Ship's Blog

Operation Bestseller

2009-02-08T00:18:00.000-08:00

My goal is to sell some books and raise money for the homelessness in Victoria in the process. My mission is to help people realize their potential and live life with passion. I intend to donate half the sales of my book to St. Vincent de Paul's to help the homeless in Victoria, until the end of this year.

Voyage to Destiny is based on my experience living my dreams by sailing offshore for 7 years in Aquila, my 26 foot sailboat. It is an intuitive, easy-to-follow guide to uncovering the treasure that lies buried within us - the riches of our goals, childhood dreams, passion for life and unlimited potential. This book is full of practical techniques to help us set goals and realize our dreams.

below my feet

2007-09-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

Oftimes I chance to pause and think
Of a friend I knew not long ago
And as I sit to fertilize
A patch of ground below my feet
I wonder where he passed himself

Did he pass along that ancient path
Along the nile and further still
Into the night of ancient past

Or did he pass through modern light
Never talking with the ancient snake
Walking halls of marbled glass
Never earth, pure earth, to fertilize

And now my life begins to pass
At soon, some chance, my body be
A lump for worms will decay to earth
A log of soil for flowers to grow

Gone my anger, joy and love

God grant that I may perspective have
Where thoughts of ire and feelings black
Pass my way that I may pause
To see the way I come and go
And thoughts of understanding be

Sometimes I chance to pause and think
Of a friend I knew so long ago
As I sit to fertilize
A patch of ground below my feet

Interview with Juanita Watson, Assistant Editor for Reader Views

2006-07-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

Reader Views is happy to be talking with Kieran Harrop, author of the inspirational book “Voyage to Destiny: Sailing to Success.” Kieran is being interviewed by Juanita Watson, Assistant Editor for Reader Views.

Juanita: Thanks for talking with us today Kieran. Please tell us about the inspiration and birth of your book “Voyage to Destiny: Sailing to Success.”

Kieran: Hi Juanita, it is a pleasure to talk with you. The inspiration for my book began as I was sailing into the open Pacific in my small sailboat, after graduating from university. I was living my dream and wanted to share the exhilaration I felt with as many people as I could. It occurred to me that sailing itself was the ideal metaphor for the journey to success, happiness and the realization of dreams. Just like sailing, if you want to be successful in life, you must choose a destination (know where you want to go), chart a course (create a plan of how you are going to get there), and then weigh anchor and set sail (take action on your plan). The more I thought about the metaphor, the more I liked it. It is a simple and accessible theme we can all relate to. You can be a potato farmer plowing his fields near Boise, Idaho, and still want to stay on an even keel in the eye of a storm, come hell or high water. We all know what it’s like to weather life’s storms, to have the wind taken out of our sails, to go with the flow or be on the right tack because we experience these feelings in our everyday family, work and social lives. The metaphor also works for the inner journey towards peace, happiness and spiritual well-being. With-in us all is an infinite sea of potential. When we connect with this Source, we suddenly find ourselves in the flow of the moment, on the right tack and living life to its fullest.

Juanita: What type of guidance and information will your book provide to readers?

Kieran: Voyage to Destiny, Sailing to Success provides a simple methodology to achieve the potential we are all born with. There are simple, practical steps anyone can take to live life to its potential. I just mentioned some basic steps are to choose a destination, chart a course and to set sail. I go into these steps in detail and answer the all important question, “What is your purpose and ultimate destination in life and how do you get there?” The book also discusses concrete techniques such as visualization, treasure maps, positive thinking and affirmations that are designed to manifest the prosperity and well-being you deserve in your life. Voyage to Destiny teaches the reader how to become an explorer: To set a new course into the seas of success by breaking down limiting beliefs replacing them with fresh pathways in their minds to prosperity, health and happiness.

Juanita: Do you really feel that we can truly realize any of our dreams?

Kieran: Certainly! If you can think it, if you can keep that thought in your mind, believe in it, and persistently and consistently take action towards it, then your dream will come true.

