I don’t know if you know this, but I used to live in Sarasota, FL for about 10 years before we moved to Las Vegas
While there, I thought I would take advantage of my location (and a Groupon) and live out a bucket list dream: to get my SCUBA license.
While getting certified, I learned about a “side hobby” that a select few SCUBA divers have: it’s called free diving.
Free diving is defined as a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus.
So you try to dive as deep as you can and stay under as long as you can all while holding your breath.
No safety net.
I got to thinking about this in relation to Eat to Live recently.
You see, a free diver has this hobby for a lot of reasons — namely adventure and pushing boundaries.
And there is an element to this boundary-pushing that is very important: the idea that you’ve gotta keep it together, no matter what.
In free diving, you don’t get the luxury of freaking out, taking some time out of what you’re doing and thinking it over, or even just giving up and trying another day.
No, see, once you’re under water, you have no choice but to hold it together long enough to get back to the surface to breathe again.
You can’t just take a quick breath under water.
It makes me think of 21-Day Challenges.
When we get to that wobbly point, where we start to think we can’t do it, we can think of ourselves like a free diver.
We just don’t have the luxury of stopping.
Because in reality, our health IS life or death, isn’t it?
We just keep going.
And what are the consequences of Just Keeping Going anyway?
Certainly not taking on lungfuls of water.
No, our consequences of finishing what we set out to do are in fact only positive.
When we just keep going and get it done, we:
Learn how to persevere even when it’s tough
Learn more about the thoughts and feelings we have when the going is rough
Learn new strategies for pushing through
Ignore the mental chatter and just do what we set out to do
Show others that it can be done
And no matter how hard I try, I just can’t see the downsides of those things…can you?
We’ve got less than a week left.
Let’s free dive our way to the finish line.
