Rowing the Atlantic to Face Life's Challenges | George A. Pagano | TEDxWilmington
embrace life's challenges we all have challenges in life that we thought on whether it's going back to school after a few years starting a new job in a completely different field or taking on a physical challenge like myself whether it's an Ironman or a marathon but why haven't we taken on these challenges the answer is fear it may be a personal fear it may be a social fear it may be a fear based off the naysayers and the naysayers are people that tell you you can't do something or that it's impossible well in 2015 my teammate Caitlin Miller and myself wrote across the Atlantic Ocean in the Talisker whisky Atlantic challenge now this race had us go from the Canary Islands off the coast of western Africa 3,000 miles to Antigua in the Caribbean this was an honest Cystic crossing meaning we received no outside help had no motor had no sails only used oars to propel our 23 foot long boat across the ocean and in total it took us 58 days five hours six minutes to make the crossing now you can imagine the naysayers when we told our friends and family what we were attempting to do many people didn't know what to say others said it was impossible no one could do this and to their point there have been more people in space than have rode across the Atlantic so we knew it was a daunting challenge but the first step you need to take when taking on a challenge is believing in yourself and now it's it's gonna be hard to do sometimes and there's gonna be moments of self-doubt or nervousness I had them both before my challenge and during but in those moments I told myself I can do this and I will do this and I just would repeat that over and over again as needed in those particular moments and that allowed me to keep fighting and keep on pushing through whatever I was going through the next thing that we needed to do was commit to the challenge now Kayla and I had to do this both mentally and physically physically we had to prepare our bodies for the long grueling months at sea we had about proper lifting program but also had to put on weight as I would lose 30 pounds at the end of the two-month journey at the same time as our physical training Caitlin and I were seniors in college we were the president and vice president of the rowing team and we were the men and women's coach of the rowing team so we had a full plate of responsibilities and it would have been easy for us to you know want to take a day off because we were tired or we had to tend to other tasks but we knew we couldn't do that we knew if we took one day off it could lead to two and then it could lead to a week and all we would be doing would be making our challenge that much more difficult and you can't do that because it's already a challenge it's already difficult for the mental training we had to go over to England to take special ocean rowing classes these classes were in sea survival sea navigation first aid at sea and these would prove vital to us in certain situations that we faced while on the ocean now people start to see how committed this challenge we were how serious we were and they start to believe in us and what you need when taking on challenge is a good support group this is gonna be most likely your friends and family they're gonna be there for you in the tough times that you face and even though our friends and family weren't with us physically while on the ocean knowing that you have people that believe in your message and what you're trying to do allows you to keep fighting through those tough moments and these tough moments I like to call many challenges these are the challenges within the challenge these are the obstacles in the path to success and you need to know that you're going to face them and today I want to share with you three memorable mini challenges that Caitlin and I faced while on the ocean the first occurred about halfway through the race in January now this race is purposely started in December because it's after hurricane season but Mother Nature does as she wants and she brought us up a category 1 hurricane in January the first hurricane in January in the Atlantic since 1938 just our luck right and so you may be wondering what what was going through your mind what could you do well there's nothing I could do I can't change the weather I can't change the conditions so the quicker that I accepted that as fact the easier it would allow me to get through this situation and so I had to put a positive spin on the hand that we had been dealt so I told myself at least I'm giving more rest than usual now Caitlyn and I were used to rowing in three hour shifts so I would row for three hours while she rested and then we would switch and we would do this 24/7 but now in the cabin I'm getting to rest and sleep a lot more than usual I'm allowing my body to recover it's not aching as much I'm allowing myself to properly hydrate not having to be out in the hot Sun sweating and this positive mindset allowed me to get the long through the long three days that we endured in the cabins and finally the conditions improved and we were excited to get growing again the next mini-challenge occurred about two weeks before we got into Antigua I was getting off one of my night shifts prepared to get into the Gabon grab a quick snack and go to sleep but as I was getting into the cabin Caitlyn told me we were on a collision course with another vessel and this would happen from time to time during our row but you in all other cases the other vessel would quickly go off course the alarm that we had would go silent and all would be good but this was a different case this vessel got within two nautical miles the closest any vessel ever got to us so we decided we should give it a call on the radio make sure they acknowledged our position as we can see them on our monitors and we wanted to make sure that they could see our tiny boat on their monitors so he gives them a call no response the vessel then gets within one nautical mile we radio them again no response Kayla and I are in complete training mode figuring out the best course of action and we figure we're going to continuously call this vessel seeing that's the best chance that we can get their attention there's no way for us to row out of their way at this point there's no way for us to jump overboard and swim out of their way at this point there's only two outcomes to this scenario one the vessel continues on its course and runs straight over us crushing us without feeling a thing as this is a 14,000 ton vessel and we are less than one tonne the other outcome is that perhaps the vessel hears our call or at least reacts to it and fortunately and lucky for us that's what happened the vessel then left the area but it got so close that we were able to smell the diesel fuel from its engines and with this smell kala and I were awakened to the reality of the situation we were in complete training mode through the whole process but the diesel fuel smell made us aware of how lucky we were and we properly freaked out we had realized how close to death we really were and I continuously played the scenario over and over again in my head and the only outcome should have been for that ship to run us over as it never responded to any of our calls so needless to say from that point on we rode very quickly to Antigua but before we got there we had one more mini challenge to face and it's when we hit a dry patch about 400 miles away and when I say dry patch I mean a stretch where we're not getting the miles that we were accustomed getting in a 24-hour period in good days we were getting to 50 to 60 miles per day and in this rough stretch we're getting maybe 10 if that and it's extremely frustrating and demoralizing to row 3 hours in the hot Sun you're sweating you're putting all this energy to get to your goal you can taste the burger and fries you've been promised in Antigua you can picture your family's faces that you haven't seen in two months you're putting all this energy on the oars to get into the cabin and see that you've gone maybe a mile maybe less you feel like you're getting nowhere close to Antigua and you feel like you're letting your teammate down but again in this tough moment I knew I needed to stay positive to get through this so I told myself at least we're moving forward yes we're not getting to Antigua as quickly as I'd like but we're still moving in a positive direction we're not staying pat we're not getting pushed back we will get to Antigua eventually and though this dry patch lasted much much longer than I really wanted it to Kayla and I kept pushing kept fighting and we got through it and shortly thereafter we got to Antigua and so today I want to leave you with a quote from Christopher Columbus he says you can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore and this quote is great for my talk because one I took the same route as Christopher Columbus but two it really highlights my first point in that you need to believe in yourself you need to take that plunge towards your challenge that first step is believing in yourself yes I can yes I will then you need to commit to the challenge if you want it you'll go all out to have it you'll do everything you need to do to be successful then find that support group this is going to be your friends and family they're gonna help you get through those tough times that you face within the challenge these are the many challenges you know that you're going to face them and stay positive to get through them so keep on fighting keep on pushing and embrace life's challenges thank you you you