“So, what is it? What is it you are doing with this one wild and precious life of yours?”
You must watch this TED talk by a 50+ year old woman who attempted to swim from Florida to Cuba:
The way she describes how you get into your head when you are swimming…yes. Simply, YES.
At the end, she talks about recovering from a massive failure….Oy, I know that. I’m still recovering and licking my wounds from a massive failure at work that occurred about a year and a half ago now. I feel like I’m slowly but surely swimming my way out of that failure…out of that dark, black hole that I fell into when I discovered just how massively I can fail because of reasons way, way beyond my control. Just as she learned, no matter how much you prepare and how hard you try to recover and keep going, sometimes failure is inevitable because of reasons beyond you, and that’s even harder than if it was because of you.
And that’s why swimming is playing a more significant role than ever before in my life. It’s when I get inside my head, and spend time with me. Quality time with myself to heal and regain the strength to try again, knowing that I can survive the most massive of failures.
Keep on swimming.