DIVING BOARD LESSONS
A few weeks ago I made a tactical error in choosing a
community swimming pool as my place to relax and catch up on some
summer reading. As I circled the pool trying to find a distant spot
away from 1) the speakers that were blaring rap tunes and 2) the teen
groups that were doing normal, but loud teen stuff I landed next to the
diving board. I soon discovered that every jump off of the board
caused reverberations that rattled my eardrums. However, as I was
determined to stay put AND be content, I put my book down and watched
the young divers who ranged in age from 3 to 13.
I soon became enraptured with the cutest little
three year old boy who ventured out onto the diving board. Imagine a
blond-headed munchkin with “floaties” gingerly making his way to within
two feet of the board’s edge and ever so slightly “jumping” up and down
to gently move the board. In the water was his responsible daddy
lovingly encouraging him to take the biggest and scariest leap of his
life all the while holding out his arms ready to catch him. I found
myself riveted to the scene not wanting to miss the big jump, that leap
of faith where I knew he would happily land in his daddy’s arms. It
never came on – at least on that afternoon.
I found myself thinking of that scene two days later while coaching
my success group of women entrepreneurs who were all stuck at the end
of their own personal diving boards. Everyone was afraid to take a
leap into the unknown, into new experiences and into the possibility of
failure or rejection. I told the story of the “diving munchkin” to see
what gem of awareness, wisdom or encouragement was waiting for them to
discover. Each person had their own “a-ha” moment and in that moment,
something shifted to remove a self-imposed fear and limitation.
Here were their more liberating perspectives:
- Moving from a comfort zone practices courage
- Leaping gets faster results
- You can either retreat and experience what you’ve always experienced OR move forward into something new and different
- Leaping into loving arms is worth feeling the fear
This made me ask myself: where in my life am I stuck like that three
year old? Where I am just sort of jumping up and down in place,
literally going nowhere. I certainly identified a few diving boards of
my own as well as my own liberating perspectives. So I thank that
darling diver, who may even be an Olympic diver someday, for showing me
that it’s ok to jump! I’ll just make sure that I have my floaties on
and a set of divine or human arms to catch me.