My complete job title in the Positive Thinking Network says that I am an Unstoppable, Consistently Positive, Endlessly Persistent, Doer Of Dreams.
What does it mean to be a Doer of Dreams, and how do you make it happen?
If you want to earn the coveted title, "Doer of Dreams," you will have to master four Superpowers.
Those Superpowers are:
1. Think it.
2. Dream it.
3. Believe it.
4. Dare it.
You don't have to fly faster than a speeding bullet, be more powerful than a locomotive or jump tall buildings in a single bound to be a Doer of Dreams. All you need to do is develop these four Superpowers.
The easiest way to understand the Superpowers is to tell you how they worked in my own life. The four Superpowers made it possible for me to sail around the world on my own sailboat and to create a Positive Thinking Network that is changing the world one person at a time.
Don't attempt to sail around the world in your own small boat unless your Superpowers are intact.
SUPERPOWER #1 - THINK IT
Never underestimate the power of a single thought.
A thought whose time has come changes your life, and it might even change the world.
When I was in college, I read about the sailing voyage of Robin Lee Graham in National Geographic. Graham was a sixteen year old teenager who sailed single-handed around the world in a twenty-four foot sailboat. When I read his story, I instantly knew that one day I would sail around the world on my own boat.
It didn't matter that I didn't know how to sail and that I had never been sailing. An idea was planted in my mind that instantly changed my life.
Without knowing it, I had acquired my first Superpower. I thought a sailing voyage into my life, and I was never the same.
Although I knew nothing about sailing, the dye was cast, and I spent the next two decades focused on my sailing dream.
When I did my internship in the Panama Canal Zone, I purchased a twenty-two foot pocket cruiser, and I learned how to sail.
The thinking part of this life long goal was far from complete.
During my intenship, I saw multihull sailboats for the first time. This was the heyday of homebuilt trimarans and catamans, and when I set my eyes on my first multihull, I instantly knew that one day I would make my circumnavigation on a multihull.
When I finished my training as an eye surgeron, I joined the US Navy, and I thought a new sailing adventure into my life.
Within two weeks of my arrival at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico, I flew to St. Thomas and purchased a twenty-seven foot Pearson Renegade sloop which I sailed back to Puerto Rico. Several years later I upgraded to a real ocean cruiser, a Westsail 32 that could take me anywhere on the seven seas.
The thinking part of this life long goal still was not complete.
I took a job in Saudi Arabia at King Khalid Eye Specialist Hospital in order to save up Freedom Chips to finance my sailing adventure. My master plan was interuppted by Scud missiles falling from the sky in the First Gulf War. We were playing Riyadh Roulette each night at the beginning of the war, hoping that a scud missile did not land on our house or in our front yard. After eleven nights of scuds, we evacuated out of Riyadh to the United States. During our vacation from the war, we went to the Miami Boat Show, and we saw a Privilege 39 catamaran. Instantly I knew I had discovered the yacht on which we would sail around the world.
The power of a single thought is immense. It shaped my destiny for more than two decades and ultimately resulted in a circumnavigation of planet earth on a catamaran.
Such is the power of a single thought.
You have to be careful about what you think because it determines your destiny.
SUPERPOWER #2 - DREAM IT
The second Superpower is dreaming.
The first Superpower thought a sailing adventure into my life and confirmed that my voyage would be in a catamaran .
The first Superpower revealed the idenity of my dream, but it was a barebones dream without any meat or flesh.
The second Superpower put the meat and flesh on the dream.
It's one thing to decide to sail around the world on a catamaran. It's an entirely different matter to do all the things necessary to make it happen.
That's where the second Superpower came in. It takes years of planning and dreaming to bring a major sailing voyage into the realm of possiblity.
In the dream stage, you perform a circumnavigation dozens of time in your mind. You practice your sailing voyage in your thoughts for thousands of hours before you even step on board a yacht.
You learn about sailing handling, sail repair, storm management, anchoring, deploying parachute sea anchors, deploying drogues, standing rigging, running rigging, diesel engine maintenance, emergency managment, life rafts, survival kits, pump repair, collision managment, bottom paints, changing cutlass bearings, electrolysis management, lightning protection, weather prediction, ham radio, vhf radio, marine radio, pactor digital communications, navigation, chart reading, celestial navigation, ded reckoning, and hundreds of other things that make a circumnavigation possible.