Juanita: Tell us a little more about the metaphor of the sailing voyage and how you’ve applied it to the realization of one’s dreams.

Kieran: Life is like a voyage at sea. At birth your soul is put to sea in the vessel of the body. You can be on the right tack, going with the flow and sailing to success. Or you can be in the eye of a storm, beating to weather and even lost at sea.
When I left on my sailing voyage that lasted seven years, I was living my dreams. I keep meeting sailors who were much older than I (in much larger sailboats) looking at me in envy. I understood that although these successful men and women were realizing their dreams they wished they had realized them earlier in life. I decided to analyze what I had done to make my dream come true so that I could model the methodology for future endeavors and share my discoveries with others. First, I had the insight. A friend took me out on his boat, I felt the swell come in off the Pacific, and I instantly knew that I was going to sail off on an adventure. That I didn’t know how to sail did not deter me in the least. Then, I just kept the image of my dream (buying a sailboat and sailing it into the Pacific) emblazoned on the canvass of my mind. Although there were many obstacles, I seemed to sail through them. There is something that happens once you find your passion that makes you unstoppable. Of course, I had a plan. I knew that I needed a sailboat and would have to learn to sail it. For that I needed money. I was a very good treeplanter and knew that with two years hard work I would have enough to buy a sailboat. Those were two wonderful years, because I had direction and I knew where I was going. Even though it was hard work, I was already living my dream. I planted mountains and valleys of good karma on my way to the coast where I bought my beautiful boat. So, to use the metaphor, I distill it into three basic steps. First, you must know where you want to go (choose your destination). Second, you figure out how you are going to get there (chart a course). And third, you take action on your dream (weigh anchor and set sail). You take responsibility for where you are now, understanding that you, and no one else, is the captain of your ship. The trick is to be passionate about it. Have a big dream that will get you up out of bed each morning greeting the day and saying, “I’m so grateful for this day. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to take steps that will bring me closer to my dreams. I’m so grateful be living my dream!” Once you begin living a purpose-driven life with the wind of grace filling the sails of your mission, everything you do will be imbued with intention and passion.

Juanita: Why do so many people struggle with reaching their own potential?

Kieran: Most people struggle with reaching their own potential because of a lack of vision and focus. Once you know the purpose of your life and once you are passionate about it, there is little that can stop you from realizing your dreams. Life becomes a breeze and you cannot help but sail to success.
This is not to say there is magic pill for success. Sailing takes time. My sailboat averaged about 4 knots an hour as I moved down the coast of North America, about the same speed as walking. This is not a quick-fix solution, but an organic process that works. The good news is once you decide that what is important to you and you decide to get it, you are on the course to success. The voyage itself is the reward.

Juanita: You mention “choice” frequently in your book – Choose a destination, choose success…etc. What are your thoughts on choice and how it affects all aspects of one’s life?

Kieran: Choice is of integral importance. Not only does Jean-Paul Sartre say that at every moment that we are free, but also that we are chained to that freedom. At every single moment during the day you are free to do anything that you want. You can, at this moment, follow your dream, or you can deny your freedom, power and responsibility for your life. Most people decide to abnegate the power and freedom in their lives. This in itself is a choice. They do this because to accept the power and freedom that they have is to accept responsibility for where they are in life. They cannot blame their parents or their teachers or their genetics or their environment anything else for where they are at this moment. This can be difficult to accept for people who have blamed, complained, judged and justified all their life. Taking control of your life is like coming out of the musty dark hold of a ship that has been battered at sea. You open the hatch and pull yourself on deck only to discover there are no sailors or captain on deck. To your utter amazement you understand that you are the captain of this ship, because it is the vessel of your life. You stagger to the bridge and take hold of the helm in your shaking hands as you turn the ship in the direction of your dreams.
Choice equals creation. Once you realize you can do anything at this moment, the world becomes an incredibly beautiful place full of potential and flow. Oh sure, there will be times when you need to vacuum the house, wash the dishes and change diapers, but when you do these task under your own volition, fully in the moment, knowing that they are in alignment with the big dreams you are passionate about, day-to-day work become exhilarating.

