Of Meeting and Greeting

At the Sea Shepherd induction for new volunteers which we ran last night I had to introduce myself. No difficulties with that, these were all people meeting me for the first time so I was able to talk about who I am - and they were able to talk about who they were - without that being any kind of a test or competition between us.

I love the meet and greet part of any event but I especially love our Sea Shepherd induction where we ask people to tell us why they want to be part of our ocean conservation family.

Take a look at this pic, it really is worth a thousand words to explain why so many of us are so very proud to be involved.

This morning I received my routine spam mail from Friends Reunited (do people still use that or am I just getting mail from an automated spam machine that hasn't been switched off yet?) inviting me to update my profile. Now that is more of a problem. I know who I am. I am more than happy to share that with new friends but I am not convinced my old friends would recognise me, even less would they understand me.

You see, when I tell people "who I am" what I am really describing to new people is "what I do" yet for people who knew me, "away back then" I am describing what I have become and that, again, can only be explained as, "what I do." The problem with that is, because they already have assumptions for how I will have turned out, and because they can have no other frame of reference for how I got to the "who I am" now from the "who I was" when they were part of my inner circle, it would be so much easier to explain if they were actually strangers. The who I was really is a stranger to me now anyway.

There are probably fewer than a dozen people who really know me beyond "what I do" and you could count on the proverbial, "fingers of one hand" how many people on this planet I would trust with all of the "who I am," especially if my vulnerabilities are included. You may even be able to count that one on the finger of one finger...

Pilot Whale, wild and free where it should be
Picture credit: Rory Moore / Barcroft Media

There's no sinister aspect to that, it's just that the things which motivate me are often very personal in nature, often caused by bitter experience which has neither present nor future relevance but which has nevertheless shaped the person I have become.

Other motivations are much more positive in nature and, as long as I am motivated towards positive results, then how I get there in the end probably doesn't matter. After all, the whales don't care that I do what I do for Sea Shepherd because someone like Paul Watson or Peter Hammarstedt inspired me to greater efforts, they just care that someone is doing something other than cause them harm.

In time I hope you will all get a real good feel for what I do from these blogs, some of you may even start to get a real good feel for who I am.

For now let me describe what I do in the same terms as I used at that induction last night:

I, as would any other Sea Shepherd Onshore Volunteer, do whatever I must to enable Paul and all his other Ships Captains and crew do whatever they need to do in order to defend ocean wildlife wherever and whenever it is threatened. That includes being willing to volunteer myself for active campaign duty and you will read much more about that in the very near future.

Someone who I know is doing just that is my best friend Anna who will be going to Taiji in the very near future. I have blogged about Anna before but for our new readers please take the time to read her amazing story here: Anna's Taiji Campaign

As Marine Mammal Medics, both of us know what it feels like to physically save the life of a whale, now we need to do what we can to prevent the deliberate deaths of others. Please follow this blog to find out how we get on.

Thank you for reading and I am very pleased to meet you.

Get Motivated, Stay Motivated

I took a phone call this morning from someone who had been talking to someone who had heard from someone who had heard from someone else about my blog and particularly liked my post Smiling for Sea Shepherd which I introduced with the wonderful sentiment that, "The Opposite of Happy is Very Happy."

David lecturing at the Global Village during
the Volvo Ocean Race, Galway, July 2012

"I'm organising a conference for [major organisation]," she said. "We need a motivational speaker from the world of business with an interesting story to tell. Would you like to do it?"

Of course I said yes. It is what I do most of when I am not volunteering for Sea Shepherd and, let's face it, where else are they going to find a vegan, ocean activist business executive with experience of talking to large audiences in this part of the world at short notice?

I don't always speak exclusively from a mostly business angle of course, sometimes I get to speak a bit for Sea Shepherd - but only when there is not an even more motivational speaker like Captain Paul Watson or Captain Peter Hammarstedt around, both of whom make me look like not much more than the warm up act for the warm up act.

They are truly awe inspiring to listen to and I am proud to number myself amongst their followers as someone dedicated to ocean preservation. Dedicated, I should add, mostly because of their incredibly powerful motivational influence. But don't take my word for it, judge for yourself with this full-length video of Capt Paul speaking at Sea Shepherd's 35th Anniversary Event in Colorado:

From my own experience having delivered many lectures with some great and some not-so great results and having listened to other lectures - like those from Paul and Peter - which have produced amazing results, one thing seems clear. It is possible to be either a "motivational speaker" or to be someone who just speaks motivationally. The difference is measured in results - which lecture inspired the greatest commitment to action?

So what is it that makes the difference? Well it is not enough to get people motivated, we need them to stay motivated. I can do the latter for business because that is where my experience lies. Paul and Peter do it for the oceans because that is where their experience lies.

You can "get" anyone motivated by being genuine, honest and enthusiastic about something they are kind of interested in to begin with, talking from the head with passion if you will. You can only keep them motivated if you are able to demonstrate that you have been there and are determined to stay there, talking from the heart and talking from the heart with knowledge, experience and understanding.

If you haven't watched the video above yet, please do, I think it demonstrates that viewpoint admirably.

So we motivate people with compelling recollections of big life experience. Is that a defining characteristic of humans, the need to share knowledge? Perhaps, more than just humans, that is what defines the higher order species on our planet as this link to a BBC Science and Nature report suggests Humpback whale song spreads to other whales

If that is true then, "I think, therefore I am." is no longer sufficient. Existence without purpose is an evolutionary dead end and who wants to be one of those? And I never heard a song without purpose, that would just be called noise and who wants to be accused of that?

Is it too much to extrapolate the theory that both whale song and motivational speech is an example of, "I think, therefore I must do?" I hope not, because it is where I find myself as I campaign more and more on behalf of Sea Shepherd, on behalf of the oceans, on behalf of us all.

If you feel even just a bit more motivated to do something because of today's blog then please...

...be motivated for the oceans. They need you.

Thank you for reading