More on Patience and Perpective

Today's post is quick, and connects to yesterday's.  We spent all day waiting for breeze again today; and the race committee made us go out and sit in the pouring rain to do so.  Almost everyone, myself included, complained about the decision, but at the end of the day I respect it.  Here's why: Our race committee has a duty to try and get a certain amount of good races in over the course of the week.  They are not in charge of the weather, so they have to do their best to plan for us to be positioned in order to take advantage of what conditions we do have.  Today, their best play was to have us out on the water so that whatever wind did fill, we could race in it as soon as possible.  There was no guarantee there would be wind, but if their had been we would have been happy to race, rain or no.  For that reason, they made the right choice, and for that reason, we as competitors have to learn patience and to put ourselves in their shoes.  Seeing things from the perspective of the race committee is important for a sailor, just as being able to objectively look at difficult situations is important for any person.  Patience and realizing the importance of analyzing obstacles in our daily life is important as it will allow us to flow with them, and better react to them.  That kind of awareness is greatly important to success in anything.