On my business card, it says “leadership coach, writer, sailor, editor.” 

September is the month I highlight “sailor,” often taking off two weeks to race in championship events for the Shields and International One-Design classes. Then when I wake up and it’s October, another sailing season is history.

Besides providing an extraordinary mental and physical break, sailboat racing with a team of adults teaches me ongoing lessons that I treasure: an attitude of constant improvement despite setbacks, the Zen of all aspects of preparing ourselves and our boat, and how to keep it enjoyable for each other no matter whether we fall flat or succeed.

I’m happy to report we won our first event in September—the IOD World Championship! But rather than write a lengthy piece about that this month, I’ll simply leave you with a couple of pictures that say something about my September state of mind.

The first one, of us racing one of Nantucket’s matched fleet of IODs, may look straightforward to you, but to us it reflects a culmination for five focused sailors who have sailed many races together and attended to dozens of details of technique, gear, and refined sail trim that added up to first place on the podium. Arriving at the finish as a team, appreciating the fact that each had put the team’s success first in multiple ways, was a richer reward than any trophy.

The second is a photo of Grace, our Shields, heading to Massachusetts last week with my partner Reed Baer at the helm of the U-Haul truck. Reed sailed with me in the IOD event—and now we both know it’s time for us to reset, remembering that past performance is no guarantee of future…(etc., etc.). Our intention is to sail with our Grace teammates as well as we know how, adapt to the inevitable changes in the wind and our fortunes, and have fun as we go—hoping that our race results will again allow us to be in the hunt when the final day of the Shields Nationals dawns next Saturday.

Then Sunday will come, and I’ll wake up to October.  Have a great month!