We’ve all experienced times when we feel like we’re in the center of a storm that is completely outside of our control. (If you haven’t yet, chances are you will.)
We wish the storm would end. We wonder when it will end. We may ask if it will ever end. But perhaps the better question is, “Who am I becoming while I’m in the midst of the storm?”
That is where the story of Captain Joshua Slocum comes in. In 1895, he set out alone to sail around the world in a boat measuring just under 37 feet long. With no GPS, no satellite weather system, no communication and no support crew, he left with only his boat, his experience, his judgment and his ability to respond to whatever happened next.
More than three years and approximately 46,000 miles later, he became the first person known to circumnavigate the globe alone by sail.
Slocum survived storms, 3 years of isolation (think about that), dangerous seas and the uncertainty of survival that surely dominated his thoughts. Through all of it, he developed the character, competence and resourcefulness necessary to navigate successfully through the obstacles.
That is where our story of survival can become like his.
Every one of us will eventually find ourselves in circumstances we cannot control. Some may be the result of our own choices, and others that we would never have chosen may be thrust upon us.
We will face disappointment, detours, setbacks, uncertainty, opposition, loss, grief and seasons when our best efforts seem to produce very little progress.
The question is not whether we will encounter storms We will. The question is whether we will become better navigators of the storms of life.
Here are 10 lessons from Captain Joshua Slocum’s extraordinary journey that can help all of us navigate our own.
1. Start With What We Have
Slocum did not begin with a perfect boat. The Spray was an old vessel that required extensive rebuilding before it could carry him around the world. He worked on what he had until it became capable of taking him where he wanted to go.
That is a powerful lesson because many of us postpone finding and fulfilling our purpose while waiting for conditions to improve. We tell ourselves that we will begin when we have more money, more education, more confidence, more support, more time or better connections.
Meanwhile, years pass.
Most meaningful things do not begin under perfect conditions.
Purposeful goals begin when we look at what we already have and decide to use it well.
We may not have everything we want, but we probably have more than we realize. We have experience, relationships, abilities, the wisdom of lessons learned, access to information, and the capacity to work.
Never underestimate all of the assets you already have—character and personality traits, intelligence, determination, courage, resilience, resourcefulness, and all the other good that’s already in you. Start there.
2. Preparation Creates Courage
Slocum was not courageous because he believed the ocean was safe. He knew exactly how dangerous it could be. His confidence came from his knowledge and experience.
There is an important difference between courage and recklessness. Recklessness assumes everything will work out. Courage prepares for the possibility that it might not.
We sometimes admire people who appear fearless, but authentic confidence comes from preparation. When we practice, study, plan and develop competence, we do not need circumstances to be easy because we did the work necessary to increase our ability to handle difficulty.
That applies to almost everything in life. If we want greater responsibility, we need to prepare for it. If we want to lead, we need to become better leaders. If we want financial stability, we need to learn to manage money. If we want healthier relationships, we need to develop healthier listening and communication skills. If we want to pursue an opportunity, we need to develop the skills the opportunity will require.
For those of us who have lofty goals, it’s important to become capable of achieving them.
3. Change the Route, Not the Destination
Slocum originally planned a route that would have taken him through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal. When conditions made that route too dangerous, he changed course.
He did not abandon the goal. He changed the way he intended to reach it. Understanding that principle can save us unnecessary frustration.
It’s possible to become so attached to our plan that we conflate the plan with our purpose. When that’s the case, if things go wrong, we can too easily draw wrong conclusions, and believe that the whole endeavor was a mistake. If we keep the plan separate from our purpose, we will have the ability to make adjustments to the plan and still pursue our purpose.
The job may change while the career remains. The business model may change while the mission remains. A relationship may require a different approach. The timeline may be longer than expected. The opportunity may come through a door we hadn’t considered.
Changing our strategy for implementing the goal is far better than quitting.
It’s important that we know the difference between our perseverance and our stubbornness. We can stay committed to the purpose and still remain flexible about the route.
4. Patience Is Strength
There were times during Slocum’s voyage when he fought wind and current all day and made very little progress. Imagine working from morning until night and discovering that you had moved only a few miles closer to the destination… or maybe even further away from your destination.
Most of us know that feeling. We work hard at something. We make responsible decisions. We keep showing up. And still, we see no measurable progress. It is tempting think that we’ve made a mistake—maybe the biggest mistake of our life.
But delayed progress is still progress.
Some of the most important things in life cannot be rushed. Healing, trust, character building, nurturing healthy relationships take time. Building anything worthwhile usually takes longer than we would like it to.
Patience does not mean sitting still and doing nothing. Patience means continuing to do the right thing without giving up when the results don’t happen according to our timetable.
Patience means refusing to quit.
5. Control What We Can
Slocum could not control the wind, the waves, the currents or the weather. He could control his sails, his decisions, his preparation and his response.
That may be one of the most useful principles for living with peace.
We waste enormous amounts of emotional energy trying to control things that aren’t ours to control. We wish we could control other people’s decisions, opinions, behavior and reactions. We want certainty about the future. We wish the past had been different.
None of those things are fully within our control.
What is within our control are our choices, our words, our actions, our attitude, our integrity and our response to every situation we face.
