Ah Autumn! My favourite time of the year, by a country mile!
How my new obsession with wild swimming will fair through this next few months is anyones guess – maybe I will drop it like a hot potato (if you know me at all, you will know I do NOT drop hot potatoes, I eat them with enthusiasm. I say this in the literal sense.) or maybe I will be one of the Christmas Day swimmers – who knows! You all will – as you may have picked up, I like to share!
I have often looked on at people who do something that others balk at – wild swimmers, mountain climbers, sky divers, pole dancers, racing car drivers – and thought wow, you are one special person! To have put all that effort in, to have practiced so hard and got so good at it that they now love doing something that I always considered ‘extreme’. And for a lot of them this is absolutely true – hours upon hours of practice and endurance. And yes, they are special, all of them. But not in any way that I (and you) am not.
You see, we are all pretty bloody amazing. All of us. Amazing in our uniqueness but also in the ways that we are alike. We all have fears, doubts, self limiting beliefs, voices in our heads that say ‘you can’t do this’. And yet some people do. They see, hear and feel all those same things and then have a few seconds of braveness that comes seemingly from nowhere, and they push though it. That’s the difference – about 3 seconds maybe?
Now I’m not putting myself in the same camp as a racing car driver or deep sea diver – but I did go through the same few seconds of fear when I first went in the cold water. I was terrified – I’ve never liked huge bodies of dark, open water, or the icy cold to be honest! But I did it anyway. Pushed through that 3 seconds of fear, pain and doubt until I was on the other side. And there, well there I found exhilaration and elation! Such a rush of endorphins that felt like they would last for days and days! I didn’t wait to find out how long they would last, I did it again very soon afterwards.
I found it a similar feeling when I decided to leave my pretty secure full time job to pursue my small business. It felt really brave, still does! But I still had to push through that few seconds it took to say to my head teacher ‘here is my resignation’. It wasn’t brave to decide to do it, it wasn’t brave to write the letter – but it was brave to say it out loud and hand the letter over, no going back! But once it was done, it was so much easier to see the path ahead.
I’m happy I did it too – has it been hard? Oh. My. Goodness – YES! But so was working for someone else in a job I was finding increasingly difficult. Choose your hard, right? Nowadays, I get to surround myself with gorgeous essential oils, fabulous people that I meet at events, talk to you guys on here – the pay off is huge.
I urge you now to look for those few seconds of bravery that could take you from living with longing to living your dream. That looks different to us all and nobody can tell you what yours is, that’s for you to decide, big or small. But just imagine how it will feel when you do it. Just 3 seconds away. Go for it!
See you soon my friends.
Love and light!
Sam xxx