Juanita: How important is spirituality in the achievement of success?

Kieran: Spirituality is a major component of success. Everything is imbued with spirit and energy. There is a life force that flows through us and all things in the universe. The chair you are sitting at, your computer and your body are made up of electrons and energy which flows from one object to another. Another word for this life force, this flow, this energy is spirit. Success is when life force flows through you in such a way that you have abundance in your life, material prosperity, balanced relationships, health, happiness, peace and presence. As you give freely of yourself serving others and as you follow your life purpose, you will find abundance flow into your life. You are in the flow, on a ship in the sea of life, and every moment counts. You can see people who have accumulated billions of dollars and yet they are unhappy. Better first to be happy, to be living life on your own terms, living your dream to your potential, connected in the Now – a spiritual being. The money, the health will follow once you begin to live your dreams.

Juanita: What significance do you give to meditation and journaling?

Kieran: The Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn said, “It is not an option not to meditate,” and I agree. Meditation is the best way I know to become free of the mind and the ego. Our mind is constantly active throughout the day with thousands upon thousands of thoughts. The thoughts we have today are the same thoughts we had yesterday and the day before. Our thoughts can imprison us because we identify with them. In a sense, we are possessed by our thoughts. So to become free, to become a discoverer on the seas of success, to break our limiting beliefs and thought patterns, we must first become conscious. Consciousness is awareness of what we are thinking and feeling in the present moment. It is to become Present. It is an awareness of the “I” that is doing the thinking. Meditation is the best way to become aware of the constant flow of thoughts and to learn how to turn them off. We are not the thinker. We are not the emotion. We are something much deeper, much more peaceful and full of grace. To experience that greatness, that internal power, that deep peacefulness and secret that dwells within behind the static of the thinking mind, is the key to the universe.
I believe in journaling also. Perhaps if I was a painter, the canvass would be my medium. In Voyage to Destiny: Sailing to Success, I recommend buying a Ship’s Log (a journal) to record your dreams, goals, successes and life lessons. A study at Yale University showed that the three percent of people who had written goals were worth more than the other 97% combined. Catherine Cox studied the habits of 300 geniuses and discovered that all of them were compulsive diary keepers. Studies have also shown that retention of information is greater when the listener takes notes. Retention becomes much more effective when the listener reviews the notes between 2 hours and 12 hours after the lecture. All these notes can go into your Ship’s Log. When I am reading, attending a seminar, or listening to an audio book, I have my Ship’s Log handy where I can jot down great ideas that will propel me to my dreams.

Juanita: How do our thoughts - positive and negative – tangibly influence our lives?

Kieran: As you think so shall you be. Think positive, abundant, peaceful and loving thoughts and your life will be filled with wealth, abundance, peace and love. This is tangible. This is reality. You literally create your reality with your thoughts. A theory as to how this works is that all things are energy. That red Lamborghini that you’ve always wanted is nothing more than a pile of atoms. Atoms are made up of electrons, neutron and space. Look more closely at the neutrons and electrons and they too are mostly space – space and energy. Your thoughts, too, are energy and energy attracts like energy. So if you hold an image of that red Lamborghini in your mind, you can literally manifest that car into your life. How it works concerns me less than that it works. You don’t need to know how engine works in that Lamborghini for you to get in and drive. Likewise, even through we may not be sure how thinking positively brings positive change in our lives, this should not deter us from thinking positively.

Juanita: Have you always had your positive outlook on life?

Kieran: I think I was born a positive, happy-go-lucky soul. I was also fortunate to come from a loving home and receive an excellent elementary education in a private Catholic school. However, with the onset of adolescence, a combination of arguments at home, a hard time in the public high school system and escape into drugs almost knocked that optimism and confidence out of me. It took me almost losing my life and two months in the hospital for me to realize how precious life is. I had to rebuild myself from the ground up and discovered meditation along the way. There is no looking back. I feel I learn something new every day. Through the light of consciousness I dissipate limiting belief systems that used to hold me back. I feel like a child again, with times of peace, wonder and extreme gratitude for the present moment.

