Wandering But Not Lost
Wandering On Purpose
Wandering On Purpose
For more than sixty years, I have been wandering on purpose. I am a Daktari without borders who is a citizen of the world. The first time I went to Africa, people told me I would experience culture shock, and it would be hard to adjust to the compromises required living in another culture halfway around the world. For the past forty-five years, I have been waiting for culture shock to strike, and so far it has not happened. If the truth be known, the only culture shock I experienced happened when I returned to the USA after being away for nearly a quarter of a century. Lots of not so good things happened while I was gone, and I am having difficulty feeling enthusiastic about all of the changes.
For twenty-eight years, I lived, traveled, worked, and cruised outside the USA.
My global adventures have sometimes been a source of confusion to my family and friends. Some of them have even suggested I have wasted large segments of my life. After all, if I had gone mainstream professionally, I could have been rich - maybe even famous.
They are probably right. I could have been rich and famous, but I also would have been miserable, maybe even depressed, because I would not have been living my dreams.
I worked as an eye surgeon for eleven years in Saudi Arabia, and then I went sailing around the world with my family on my small yacht. When I stopped doing ophthalmology and started living my cruising dreams, many of my professional friends acted like I fell off a horse and hit my head. They thought I was throwing everything away when I moved on to different things.
They had a problem with their vision. They had a form of inner blindness that prevented them from seeing my dreams. To them, it looked like I was wandering, even lost.
Well, I have news for all the naysayers, disbelievers, and critics. Even though I am wandering, I am not lost. I am on course, and I am exactly where I want to be, because I am living my dreams.
In one of my books I have a term I use to describe a group of clueless people; I call them the Life Long Disoriented. These folks don't know who they are, and they don't know where they are going. They are adrift on the ocean of life.
I am not a member of the Life Long Disoriented because I know exactly who I am. I am Captain Dave, circumnavigator of planet earth. I am Landroverman, an expert in expeditionary travel in Land Rover Defenders. I am Dr. Dave, specialized in delivering health care in developing countries. I am also a speaker, writer, podcaster, webmaster, and photographer.
I also know where I am going. I am traveling in the direction of my dreams. Wherever my dreams take me, that's where I will end up. Although it may look like I am wandering, I definitely am not lost. I have been living my life on purpose for for more than sixty years, and I plan to continue living the same way.
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is if you aren't living your dreams, you are wasting your life.
Go ahead. Live your dreams. You'll be glad that you did.
Ideas That Can Change Your World
Positive Thinking Doctor
David J. Abbott M.D. is the Positive Thinking Doctor. He spent his career working as an eye surgeon in developing countries. Although Dr. Dave was trained to preserve and restore vision using surgery, he also wanted to fight inner blindness and restore inner vision teaching people how to look at the world through eyes of possibility and love. Dr. Dave has written twelve books that you need to have in your mind. He also created a Positive Thinking Network that is the home of positive thinking on the world wide web. People from one hundred ninety-six countries come to the Positive Thinking Network to find out everything they want to know about how to have a positive mind.
The Positive Channel
The best place to get your daily dose of positive thinking is The Positive Channel. Positive thoughts are just a click away. This is your opportunity to change the way you think and feel about who you are and what you can do with your life. If you want to change your life, you must first change the way you think. When you change the things you think about, the way you think about things changes. When you change the things you talk about, the way you talk about things changes. Your new life starts today when you start putting positive things into your mind.
You Will See It When You Believe It
There Are No Limits - Only Limiting Beliefs
Dr. Dave Says
At the end of each decade of your life, you should sit down and write a short essay entitled "What I Have Learned So Far." Each decade is different, and the lessons you learn are different as well. It's almost as if you get a new life during each decade. Your beliefs change about who you are and what you can do, and you actually become a different person.
Once You Have A Taste Of Freedom, Nothing Else Will Do
Join Team Maxing Out as they sail around the world on their Privilege 39 catamaran, Exit Only. Experience their adventures as they sail through pirate alley and up the Red Sea. Find out what it like to sail through a global tsunami in Thailand. Sail up the Kumai River in Borneo and visit the endangered Orangutans of Kalimantan. Ride out a storm at sea as Exit Only sails from Gibraltar to the Canary Islands. Discover what it is like to sail on the ocean of your dreams.
Words Cruisers Never Say
We have been sailing around the world for eleven years on our catamaran, Exit Only, and what a trip it has been, full of agony and ecstasy, and everything in between. Captain Dave nearly died in a car accident in New Zealand, and I reckon that qualifies as agony. In the ecstasy department, we sailed 33,000 miles around the world, and have seen the things sailing dreams are made of.
