Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out into the ocean —  

Christopher Reeve, Actor

This quote brought back memories of when I learned to scuba dive many years ago.  All the initial lessons I took were in a swimming pool where it was easy to feel safe and secure. You couldn’t get into too much trouble in 6 feet of water!  By the same token, the environment quickly became boring and confining. 

Then it came time for my first open-water dive.  The location for this momentous occasion was a couple of miles off the coast of St. Martin in the Caribbean.  Was it a little scary – you bet!  Not to mention the fact that during my first few minutes in the water, my regulator blew off the end of the hose! But not to be deterred, by fear or equipment malfunction, I borrowed another “rig” and down I went.

It was spectacular!  I lost all sense of time (good thing the Dive Master didn’t!) and became totally captivated by the vivid colors of the many varieties of fish, the ghostly wreck around which we were diving and above all, the absolute serenity of floating around almost without a sound save the quiet bubbling of my breathing.  A time in my life I will never forget.

It’s only when you stretch, when you go beyond your limiting beliefs and fears that a whole new world can open up for you.  And it could be even better than you might have imagined!  But you won’t know if you don’t try. Are you playing around in the shallow end of the pool or are you ready to take a leap and dive to great depths in the ocean?