Juanita: Who has inspired and influenced you throughout your life?

Kieran: In grade 4 or 5 I remember I was inspired by the life of St. Don Bosco. When Don Bosco was a very young man, he dreamed of a regal man and woman who dressed him for a great battle. The battle was on behalf of a multitude of poor, unruly and neglected children. He was told he had the character and traits to help these poor children, to conquer their unruliness and make them his friends. This dream was so powerful and vivid that it lasted for the rest of his life which he dedicated helping the throngs of abandoned young people living on the street in hopelessness. I love the stories of men and woman who where inspired by powerful dreams – from Joseph and his dream coat to Martin Luther King.
My two mentors right now are Eckhart Tolle and Dr. Wayne Dyer. Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now has put words and context to what I have experienced meditating. Every word of his books is pure gold. Dr. Wayne Dyer is a classic. His books have inspired me to higher levels of greatness and understanding of the human spirit. Like a lighthouse pointing a way through a channel in the rocks to new seas of human potential, his voice has guided me on my personal voyage to my destiny.

Juanita: Kieran, what would you say to someone that is struggling with finding their own personal power?

Kieran: Personal power can be generated by taking action on your dream. Procrastination is the opposite of personal power. Once you know your heart-felt purpose in life, you must take action. Every time you take a step on the path of your purpose, you generate personal power. For someone who is struggling with this process and is waiting for motivation I say, “Take action first and motivation will follow.” You must take action or you, the part of you that is most important, will be missing in action. At first your actions may be small (say buying a journal for your Ship’s Log), but notice how that small action makes you feel. That positive feeling will inspires you to take more action and generate more personal power. That first action has begun a perpetually expanding wheel of action to personal power to action to personal power. Soon you become unstoppable.

Juanita: Please tell us about Target Success Enterprises and your drive to help others achieve success in their lives.

Kieran: Target Success Enterprises is dedicated to help people and organizations realize their dreams. Working for a tier one companies I’m surprised to see the employees have no idea where the corporation is going. People and organizations need to follow the same process as a ship at sea. The first step is to ask the questions, “Where are we going?” and “How will we get there?” Then you must take action on your plan. In the case of an organization, the goal and the plan must be communicated to all the employees in person. If the organization is too large for the CEO to deliver the information at each location, then he or she has to delegate the message (in person) to someone who will. As with the individual, in a company of any size, understanding and communicating the goals and strategies of the company cannot be understated. Again the goal must inspire the employees to new heights of engagement, greatness and potential.

Juanita: How can your readers find out more about you and “Voyage to Destiny?”

Kieran: I encourage readers to visit my website at www.voyagetodestiny.com and send any questions to kieran@voyagetodestiny.com

Swiftsure 2006

2006-05-28T18:25:00.000-07:00

Life if like a voyage at sea ...

And sometimes that voyage is a race.

This weekend I had the opportunity to sail upon Defiance, an Aloha 28 skippered by Wayne Stewart, in the Swiftsure 2006 out of Victoria.
It was a lot more fun than I expected.

There are two courses in the personal development genre.
One is the spiritual, well-being stream and the other is the goal-oriented, success stream.
My path is to bring those two streams together.

There are those that race sailboats and those that cruise.

As one who cruises, I was surprised by the fun I had at Swiftsure. Partly, it was the excitement of the start, the two hundred plus sailboats looking for the best start possible. Then there was the strategy - with the wind, the tide, the course, the boat and the crew.

Our goal was to win our race out to Pedder Bay, around to Constance Bank and back to Ogden Point. Out of 25 boats in the Swiftsure "Classics" Race Class 9 we placed fifth which was a good showing we were all happy about. We especially made good time on the last leg from Constance Point to Ogden when our skipper decided to take a line well out from shore. Tim, our navigator, confirmed that the tide was pulling us around and that we were make three knots over ground towards Ogden despite the fluky light winds and bucking a strong flood tide.