By the time you finish the dream phase, you know exactly what you need to do to make your dream come true.
All of the work and study during the dream phase proves you are willing to do whatever it takes to sail on the ocean of your dreams. You discover whether your dream is only a fantasy or if it's the real thing. You discover whether you are actually committed to making the dream happen.
The dream phase is not optional and cannot be skipped.
Skipping the dream phase does not end well. Skipping it is like jumping out a plane without a parachute or jumping into the ocean without knowing how to swim.
The dream phase also keeps you inspired.
To keep my dreams alive, I had to find a way to stay fired up about a voyage that only existed in my mind.
I chartered a Privilege 39 catamaran in the British Virgin Islands, and I recorded a video of our short sailing adventure. I took that video with me back to Arabia, and I watched it hundreds of times before I pulled the trigger and ordered my catamaran from the factory in France.
After the catamaran arrived in Florida, I flew to Fort Lauderdale and took pictures of each system on board so I could study them when I was back in Arabia. I returned to Riyadh with four-hundred pictures that allowed me to become intimately familiar with every detail of the yacht. I knew the good, the bad and the ugly. I knew what needed to be added or improved upon in order to sail safely around the world.
The catamaran also had a two inch think owner's manual written in French, and when I returned to Arabia, I translated the entire owner's manual into English. I became a world expert on the design, construction, and systems on a Privilege 39 catamaran.
By the time the dream phase was complete, I knew my yacht from stem to stern, and I was inspired. I knew that my catamaran was up to the trip.
SUPERPOWER #3 - BELIEVE IT
Believing is the third Superpower.
You have to believe in yourself and that you have the knowledge and skills to make the voyage.
A cicrumnavigation cost lots of money, and the currency of your youth is in diminishing supply. You won't be willing to spend the currency of your youth and all your hard earned cash unless you really believe.
Believing in yourself is hard.
After all, this is the first time you have sailed around the world. What makes you think that you can do it?
You have never sailed offshore or done any long distance night sailing. You have not sailed across any ocean or survived storms at sea.
I only sailed my catamaran six times before I started my circumnavigation. I was so busy getting the boat ready that I did not have time to go sailing. I did my best to get the boat ready for the voyage, and I figured that I would fix whatever went wrong along the way.
If you ever reach your dreams, it will be because you stopped listening to the voice of fear and negation. You stopped looking at your limitations and stopped constructing barriers that exist only in your mind.
When you decide to sail around the world, you encounter an ocean of opposition. A crowd of naysayers and critics freely offer unsolicited opinions and advice concerning your proposed circumnavigation.
Friends are sure you are having a midlife crisis. When you write the check to pay for your yacht, they inform you that you have made a down payment on an expensive funeral at sea. They tell you all of that money could have been spent on a nice house, 100 channels of cable television, and the help of a good therapist to get you over this foolish desire to sail around the world. The easiest thing to find on planet earth is someone to tell you why your dreams are too expensive, too dangerous, and a waste of time. With cheerleaders like that, it’s amazing anyone pursues their dreams.
It’s not just family and friends who question your judgment. During moments of adversity, you wonder whether you are heading down a one way street in the wrong direction. The voice of fear starts a powerful negative chorus that repeats itself thousands of time, and if you start listening to its message, your dreams will evaporate.
What would happen if you fall off the boat at night at sea? What happens if a whale rams your boat? What happens if you hit a floating log, or if a ship runs you down at night? What happens if a hurricane strikes? What happens if you meet pirates or drug runners? What if your boat is struck by lightning? What if your boat runs up on a reef and is destroyed on a remote deserted island? What if you get sick when you are at sea? What if you have appendicitis when you are one thousand miles from land? What if you hit your head or break a leg? What if your boat turns upside down? What if there is a fire or explosion on board? What if you collide at night with a floating container that has fallen off a ship? What if you become seasick? Who will stay awake at night and stand watch while you sail offshore? What if your boat sinks and you lose all of the money you invested in the yacht? What if you loose your medical skills while you sail around the world? How will you ever be able to return to the practice of medicine?
