Apart from her awesome accomplishments, Roz’s story is particularly inspiring because she came to her calling late (at 34), after having led a successful career in the city of London. She’d become disenchanted with the routine…

Roz knew she needed to change the way she lived her life, so sat down to write two versions of her obituary. One version told the story of her life as she was living it then. Conventional, ordinary and pleasant, with occasional moments of excitement, yet always within the safe confines of normality.

The second was the obituary that she wanted to have. “I thought of the obituaries that I enjoyed reading, the people that I admired. They were the adventurers and risk-takers, the people who seemed to have lived many lifetimes in one. The people who had tried lots of things, some of them successes, some of them spectacular failures, but at least they’d had the guts to try. I realized that if I repeated today’s actions 365 times, I wouldn’t be where I wanted to be in a year – or in ten years, or at the end of my life.”

You can read the rest of her story in her website, which is the other thing that sets Roz apart as a role model: she is extensively documenting her experience online. She writes in great detail about how she trains physically and psychologically, how she plans meals, how the boat is designed, the equipment she has on board (including three iPods—she lists her favorite playlists!), emergency plans, etc. She’s even rigged the boat so that she can blog and podcast from the middle of the ocean!

In order to keep motivated, Roz keeps a little whiteboard in front of her rowing seat where she writes quotes from people who’ve inspired her. I’m doing the same, and Roz is on my list.

Photo: copyright Roz Savage

Something to aspire to: “Paul’s a very interesting intertwining of a pure artist and somebody who is very astute at solving business problems.”

Follow your bliss!