Life too can be a race. Healthy competition can inspire you to the next level. On the spiritual side, you know that you are whole as you are. Paradoxically, you have your goals, you have your competitive streak and you strive for constant improvement and the achievement of your dreams. Hold these two principles in your mind at the same time immersed in the present moment and you are invincible, unstoppable in your dreams.

Presence

2006-05-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

"Our true home is in the present moment. The miracle is not to walk on water; the miracle is to walk upon the green Earth in the present moment." - Tich Nhat Hanh

"All that is required to become free of the ego is to become aware of it, since awareness and ego are incompatible. Awareness is the power that is concealed with the present moment. This is why we may also call it Presence. The ultimate purpose of human existence, which is to say, your purpose, is to bring that power into this world." - Eckhart Tolle

The Kernel

2006-05-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

The kernel of my book Voyage to Destiny: Sailing to Success is the question: how do we realize our full potential as human beings?

Abraham Maslow said, “In practically every human being, and certainly in almost every newborn baby … there is an active will toward health, an impulse towards growth, or towards the actualization of human potentialities.”

Yet experience shows me that so few realize our human potential and live our dreams.

I certainly was far from realizing my full potential and living my dreams until I had a wake up call. I had been three sheets to the wind too long. The ship of my life was broken and upon the rocks, stranded upon a deserted island. I had to rebuild my ship from the ground up. This horrible near-death experience is one I would never wish upon anyone; at the same time, it was the most powerful experience of my life.

The secret that was revealed to me in that experience is to live life to its full potential by inhabiting the present moment. If you can become totally aware what you are thinking and feeling right now as you sit and read this entry, you are on course to your dreams: You are living your dreams.

There is so much sublety in the present moment. Start with your breath. Feel you breath enter into your lungs, watch it leave. Feel the sensations in your hands, feet, legs, abdomen, chest, neck and head. Become aware of what you feel throughout your body. What are you thinking? This incessant stream of unconciousness, your thoughts of the past and the present, is your ego. It is your ego because you identify with your thoughts. You think you are your thoughts. You are in a sense possessed by them. In reality, you are something so much deeper and so much larger than your thoughts. You are Being. You just ... ARE. Gently, without judgement, let your thoughts go. Become aware of the moment. What do your hear? What do you see? What do you feel? What do you taste? What do you smell? Listen. Really listen.

Life is like a voyage at sea

2006-04-23T19:41:00.000-07:00

Life is like a voyage at sea.
At birth your soul is put to sea in the vessel of your body.
And you can be on the right tack, going with the flow and sailing to success ...
Or you can be in the eye of a storm, beating to weather and even lost at sea.
The choice is yours and the decision is made within the vaults of your heart and mind
For as you think and feel, so shall you be.

If you want to realize your dreams, read on.
I can teach anyone to realize their dreams and live life to their full potential using the simple metaphor of the sailing voyage.

You are destined for greatness. All you need to do is choose a destination, chart a course and weigh anchor and set sail on the voyage of a lifetime. There is a sea of infinite potential surging from within you, a swell of greatness generated from within. You can ride that wave of potential to your dreams by directing your sailboat in the Now to your choosen destination. Grab hold of the helm, set your course and let's set sail on the seas of success.

If it is so easy, then why do we not realize "the active will toward health, an impulse towards growth, or towards the actualization of human potentialities" that Malsow claim is within us all.

There are many reasons, but the one underlying all others is fear. Not fear of failure, but fear of the great sea of potentiality that lies within each of us.

Nelson Mandela quoted Marianne Williamson in his Inaugural Address in 1994:

"Our deepest fear
is not that we are inadequate
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful
beyond measure

It is our light not our darkness
that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant,
Gorgeous, Talented and Fabulous?"

Who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest
The Glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us;
It is in everyone.

As we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others."

When we connect to the Source, through self-awareness and meditation, through watching the one who thinks, the one who feels, then we realize we are the sea and there is nothing to fear. We cannot drown in the sea of greatness because we are the sea.

