It's in your head....

In another life (it seems like an age go now) I trained as a Scuba Diving Instructor. When I stopped teaching I’d reached the level of Master Instructor, which I was very proud of, and very grateful for the mentorship and encouragement of Course Director Bruce Phillips of Buccaneer Diving in East Africa. And other people I trained and dived with.

?At one point I hit a wall and may never have become an instructor. At Divemaster level there is an exercise where you swap your equipment with your buddy under water whilst sharing a single air supply. It is an exercise in stress handling and problem solving. You take two breaths and then hand your mouth piece over, they take two breaths, hand it back etc etc. Then you swap fins, mask, and jacket with tanks attached, then swim back to the shallows.

?First time, we get to the deep end and swap a fin… then my buddy vanishes… complete with the air supply (it’s not a big deal in the pool, but puzzling)

Second attempt… same thing happens.

Third attempt, he vanishes again.

At the surface he complains that he simply can’t do it. WE can’t do it.

?Two weeks later I have a flight booked to the UK and this is one of the last things I need to do to complete my course. I do the exercise again with an instructor, but I am a bit congested and it’s just not working.

?By that time I had it in my head that I just could not achieve mastery of this exercise. It was beyond my abilities. I would never be a Divemaster.

?When I get back to the dive base there is a new Divemaster candidate and the Instructor suggests we jump into the pool and practice some skills. No one had told this guy how HARD the equipment exchange exercise is, and it went like a dream. Completed easily, first time.

?Is there a moral to this story? Of course, there always is! I am not the kind of person that says “you can achieve the impossible” because that’s clearly tosh. But we often have abilities beyond what we BELIEVE we can achieve.

?I learned that day…

?1.?Sometimes it’s just your head that gets in the way of achieving something.

2.?Just because others can’t do something, doesn’t mean you can’t!

3.?If you surround yourself with the right people you can achieve what you “thought” was impossible.

4.?Start wearing the other person’s equipment and change into your own :-)