decision.  We deployed our eighteen foot diameter parachute sea anchor.  We put the parachute in the water and let out five hundred feet of one inch rope to tether the catamaran to the sea anchor, and then we waited to see what would happen. 

Although the wind continued to howl, the yacht comfortably rose up on the gale driven seas once we were lying to the sea anchor.  Adversity was no longer in control, and the storm was now only a minor setback on our voyage to the South Pacific.  Our actions prevented personal injury and significant damage to the yacht. 

After seventeen hours on the sea anchor, we were able to resume our voyage north.  As we pulled in the parachute, we felt grateful we had a strategy that could take us safely through adversity and setbacks.  We were fine and our yacht was fine.  We were confident we would reach our destination.

When you sail the ocean of your dreams, you will encounter adversity and setbacks.  The storm of thoughts that blow through your mind will threaten to overwhelm your ship.  Nevertheless, if you follow these eight common sense steps, your sea anchor will hold, and soon you will resume the voyage to your dreams.

Excerpt from :

Zero Tolerance To Negative Thinking : Good-by Depression - Hello Positive Mind

David J Abbott M.D.