Without a Goal. What Are We Aiming For?
Achieving a goal, an idea, a dream, an aim or pursuing a passion, in fact anything you set your mind to would not be possible with out first of all coming up with an idea and setting a goal.
If nothing more, setting a goal gets you out training and provides you with something to measure yourself against. You may well find something else along your journey whilst training for some other goal.
Therefore, does it really matter if we go on to achieve our aim? Or is it just in the doing that we achieve, I imagine that is measured by the individual.
I'll leave you to decide on that one ...
Starting a new chapter in my life I felt it was important to have a few goals to aim for, these have both been individual and joint goals.
Having decided to hand in my notice at work, I spent the last few months of service planning my exit from the military and shaping my future.
On this journey I felt I should set myself a few goals in order to propel me out of life in a green suit and into working in the outdoors. So I booked onto courses, trained smarter and networked. In doing so I found a whole new world outside of the bubble I had been accustomed to. All of a sudden I had options, opportunities, avenues and paths I could choose that I had previously felt blocked to me.
I passed courses, became qualified and achieved my goals I had set myself in the short-term.
Whilst doing these courses I found I made new friends and met people with a wealth of experience in their chosen discipline and a passion for their chosen career. A wave of optimism came over me and opportunities seemed to just present themselves at each stage.
Still I felt I must have something to look forward to, to achieve ... a goal.
So when asked by expedition paddler and sea kayak guide Erin Bastian if I would like to join her on her next big Kayaking expedition I felt this was definitely the kind of goal for me and something to get my teeth stuck into.
Having not done any expedition sea paddling before it was always going to test me in some way or another.
The goal.
To circumnavigate the Lofoten Archipelago, a group of islands that sits high up in Norway’s far north, well within the arctic circle. A place that is home to steep mountains, exposed to high seas, strong winds, tide racers and fast moving currents. A place that holds the prestige of being one of the most spectacular sea kayaking locations in the world.
So, we went about planning to achieve our goal ...
Skills.
First off, I felt I needed to get my paddling skills up to scratch, so I squeezed in sessions on the water, a few day outings and some skills work was required. Erin put me through my paces in some moderate sea's whilst subtly checking I was going to be able to handle the big sea's we were anticipating in the Lofoten’s.
Assessing your progress.
Having spent some spare time on the water, acquiring newly learnt skills and confidence in my kayaking I bought some new kit and set about training more specifically. Now I had another goal, training towards an assessment! Lee, a friend of Erin’s and veteran expedition partner, took me through an assessment and taught me some new techniques along the way. Confident in my ability he was happy to pass me on this stage of the journey.
Planning.
Next up we needed to do some expedition planning. Now, no one has ever really owned up to enjoying food shopping with their partner, but somehow a trip to the supermarket is way more exciting when you think that next month we will be eating this packet of couscous and tinned fish on expedition! Two trolleys later we had another job done and now it was a case of some finer expedition planning. Researching our route and navigation planning, as well as confirming dates with our expedition partner’s - Lee and Adam. Having previously researched into shipping our boats out and finding this option way too expensive we came to the conclusion that it would be best to drive. What? The Arctic? Drive to the Arctic ... from Cornwall??
The Journey.
So, we set aside all of August and some of September if needed for this trip to happen. Setting off from Cornwall we picked up Lee, and then heading to Dover for some emergency camera shopping.
The route we took was epic, in a word, we drove in shifts none stop from Cornwall, across on the ferry to Calais and then through France, Holland, Germany, Denmark and then over the bridge to Sweden. Driving the entire length of Sweden we counted 12 Moose on the way up to Norway and the finally arriving in the Lofoten Islands 6 days later ... Epic!
We met Adam our expedition partner and wild card of the trip! Now let me tell you some thing about Adam, he travels in style ... Norwegian Hells Angels is his style!
Upon meeting Adam we headed off to find somewhere to start and park the van and then unpack the van into our new kayaks from P&H.
We set out and discovered a beautiful landscape and after 16 days we arrived back at our van. What a goal this was, setting out to circumnavigate an arctic archipelago.
I guess in essence the moral is to never stop setting yourself goals, no matter how small they may seem, perhaps it's in the doing that we already feel a sense of achievement.