Tehuantepecer!

2006-04-09T11:09:00.000-07:00

“Mayday! Mayday!” Kathy shouted into the microphone of the VHF radio as we were slammed by another ferocious gust of wind which buried the gunwales of the sailboat into the surface of the sea. We both knew that her call for help was more than likely futile, because the range of the VHF radio is twenty to twenty-two miles and we were at least eighty from the closest port of call, and in Mexico there is no coast guard.
Usually sailing is a pleasurable activity, especially along the Pacific coast of Mexico in a stout boat with an experienced captain and crew. But this was an atypical scenario. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is home to some of the strongest and most unpredictable winds in the Pacific. The winds that can gust up to eighty knots and cause twenty-five to thirty foot waves over an area of one hundred square miles can come up with little change in the barometric pressure and under clear skies. The gales are created by intense continental highs moving across the Gulf of Mexico that are then constricted by the Sierra Madre del Sur, to the west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and Sierra Madre de Chiapas in the east, rushing violently out into the Pacific.
Kathy, my only crew member, had been my sailing companion since we left Canada and was a reliable and capable sailor. We were cruising in the beautiful bays of Huatulco, with its clear, emerald-blue waters and pristine white sandy beaches, waiting for a window in the weather. There are two strategies for crossing the Gulf of Tehuantepec. One is to ‘keep one foot on the beach’, that is, to stay so close to shore that if the violent winds did pick up, you could literally just drop anchor in twenty to twenty-five feet of water. If the winds were not too strong you could continue sailing (with reduced sail) because you would be close enough to shore that the wind would not have the distance to build into dangerous waves. The other strategy is to go about six hundred miles offshore—far enough that the hazardous winds and seas are dispelled. Because of the size of our ship and, more specifically, her fuel capacity, the offshore option was not practical. Although there was the potential for gales because of the local phenomenon of what the cruisers have affectionately called the ‘Tehuantepecers’, there was also the possibility of days without wind because this area was also in the doldrums.
After a week in Huatulco, listening to the weather reports every day, we carefully chose our window of opportunity for the crossing. We left early one morning on the promise of an auspicious weather report, and began our race to the other side of the gulf. It was a typical beautiful and windless day for that time of year, the sun brightly shining, not a cloud in the sky. We hugged the desert coastline. Throughout the day we made good progress motoring at about five knots per hour. The sun began to sink into the scarlet and orange sea.
They always happened at night—all of our storms. On my chart was the word ‘BREAKERS’ that went out five nautical miles into the Pacific at the mouth of a river. It made sense. The river deposits sand from the desert, creating shallow water where the seas break—great for surfers, a nightmare for sailors. I decided to move away from the shore just to get around the dangerous shallow waters. I did not want to get stuck on a sandbar in the pitch-black night with breaking seas.
We were at the furthest point from the shore when it happened. I felt the slightest breeze on my cheek. “Land breeze?” I asked myself hopefully. A second later my question was answered by a resounding NO! Tehuantepecer! The breeze grew steadily into a wind, into a gust, into a gale, into a storm, into almost hurricane force winds in the matter of minutes. Over the howling wind, I screamed at Kathy to take the tiller and I rushed to the foredeck to take down all sail.
Aquila was constantly being blown to her side with all the sail up, the gunwales being swallowed by the black sea. I was nearly tossed out of the boat a few times as I wrestled with the sails to bring them down and store them below. Although I was tethered to the boat, it would have been extremely difficult for Kathy to drag me into the boat with the seas steadily increasing. I had to get a small hurricane jib up as quickly as possible. With no sail, we were being pushed steadily out into steeper seas, thus decreasing our chances of survival. When I finally got back to the cockpit after raising the hurricane jib, I was pretty beaten up. Thrashing lines and sails can do a lot of damage in such vigorous winds. Kathy looked as white as a sail and I told her to go below and batten the hatches. The last I saw of her for some time, she was shouting a mayday into the VHF.
When I got back to the tiller, the engine was still running. I put the engine in gear and revved it so high it whined. There was no way I could turn Aquila back into the wind to get closer to shore where we could anchor. The best I could do was a beam reach (so that the ship was perpendicular to the direction of the wind) to keep us from going any further out. This was all done by feel. With the spray of the water and the sand from the desert whipping across my face, I could not even open my eyes unless I was looking downwind into a black and tumultuous sea. I grabbed my snorkeling mask from the cockpit locker and slipped it over my face so that I could take a look around. To my delight I could see the lights of the city of Salina Cruz in the direction we were heading. I knew it was about forty miles back because we had passed it earlier in the day, but we would make it as long as the motor held out.
Our reliable motor pulled us through, and about eight hours after the storm hit we dropped anchor just east of Salina Cruz in a long sandy bay. Kathy and I were alive to tell the tale, but did not have the energy to celebrate. We crawled into the forward berth and slept the sleep of the just.

