Today I watched a youtube video by Joe at MotorCity Boat Werks.

The video detailed Joe’s experience finding the boat he restored in One Less Traveled.

At minute 26:25 Joe reads the inscription he wrote in 2006 on the back of a old copy of One Less Traveled:

Stan

Merry Christmas! I hope you are enjoying One Less Traveled. Please taker her round the world; it is her dream and mine. I will live through your adventures.

Good Luck

Joe Tokarz - Dec 2006

I have to confess watching Joe read that inscription 20 years later and watching him get choked up made me tear up a little.

I’m not sure why Joe was teary eyed during this, was it his dream for the boat finally realized or was it a sense of loss for what he could not do. Maybe it was both, perhaps Joe could not answer this question either.

To me it reminded me that we can become in love with the idea of a thing so much so that we never realize the goal. We fixate on the idea, but never realize the achievement.

I see this a lot being a member of the Sailing Club and teaching people how to sail. People have dreams of someday sailing across an ocean or sailing around the world and living on a boat. I think most love the idea and then they learn a little bit of how to sail and move on to the next thing. It was just a passing dream, then the move on.

Some like Joe become fixated on the goal, their obsession becomes working the goal but they never realize the dream. Working on the goal fills that gap in their life for their dream rather then achieving the dream.

I’ve noticed I fixate on ideas a lot. I dream of sailing in the ocean, I dream of owing a trimaran sailboat. I dream of visiting a remote island. I used to dream of restoring a classic car. I wanted to run a three hour marathon. Most of these dreams do not get realized. Rather I fixate on the idea and the fantasy of the thing becomes the experience rather then the experience itself.

When Joe read those words I thought of the all the dreams I’ll never achieve. Not because those dreams aren’t achievable but rather because it was never to the point to actualize the dream, the point was to dream it. It was a painful feeling.

Its ok to fantasize for the sake of fantasy. I think what hurts in life when we confuse the fantasy and the goal. I’ve learned a little bit about myself and can now recognize when I’m doing it, but I also hate it when I recognize this. It kind of ruins the fantasy. I want to dream a dream and then achieve it. I don’t just want ot dream and spin my wheels and achieve any goal besides passing the time. I hate the idea that I can fall in love with an idea more then actually doing the thing.

This is a bit of a ramble, I appreciate Joe and his experience. I thank him for sharing it with me because it gives me some wisdom to better cope with my life.

Stay Motivated, Lets get to work.