I experienced all of these negative thoughts many times before I purchased my yacht. Those thoughts could have stopped my voyage before it got started. My dreams would have been stillborn if I listened to the voice of fear.
If I listed all of the reasons why I shouldn’t sail around the world in a small sailboat, I could write a hundred page document full of disaster, difficulty, and despair. I know dozens of reasons why my dreams are too expensive and involve too much risk. If I listen to the voice of fear and negativity, I will sit at the dock and watch everyone else sail on the ocean of their dreams.
Once I hoisted my sails in Fort Lauderdale and started my voyage, I had dozens of opportunities for negativity to sink the ship of my dreams. On my first night at sea, I experienced the most powerful thunderstorm I encountered on the entire trip. Surely, that must have been a sign that sailing around the world is a bad idea. It was a message to stop the voyage in the Bahamas, anchor the boat in Chicken Town, and check in to Hotel California where I could never leave, but at least I would be safe.
When I reached the Panama Canal, the voice of fear again tried to cancel my dream of sailing around the world. There is no need to transit the Panama Canal and sail in the Pacific. Just stay in the Caribbean and have a wonderful cruise. The Pacific Ocean is a vast body of water with reefs, cyclones, and killer whales that could destroy my yacht. The voice of fear told me to stay in the Caribbean forever.
After I arrived in the Pacific, the voice of fear started a new verse with the same fearful chorus. It’s three thousand miles from the Galapagos Islands to French Polynesia. You are at sea day and night for three weeks. You don’t see any other humans for twenty-one days, and there’s no one to rescue you if you get into trouble. Don’t go. Stay in Nowhere Land where you’ll be safe.
After I arrived in French Polynesia, the voice of fear said to skip sailing to the Tuamotu Archipelago. You will hit a reef as you sail through the atolls. The passes through the reefs into the lagoons are too small, and once inside you will be trapped. A storm could easily destroy your yacht when it’s inside a potentially treacherous lagoon. Sailing in the Tuamotus involves high risk. Skip them and sail directly to Tahiti.
After I sailed across the Pacific Ocean, it was necessary to sail twelve hundred miles south from Fiji to New Zealand. It’s a big trip into higher latitudes and the voice of fear again rippled through the cruising fleet. The talk was of storms with special emphasis on the recent Queen’s Birthday storm in which lives and yachts were lost. Sailing in the higher southern latitudes presented new and unfamiliar risks. The voice of fear filled everyone with a sense of foreboding. Sailing to and from New Zealand is scary. Some mariners left their yachts in storage in Fiji to avoid the sail south. Other sailors loaded their yachts on freighters and shipped them home.
Several weeks after I arrived in New Zealand, I rolled the car I was driving. I broke both legs, fractured five ribs, punctured one lung and had internal bleeding. I was transfused seven units of blood, had three surgeries, and spent two months in the hospital. Surely, this disaster proved sailing around the world was a bad idea. The sensible thing would be to sell the yacht, buy a plane ticket to Nowhere Land, and start watching cable television where I would be safe and secure for the rest of my life.
Negativity can overtake you anywhere on the path to your dreams. I could have stopped my trip around the world a dozen times before I reached New Zealand.
Surrendering dreams is easy. You can do it anywhere or anytime. Most people will tell you that you are doing the right thing when you sell your dream machine and join the ranks of the Life Long Disoriented.
Negativity is a stalker that never goes away; it’s your unfailing and unwanted companion eternally inviting you to abandon your dreams.
Negativity is a dream stealer. Don't listen to the voice of negativity. Instead, listen to the sound of your dreams.
When you listen to the sound of your dream and believe in yourself, magic happens. Your dream comes true.
SUPERPOWER #4 - DARE IT
Daring is the fourth Superpower.
You can have the first three Superpowers, but if you lack the daring, you will never drop the docklines and set sail.
Even after you set sail, you have dozens of opportunities to abandon the dream.
You have to dare it every single day all the way around the world.
You have to dare it when you sail in massive thunderstorms.
You have to dare it when you run from tropical storms and hurricanes.
You have to dare it lying to a parachute sea anchor in a winter storm three-hundred miles north of New Zealand
You have to dare it when trailing drogues behind your yacht in an Atlantic storm.