Excerpt from Voyage to Destiny:Sailing to Success

Voyage to Destiny: Now Available

2006-03-03T21:36:00.000-08:00

February 27th, 2006, Voyage to Destiny:Sailing to Success is available in print.
That night, I met with Dr. Deepak Chopra, gave him a signed copy of the book (one of the first four) and told him about my project. He said he "would" read the book and "may" give me an endorsement. He then wrote out an email through which I could contact him at the Chopra Center.
Two things struck me from that night. First, when I saw him enter the room, it was as if I knew him. Not just a physical recognition (which isn't surprising), but also a spiritual recognition. He was dressed in black with stylish, thick, black-rimmed glassed and walked liked a prince. My soul recognized him, and, in the split second when our eyes met, I'm convinced his soul recognized mine.
Secondly, was the way he held his pen and wrote an email on a piece of paper. "That hand," I thought to myself. "That hand has written millions of words, thousands of pages and eleven best sellers." There was something beautiful, poignant and almost lonely about that hand scribbling across the side of a brochure for the Alliance for a New Humanity. Briefly, I wanted that hand to somehow survive the ravages of time, but of course it will not. His spirit of his words will live on though, through the fabric of the universe.

I like the way Maya Angelou quotes Omar Khayyam, contemplating her mortality after being cut by her step mother in a fight. "I thought we were en route to an emergency hospital and so, with serenity, I made plans for my death and will. As I faded into time's dateless night, I would say to the doctor, "The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, moves on," and my soul would escape gracefully."

Limited time special offer: Until Voyage to Destiny:Sailing to Success is distributed through Amazon and a link on my website, you can obtain a signed copy for $20 via email

Voyage to Destiny: Sailing to Success

2006-02-12T21:59:00.000-08:00

It’s your life – you can be, do and have anything you want. Voyage to Destiny: Sailing to Success is a guide to uncovering the treasure that lies buried within you – the riches of your childhood dreams, passion for life and potential to live your dreams. This book is full of practical techniques and methodologies guaranteed to deliver high impact results that will improve your life materially, spiritually and emotionally.
With this book, sailing to success will be a breeze. Using Kieran Harrop’s easy-to-understand metaphor of the sailing voyage to describe the process of achieving your dreams, you can choose a destination, chart a course and set sail on the journey of a lifetime!

2005-10-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

The Bluenose Schooner

Introducing New Book - Voyage to Destiny

2005-10-07T11:46:00.000-07:00

"Your being is infinite and contains the universe; stardust courses though your body, your spirit soars with potential and it is your responsibility to realize your dreams. You can do this by knowing what you want and programming your mind to get it. Know what you want and be hungry. Hunger for your dreams and become that schooner coursing through the seas of success. Set your spirit free over the seas like a cosmic wind filling the sails of your ship as you voyage to destiny." - Kieran W. Harrop, excerpt from Voyage to Destiny

You are destined for greatness

2005-10-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

You were born with potential.
You were born with goodness and trust.
You were born with ideals and dreams.
You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You were not meant for crawling, so don't.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly.

- Rumi