Essential Personal Qualities Of Offshore Sailors

[ColdFusion]

Self-belief. Without this one quality, you will never leave harbour. You can be who you want to be. You can do what you want to do. The only thing that's stopping you is you.

[Talbot]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

My sailing partner (stuffed if I can remember her name) has never taken a watch off because she has felt crook.
The self same chic has transformed her self from worlds biggest 'fitter and turner'* to worlds best cook!!!!!!!
*Fits food into pots and turns it into S#$%!

Gosh - you like living dangerously

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Talbot

Gosh - you like living dangerously

Its amazing what I can get away with when I'm taking her on a 2 day Orangutan spotting tour!

And there are some posts I dont let her read!

[maxingout]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Its amazing what I can get away with when I'm taking her on a 2 day Orangutan spotting tour!

And there are some posts I dont let her read!

Are you up the Kumai River? The orangutan tour is awesome. You can get close enough to them that they can rip your arms out of your armpits.



Say hi to Win for me.

[Pblais]

The Mental toughness means that they won’t crumble or fall apart when they face adversity.

I agree that the ability to not fall apart is very important and maybe most important. I'm sure I would not call it "mental toughness" as a short definition.

It does not require toughness to see clearly when the situation has one or more distractions. You need to see the problem and see the solution without panic. That has little to do with toughness.

My experience is very tough people crumble faster due to inflexibility or inability to see the reality in spite of perception. Fear is not about toughness, but it can lead you to ruin faster than anything else. When in fear the wrong solution is usually the one taken. You may need to see a that you screwed up bad and have to reverse the course. Is toughness the quality that can do that best? A great many roads to ruin are from arrogance and stubbornness which are by no means "toughness". Calmness and clarity win over toughness most of the time in a crisis. That is not to say personal strength and commitment don't count. In the instant decisions that matter, more often than not more toughness is not that key. Leadership would be the one quality that can get a group effort organized against a difficult task. Several organized crew can do more than one persons toughness.

[maxingout]

Originally Posted by Pblais

I agree that the ability to not fall apart is very important and maybe most important. I'm sure I would not call it "mental toughness" as a short definition.

It does not require toughness to see clearly when the situation has one or more distractions. You need to see the problem and see the solution without panic. That has little to do with toughness.

My experience is very tough people crumble faster due to inflexibility or inability to see the reality in spite of perception. Fear is not about toughness, but it can lead you to ruin faster than anything else. When in fear the wrong solution is usually the one taken. You may need to see a that you screwed up bad and have to reverse the course. Is toughness the quality that can do that best? A great many roads to ruin are from arrogance and stubbornness which are by no means "toughness". Calmness and clarity win over toughness most of the time in a crisis. That is not to say personal strength and commitment don't count. In the instant decisions that matter, more often than not more toughness is not that key. Leadership would be the one quality that can get a group effort organized against a difficult task. Several organized crew can do more than one persons toughness.

Mental toughness means different things to different people.

For me mental toughness has to do with the qualities of endurance and perseverance, and at the same time with rationing energy and resources so you don't run out.

I have seen "tough guys" fall apart. When I took care of "tough" people in the military - rapid deployment force airborne types - they were very tough right up to the point that they were injured. Then many of them crumbled. Some of them had a fragile toughness that fell apart in the face of injury. They had been programmed with toughness, but once the
shell of toughness was penetrated, they took it pretty hard.

Simply being tough is not good enough.

[S&S]

An inability to panic.

[Pelagic]

I think mental toughness is the key and to me it means that you can recognize and accept that you have made a mistake. THEN, learn from it and move on with even more determination than you had…. when things were better.

A good leader is one who never looks back to see if the rest are following him.

[speakeasy]

Originally Posted by Pblais

I agree that the ability to not fall apart is very important and maybe most important. I'm sure I would not call it "mental toughness" as a short definition.

It does not require toughness to see clearly when the situation has one or more distractions. You need to see the problem and see the solution without panic. That has little to do with toughness.

My experience is very tough people crumble faster due to inflexibility or inability to see the reality in spite of perception. Fear is not about toughness, but it can lead you to ruin faster than anything else. When in fear the wrong solution is usually the one taken. You may need to see a that you screwed up bad and have to reverse the course. Is toughness the quality that can do that best? A great many roads to ruin are from arrogance and stubbornness which are by no means "toughness". Calmness and clarity win over toughness most of the time in a crisis. That is not to say personal strength and commitment don't count. In the instant decisions that matter, more often than not more toughness is not that key. Leadership would be the one quality that can get a group effort organized against a difficult task. Several organized crew can do more than one persons toughness.

Yes.

The ability to see things as they are, unclouded by fear, or an internal guard against a range of potential disasters catalogued by certain personalities, is an art that takes practice and, if one is lucky enough, can be possessed through transmission from another, a teacher. Mostly, we must learn it on our own I believe. otoh, a little education can allow us to learn an amazing amount from books, the experiences of others ahead of us told in an interesting way.

[maxingout]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

I think mental toughness is the key and to me it means that you can recognize and accept that you have made a mistake. THEN, learn from it and move on with even more determination than you had…. when things were better.

A good leader is one who never looks back to see if the rest are following him.

I like your definition of a good leader.

Thanks

[Event_Horizon]

Level headed and a logical grounding...Things go wrong, being couped up can causes frustration and a tendancy to blame. When the going gets tough, mutany can be very unproductive.