I recently read a story about a man whose lifelong dream was to live on a sailboat and sail if not around the whole world, at least the waters surrounding the boat’s moorings.

One day he seemed to attain that dream. Through the proceeds of the sale of his home, he bought a sail boat and moved onto it. But the two times he tried to sail, he found he could not. The first time, he had an accident. The second time he had to be towed back by the Coast Guard. He hadn’t known what he was doing.

Our dreams to live healthier are often like this man’s dream to sail. We think we know what we want but we get so focused on the dream that we don’t see the reality of what it takes to get there.

That man needed to learn how to sail. It would have helped if he had some experience with boats before he actually bought one. It would have helped to have friends who knew something about sailing. But he had none of those things.

He put all of his money into the boat anyway. Worse, he had no job to generate more money so even though he could buy the boat, he couldn’t maintain it in the long run. He couldn’t even buy sailing lessons. He was stuck in port. And as we all know, the purpose of a sail boat is not to sit in the harbor. It is to catch the wind and move.

With any changes in our lives, which of course are the essence of New Year’s resolutions, we need more than just dreams and visions. Those are only the beginning. If we rely on just our dreams or visions, everything falls apart.

In addition to our dreams, we need a plan. We need understanding. And we need the support of others. This is especially true of lifestyle changes.

Just like this man never got out of port because he didn’t have the foresight to line up the human and financial resources he would need before buying the boat, we will never get anywhere with our resolutions if we don’t first count the cost and line up what we need, in advance, to help us succeed.

Please make a comment below and let us know what your goal is for 2018, and what you have pulled together to achieve it. Let’s help one another get stronger together.