The Dive

So hello again! Thanks for coming back!  This is Day 6 in the Big City! And I have to say I am loving it! There’s so much to do and see and people to meet and the buses come more than once an hour (even on a Sunday!)  Yesterday I went to the V and A museum (Victoria and Albert) and it was amazing, definitely worth a visit especially the fashion and theatre and performance sections (though I might be a bit biased). So today I want to share a little bit a wisdom that I can’t take credit for because it’s collaborated from things others have said and things I’ve seen etc but I’m going to add my own personal touch to it if I can. It’s something that’s really been on my mind and has helped me so I’m going to pass it on because it can help for the life changing moments and the everyday situations.  Its all about our Comfort Zone, and I know it’s really corny and its talked about a lot, but that doesn’t seem to stop us remaining snuggled up where we’re cozy in that comfort zone. Because we hear it, we think oh that’s a good idea and then we’re actually too scared to do anything about it!  So first of all I want to depict the whole comfort zone “thing”. I was hoping to find a diagram but I can’t find the right one and my drawing’s not great! If you like you may draw your version… So think of your comfort zone as a circle and in that circle are, surprisingly, all the things that you’re comfortable with, so for example loved ones, your home, old hobbies, old routines etc. Then around that first circle is another slightly larger circle, this represents your exploration zone, so this is where you start to test and try the possibility of what’s beyond your comfort zone, then at the edge of that circle is: nothing, or what we think is nothing. A fantastic analogy for this, that I heard today, is a beach. The sand is the comfort zone, when you start to paddle you are starting the the exploration zone, and as you continue to walk further into the sea it gets a bit more terrifying because you don’t know what you will meet, but eventually you come to a point where your feet will no longer touch the floor, that’s the edge. I don’t know whether you’ve seen it or not but the video below is a great picture of this. https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/vpYY6vSYBlQ&source=uds

The bit that gets me in this video is the moment before he dives and he waits, because that’s exactly what we do, we hesitate and most probably we also chicken out.

See the problem is we limit ourselves, we stop ourselves. Sure we’ll blame it on all sorts of things, not enough money, other people, shame, etc etc. But really they’re just all excuses, what’s really stopping us, is US. The only person that could have really prevented that diver from taking that leap into the unknown was him.

And look what happens when we do dive, when we take that leap! Because yes that jump off the edge of our exploration zone into “nothing” is terrifying, but it’s also where miracles happen, where the excitement is immense and where we can grow. And looking at the whole picture we realise we would have been so stupid to not take that leap. I watched an episode of Dating in the Dark last night (as you do when you have an evening to yourself) if you don’t know the show, 3 women and 3 men go on a series of dates in the dark and at the end they have to select one person to see in the light and then decide if they want to start a relationship with them, if so they go and meet them on the balcony, it’s all about seeing if love is blind? Anyway 2 people had been getting along really well and they both selected to see each other and the woman went out on the balcony, the man wanted to go but he was scared that she wouldn’t be there and he didn’t want to get his heart broken. As the audience member I could see her waiting while he was considering leaving, and I was silently yelling at the screen because if only he would take that leap of faith there was something so great waiting for him. Fortunately he did take that step and he was very glad he did!  But imagine if he hadn’t, and for us, we can’t see the whole picture but imagine if we don’t take that step, what are we missing out on? And I don’t know about you but ‘what’ and ‘if’ are two very mind-torturing words when strung together. Someone once said to me, if you ever get too comfortable it’s time to move on, and that’s a scary concept, but it’s also the only way we can grow. I want to end with a christian song lyric which says: “Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander and my faith will be made stronger” We really need to learn to take that dive, in big things like moving away from home, or starting a new job, or taking a chance on someone, or the smaller things, maybe starting a new hobby or a new routine or simply starting a conversation with someone. Because it’s so amazing what happens when we do take that step, it’s terrifying, sure, but amazing.