There is incredible peace and freedom in accepting this truth. We can do what is ours to do. The sooner we learn to release what is not ours to control, the more peaceful and joyful we will be.
6. Resourcefulness Is More Valuable Than Resources
When something breaks in the middle of the ocean, there is no repair shop around the corner.
When something in our life breaks and we cannot fix it, we can improvise, adapt, get creative and figure it out, or learn how to live without it.
Slocum’s voyage is filled with examples of solving problems with what little was available to him at the time.
Resourcefulness may be one of the most underrated predictors of success.
People who have always had abundant resources can struggle when those resources disappear. On the other hand, people who have had to solve problems, stretch limited resources and find work-arounds tend to develop an extraordinary ability to adapt.
The resourceful person says, “We may not know the answer yet, but we will find one.” “We may not have exactly what we need, but let’s begin with what we have.” “This is difficult, but not impossible.” “If it was easy, everyone would do it.”
Some of the circumstances we would never choose develop in us character traits and skills we may need in the future.
7. Learn to Lead Ourselves
Slocum had no crew to motivate him, monitor him or make decisions for him. If something needed to be done, he had to recognize it and do it.
That required self leadership.
Before we can lead anyone else well, we have to learn to lead ourselves, which involves regulating our emotions and controlling our responses.
We must determine to keep our commitments. We must be willing to work hard without recognition. We must manage our emotions rather than allowing our emotions to manage us. We must be able to make tough decisions when lesser options would be easier.
Character is developed in private long before it is recognized in public.
The ability to lead ourselves may ultimately determine how much responsibility we will be trusted to carry.
8. Keep Our Sense of Humor
One of the most appealing things about Slocum’s story is his sense of humor. He encountered legitimate danger and serious setbacks, yet he did not allow hardship to become his identity or distort his perspective.
Humor is an important aspect of the character trait of resilience.
Humor does not mean pretending something is not difficult. It means refusing to allow the problem to become our only focus.
Sometimes we make hard situations even harder by giving every frustration enormous emotional weight. A small setback becomes a catastrophe. An inconvenience ruins the day. A mistake becomes evidence that everything is falling apart. It’s commonly called “catastrophizing,” and that can steal your peace and kill your joy.
Sometimes the healthiest response is to acknowledge disappointment, keep the situation in perspective, find something to laugh about if we can, make any necessary adjustments and keep going.
Laughter can be an act of faith that everything is going to work out some how, some way. It reminds us that the difficulty is real, but it is not everything.
9. Let the Difficulty Teach Us
After completing his voyage, Slocum reflected that he had learned a lot despite already being a highly experienced sailor.
Lessons learned by going through may be one of the greatest gifts hidden inside tough situations.
Painful experiences can teach us things comfortable seasons cannot. We learn discernment because someone deceived us. We learn boundaries because we were mistreated after failing to establish them. We learn financial discipline when money becomes scarce. We learn courage when we face a frightening situation. We learn compassion through suffering. We learn resilience when quitting is not an option.
Hardship does not automatically make us wiser. Some people become bitter. Some repeat the same mistakes indefinitely. But others mine the lessons out of difficulties and becomes wiser because of them.
Wisdom comes when we ask, “What is this teaching me?”
Resilience is earned by surviving. Wisdom is earned by seeing difficulties as opportunities to learn and grow. Growth is earned by becoming better as a result of what you’ve gone through.
That is how wounds become wisdom.
10. Purpose Can Give Us Energy
One of the remarkable details of Slocum’s journey is that after more than three years at sea, he reportedly returned looking remarkably well, not haggard and exhausted as many people expected.
That should make us reconsider the assumption that difficulty always harms us. Sometimes it does. But sometimes what hurts most is suffering without finding the meaning in it.
Purpose changes our perspective of difficulty.
When we know why something matters, we can endure extraordinary discomfort. Parents do it for their children. Entrepreneurs do it to build something they believe in. Caregivers do it for people they love. People working toward a calling often endure inconveniences they would never tolerate for something meaningless.
Purpose does not remove exhaustion, it gives it a reason.
There is tremendous energy in knowing, “This matters. Someone will be helped by this. Good can come from this. We are doing something meaningful.”
A difficult life is not necessarily an unhappy life. And an easy life is not necessarily a meaningful one.
Purposeful Practice: What Kind of Sailors Are We Becoming?
It helps to think about the area of our lives right now that feels most like rough water. It may be a relationship, a financial concern, a health issue, a business challenge, a disappointment, an unanswered prayer or simply uncertainty about what comes next.
Instead of asking only when the situation will change, we can try to discern what this season is developing in us. Ask yourself these six questions:
* What do I already have that I can use to navigate through this situation?
* What can I learn from this?
* Where would better preparation help?
* Is there a route that should be changed while the destination remains the same?
* What am I trying to control that is not mine to control?
* What skill, strength, character trait, or wisdom could this experience be developing in me?
After you’ve answered these questions for yourself, it will be easier to identify actions that you can take to continue towards your purpose.
We do not need to know exactly what the next day will bring. Joshua Slocum could not know every danger that lay between him and home when he began his journey. He simply had to become capable of navigating the water in front of him.
Let’s not spend our lives wishing for calmer seas. Let’s become people who can sail through rough ones. Because sometimes God does calm the storm.
Sometimes He teaches us how to sail.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
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