Dive in

A few weeks back, my family and I went to the beach to spend time with family and while there, we spent some time hanging out at an indoor pool.  The great thing about this was that it was the first time since last summer that Harrison has had a chance to swim.  He had definitely lost some of his skills of swimming but he was a trooper and started working his way farther and farther away from me.  But he would not go full on and just dive right in.

Until these teenage guys came in to the indoor pool.  Harrison saw one of them push the other one into the pool and then swam to the ladder and got out and then just jumped into my dad’s arms.  It was awesome.  It was like that freeing moment in a movie where a character finally conquers his fears.

It always takes some time to immerse yourself in something.  I know that I find it very difficult to jump right in.

Can you imagine Noah starting to build an ark before a single cloud had formed in the sky?  Or Steve Jobs saying that he was going to revolutionize personal computers before that had ever been conceived? Sometimes all it takes is a jump into the abyss.  And then the ball gets rolling.  Then and only then will things start to happen.

Maybe you are waiting on a dream job to pop in your lap or that weight to fall off you.  But the key is to jump in and go be that person you want to be.  Maybe you’re thinking about all that debt built up that won’t go away.  Take the plunge and cut up your cards.  Yes, an emergency may happen where you need your cards to pay for something.  But I doubt it.  More than likely you’ll just continue to use your credit card to pay for that much needed new pair of shoes and continue on that downward spiral. It is time to dig in and go off on whatever you want to go off on.

Maybe you want to teach guitar lessons.  Start with some friends who can refer you to others.  Do it for free if they won’t pay you.  Say you want to play music around town.  Offer to play at some restaurants for free or for a burger combo so that you can get experience and hopefully another referral.  If you want to write, start a blog.  Offer to guest post for others.

Think outside the box.  But get to jumping.