In our contemporary world, your world might be as small as a computer screen on your laptop and a few square meters of your office desk. Your travels might be a corridor, your workplace – a niche and your horizons will be defined by the goals of next quarter. That is an artificial and comfortable world, but still a box. Learning to sail can be understood as breaking out of it.
You don’t need to be a pirate or buy yourself a yacht for that. Sailing skills are not required too – the thing just needs several hours in order to live a different experience. That is about spending some time on a boat, enjoying wind behind your back and the sea beneath your feet. That is about learning how an ancient technique works under pressure of your hands.
That adventure starts with humility and will be pretty frustrating. You will look awkward and clumsy and the boat will not react to your orders. That is exactly what this adventure is about. Being a novice is an unusual experience in the world which is all about optimization. It is an activity which demands a particular type of mindfulness which cannot be interrupted by a Slack notification.
Your mind, used to multitasking, will have to switch off and listen to the noises of the luff of the sail and the gurgling of the water around the hull of the boat. All your complicated project dependencies and social obligations give way to a simplified set of questions. What is the direction of the wind? And how not to capsize? 😅
It is fascinating to know how a sailboat moves due to pressure differential and pulls itself forward through the air. It is a nice metaphor for a person who gets pushed all the time. But that is not a mere symbolism. That experience is pretty exciting.
You will learn how to see the wind through the ripples of water and it will feel as if you acquired a superpower. Everything will change from the mere background into the map of information. That is exactly the same analytical skill applied to another sphere.
The social part of this experience will impress you too. The sailboat becomes a place of collaborative problem-solving. It demands instant and clear communication. There is no room for passive aggressive emailing if you need someone to pull the mainsheet right now. You will create a unique form of cooperation.
And finally, there is silence. Your engine turns off and all you hear is the noise of water and wind. Your smartphone remains in a special waterproof bag and not in your pocket. For a generation that was never without connection, temporary lack of it is not a disadvantage, but an entire point.
You will understand that the world is much bigger than your to-do list and sometimes the best way of advancement is against the wind.
Thanks for reading this post! – MyPlugin