After 26 years in a relationship doing "our business", I found myself single again. I became a Life Coach. An integral part of becoming a Life Coach was my own personal development. I learned that you can do anything you want. You just need to have the desire.
Four of my friends were keen scuba divers. They wanted me to learn so that I could enjoy the same wonderful experiences that they did.
However, I had a "secret" which prevented me from accepting their invitation. I had an extreme fear of drowning. By way of an excuse I told them, "You've got to be kidding! I don't go into water deeper than a bathtub, don't know how to swim and can't imagine putting my head under water."
My fear (limiting thinking) controlled me so much that I had avoided going anywhere near water despite living only a few short blocks from the beach and didn't set foot in my own pool for over two years! When I finally got in I stayed in the shallow end and held on to the side. So long as I could touch the bottom I was okay. When I finally confessed my secret, my friends were dumbfounded. They all said, "But, you've been skydiving!
If you did that then anything is possible." I told them, "But I can breathe on my own when I'm skydiving! With scuba diving I have to be under water and depend on a tank." Way too scary for me!
I still had no desire to scuba dive but thought perhaps at the age of 58 I would learn to swim. I had private lessons for a whole year but I stayed in the baby pool. I refused to go into the deep water because my lack of self-belief (that is, my fear of drowning) controlled me. I kept saying I wasn't quite ready. My teacher said I was but I didn't believe her. My fear was so great.
A good friend Gayl suggested that she come swimming with me a couple days a week for practice. She didn't put up with my excuses and insisted I get into the deep pool. Gayl helped me to realize that I could do this if I set my mind to it (and I might just enjoy it). So once again I dug into all those resources deep within me and gradually overcame my fear of the water to learn to swim. Before long I was doing it and was doing a great job.
Until I changed my mindset and started believing that I could do it I wasn't ever going to learn to swim.
My first two dives after certification were in Maui in Hawaii. To hear whalesong was something I had only seen on TV and wow, now I was experiencing it firsthand. Those whales were talking to me, congratulating me for getting rid of my limiting thinking and achieving this hitherto unimaginable goal.
If I had continued my old limiting ways of thinking, I would have deprived myself of these glorious life experiences.
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