Home Is Where The Heart Is
The first home I ever owned was sailing vessel Exit Only. The dream of house ownership never appealed to me, and I have steadfastly resisted any passing and weak urges to buy a house. On the other hand, all of my adult life I have had an overwhelming desire to own and cruise on a small yacht.
Keep Going Forward
When you live your dreams, and everyone acts like you are crazy, you must keep going forward. A prophet is without honor in his own country while people half way around the world think you are totally amazing. Sometimes, it makes you want to purchase a one way ticket to your antipodal point on planet earth so that you can assume your rightful place in world history. But in the meantime, while you are saving up for that airline ticket, you should keep going forward.
Landrover Defender Overland
When things don't work out as planned, what should you do? Put a for sale sign of your Defender and hope that a Bedouin with lots of cash shows up to put you out of your misery? Sit around and feel sorry for yourself because you are high-sided on the sand dunes of life? I don't think so. When plans don't work out, you keep on digging, keep on fixing, keep on navigating, and keep on driving.
Expeditionary Sandbook
My first trip into the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia taught me the most important lesson of desert exploration that I ever learned: DON'T DO STUPID THINGS! The desert is unforgiving and doesn't treat fools lightly. Here is how I learned that lesson.
Defender Offroad
Daydreams are easy. Just sit back and let them happen. Daydreams are effortless adventure. It's easy to be a legend in your own mind. Real dreams are hard. You can't sit around making bun prints in the sands of time if you want to make your dreams come true. Real dreams aren't a trip to fantasy land. They are rock solid adventures purchased with blood, sweat, and tears, and the most precious commodity of all, time.
Maxingout Expeditions
Travel with Team Maxing Out on the Darb Zubaidah from Iraq to Mecca. More than a thousand years ago, Queen Zubaidah from Iraq built an eighteen meter wide pilgrim road from Baghdad to Mecca. The road was called the Darb Zubaidah, and millions of pilgrims walked this road on their journey to perform Haj. We calculated the distance and felt we could complete the trip in a week in our Land Rover Defender 110 expeditionary vehicles.
White Volcanoes Of The Arabia Shield
Join Team Maxing Out as they make an expedition to the white volcanoes of the Arabian shield just north of Medina. The volcanoes are in a no man's land with lava fields stretching for hundreds of miles. We would be foolish to make a solo trip to this area in the heat of summer. But if it's the cold month of December, if we have two spare tires and enough water to survive for a couple of weeks, and if we are willing to burn one of our spare tires to make a smoke signal in an emergency, then a solo trip is not crazy.
Expeditionary Handbook
Let Team Maxing Out show you the art and science of expeditionary navigation in the Arabian Desert. Not all expeditionary navigational problems are created equal, and your approach to navigation varies with terrain, capability of the vehicle, and degree of access to the land. Limited access makes navigation more challenging, and unlimited access gives you hundreds of options when you plan your expedition. Situational awareness forms the foundation of successful expeditionary travel.
Rock Wall Journal
Team Maxing Out conquers a sand ramp in the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia and then studies the petroglyphs of the Rock Wall Journal. The ancient people who created the Rock Wall Journal were not simple-minded cavemen waiting to evolve into real human beings. These highly intelligent people had an appreciation for the natural world in which they were immersed. They displayed their focus on the natural world with stylized drawings that are still pleasing to modern eyes.
Orangutans of Borneo
Travel with Team Maxing Out as they visit the Orangutans of Kalimantan. Borneo is off the beaten path and sailing there on your own yacht is a big deal. It's not around the corner and up the street. It's your reward for a long hot passage across the Java Sea. In order to see the endangered Orangutans, you must sail up the Kumai river which takes the better part of a day if all goes well. Sometimes things don't go well, and you run aground. That's exactly what happened to the sailboat that traveled with us up the Kumai river.
Exit Only Survives Global Tsunami
In Thailand, Exit Only survived the most destructive tsunami of modern times without a scratch, but we didn't escape scot-free. The arm of the tsunami was very long, and out in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the tsunami made a lasting impression on Exit Only's starboard bow.
34 Things I've Learned in 33,000 Miles
Find out the lessons learned by Team Maxing Out as they sailed around the world on Exit Only. You always find what you’re looking for. The cruises who talk about the dangers lurking in each location are invariably the ones who find trouble. Cruisers who make smart decisions and keep a positive attitude somehow manage to find good stuff in the same places and enjoy themselves much more.
Positive Thinking Books From Dr. Dave
