The magic of dreaming big

Doing big starts with dreaming big.

Two weeks ago, we launched a project called Swim4TheOcean out into the world. As the name holds, it’s a swim, for the ocean. But this is no ordinary swim. It’s a 1,000-mile, unassisted, staged swim that will see me attempt to swim the length of New Zealand's North Island along its east coast.

Something like this has never been attempted, let alone completed, in this part of the world before. In fact, it could be the longest, unassisted, staged swim that the world has ever seen. All of this has been talked to at length in various forms in the media over the last two weeks, so today I want to take you deeper into my inner experience since this mission has been released into the world.

If I were to boil my emotions down to two words, it would be these: excitement and fear. Some may attach positive connotations to the first and negative connotations to the latter. In my view, both emotions can be incredibly useful.

I have always used fear as a guidepost. I signed up to swim across Cook Strait because it scared me sleepless. I arranged an attempt to swim across Foveaux Strait because I was petrified of sharks. I leapt into public speaking because I would sweat bullets even thinking about the idea. Fear has a bad name, but it is not inherently bad. Inaction is not caused by the fear itself, but the response to fear. The response to fear is within your control.

I am firmly of the camp that says if your goals don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough. Let me tell you, I am scared. I am scared of this mission that we are about to take on. Excited, completely, but paired with a very healthy dose of fear. In my experience, this is a good thing. I have had similar emotions in the lead up to all swimming challenges that I have undertaken. It is at the outer edge of what is comfortable that life is truly lived, and it is at this outer edge that magic can happen.

In my experience of living, the trick is to find a dream that you deeply want and that scares you. Once you've found that dream - that big, hairy, audacious, goal - dive headfirst into starting.

Dream big. Commit before you are ready. Commit despite the fear.

I dare you.