You have to dare it when you are in a global tsunami.
You have to dare it when you sail though massive tsunami debris crossing the Indian Ocean.
You have to dare it when you sail through Pirate Alley.
You have to dare it every single day until you arrive back at the place you started, and your circumnavigation is complete.
If you want to become a Doer of Dreams and discover your own positive Superpowers, you are at the right place.
Many times I felt like I had taken things to the limit, but on further examination, it was clear I simply had enough. I was done and was unwilling to do whatever it takes to continue. Hitting the wall of absolute limits has never been a problem. The envelope of possibility is infintely large, and the likelihood of encountering absolute limits is infinitesimally small. There are no limits. There are only limiting beliefs.
In the grand scheme of things, my grand schemes seem fairly insignificant. In a global sense it's easy to feel as if my life counts for nothing, or at most, counts for little. When someone tells me that I shouldn't be doing things that are important to me, and that I'm wasting my life, they are really saying that my dreams don't count in their scheme of things.
I am a daktari without borders. I am not sure when and where borders disappeared from my mind, but sometime in the last quarter century, I became a citizen of the world. Wherever I am on planet earth, I feel at home in my borderless world. Find out what it's like to live without borders.
When my life is over and on judgment day I stand in the final line up with all the rest, I hope millions of people can point their finger at me, pick me out of the line up, and say, "He's the one. That's definitely him. He's different from the rest. He didn't conform, and he is guilty of living his dreams.
You are never safe from negation. Unchecked negativity can rapidly flush the achievements of a lifetime down the drain. If you ever reach your dreams, it will be because you stopped listening to the voice of fear and negation. You stopped looking at your limitations and stopped constructing barriers that exist only in your mind.
Faith isn’t something that must be present before you move in the direction of your dreams. Rather it’s something that develops after you start moving. When you start out, you don’t see how your dreams are possible. Nevertheless, the moment you take the first step, faith instantly comes into your life. Never look at faith as the path to a life of leisure. God gave you faith so you could see things other people can’t see and do things other people can’t do.
I could write an entire book called, "Things I Feared That Never Happened," and follow that up with a second book entitled, "I Feared The Wrong Things." Almost always, fear is a waste of time. Most of the things you fear will never happen, and you fear the wrong things. When the hobglobins of fear start dancing in your mind, it's time to refocus on other things. Learn how to squelch the voice of fear with a positive focus!
For me, the dream is all about adventure, freedom, and being really alive. Although I like seeing the sights wherever we go, I think it's the sense of adventure coupled with the freedom to do what I want to do with my life, seasoned with a pinch of adrenalin that makes it all worthwhile.
The first step in moving toward your dreams is to doubt your limits. Once you doubt your limits, it's almost as if you are born again. You get an entirely new life with radically different rules of engagement. You enter the Promised Land of Imagine, Believe, and Receive. I know this to be true because I have been there.
WHO IS DR. DAVE AND WHY IS HE BLOGGING?
More than two decades ago, Captain Dave (aka Dr. Dave) started writing and creating websites as he sailed around the world on his sailboat, SV Exit Only. Those early websites and books evolved into the Positive Thinking Network you see today.
Captain Dave lived overseas for twenty-eight years in his globe trotting lifestyle until he became a Flying Doctor with the Indian Health Service working for ten years in the American Southwest flying out to deliver health care to the Apache, Hopi, Hualapai, Havasupai, and Colorado River Tribes.
Dr. Dave completed his work with the Indian Health Service in Arizona, and now runs the Positive Thinking Network full time either from his catamaran or his Land Rover Defenders as he travels around the world
The Positive Thinking Network has a global outreach sending a positive message to 196 countries, and it is your definitive source of positive thinking on the World Wide Web.
With hundreds of positive websites, and more than a million pages and podcasts downloaded each month, it's where you come to learn everything you want to know about positive thinking. The Positive Thinking Network focuses on positive self-talk, positive spirituality, winning the battle against depression, PTSD, and positive adventure.
Hundreds of family safe websites stand ready to fill your mind with positive things.
Dr. Dave and the Positive Thinking Network work around the clock to change the world, one person at a time, one web page at a time, and one podcast at a time.
