I was a policeman from 1967 until 1999 and worked, in various capacities, in Liverpool, Bermuda, South Wales and Harrogate. After the police, I became a training consultant in the Isle of Man and ended up, in 2006, as Assistant Principal of a Leeds Secondary School. All of them places I really needed to be. I retired in 2014 and have been volunteering with Canal Connections in Leeds ever since. Zen Navigation … never doubt it!

This is the art of Zen Navigation, a pillar of my journey through life.
“Follow a car, or its nearest equivalent, that looks as though it knows where it’s going. You may not end up where you intended to go, but you’ll almost always end up somewhere you really needed to be.” (From Douglas Adams’ Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul).

I first tried it on a journey from Glasgow Airport, in a hire car, going to a police conference about Appraisal Related Pay in the centre of the city. I followed an armoured cash truck which looked as though it knew where it was going. It took me past Sauchiehall Street – which, having never been to Glasgow, was somewhere I really needed to be.

In the first bar I went into, I found half a dozen policemen from the Royal Ulster Constabulary, also going to the conference, who not only bought me a Guinness, but knew where they were going, and were also able to tell me all about the people I was going to Belfast to meet, the following week.

I’ve used Zen Navigation ever since: it taught me to keep an open mind, take a risk that others will know something worthwhile that you don’t, and so help you achieve a better outcome.

Back in Leeds, I eventually ended up following a canal boat (that looked as though it knew where it was going) and met some old geezers from Bow in East London, who also looked as though they knew where they were going. And that’s how I found the organisation Time to Shine and started Float Your Boat which, as far as I can see, is all about:

Getting the best outcomes by working together. Listening to each other. Keeping things simple. Taking a risk… and having fun doing it! In short, this was somewhere I really needed to be.