Aloha!
Do you have a dream? Maybe something small that you harbor in your heart, sure you will find a way to do it one day? Or do you try to remember what it even felt like to dream…as you put one foot in front of the other in your daily grind?
Meredith Novack, 37, just completed her dream of breaking the world record by swimming the Auau Channel between Lanai and Maui, twice. It took her 11 hours, 1 minute to swim the 20 miles, and broke the previous record by 44 minutes. A former US Masters national champion in the open water 3K, Novacks trained for 10 months to prepare.
She said she did it because “Number one, no woman had ever done it, and number two, because I felt I could break the men’s record.” She said she made sure to follow strict rules for the world record attempt: “You can’t grab onto a kayak. You can’t use anything for support and people can’t touch you.”
Novacks wore an electronic device called a shark shield that kept her safe from a 15 ft. Tigershark that her escort team did not tell her about, till after she finished. They did not want to let her know that the Tigershark had shown up with less than two hours to go, for fear she would not finish.
There is resistance in the water with each stroke. Steven Pressfield, author of “The War of Art” met with Oprah Winfrey at her beautiful Maui home for their interview on “Super Soul Sunday.” He says there is always resistance with a goal, no matter how worthy. The form the resistance takes is the thoughts in our heads: “I’m not worthy.” or, “It’s been done 100 times before, what am I going to say that they haven’t heard?”
Pressfield says we have to “Face the Dragon.” And then we will ask why we didn’t do this months ago…
Meredith Novacks faced her dragon and set a new world record.
“Tell me, what is it YOU plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Mary Oliver
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Aloha, Jamaica
I love your blog! So inspiring! I’m yet to figure out my life past Maui, maybe because I’m such a local girl but you’ve got me thinking, 🙂 maybe backpacking in Europe or visiting Tibet! I love it! Mahalo nui loa.
Aloha Shannon,
Thank you for your kind comment… I’m so glad I got you thinking. That is one of my goals for this blog. Mahalo! And aim high…wherever life leads you.
Aloha, Jamaica