Failing & Free Diving

Yesterday, I met my free diving instructor for my “make up classes”, since as I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I failed my free diving certification.

I came prepared but unassuming. I practiced almost everyday for 2 months before coming back so deep inside, I was hoping to do well but I wasn’t expecting anything either. Two months ago I was over confident, thinking I could easily pass this certification, but I failed. So this time, I have mentally prepared myself for the worst.

There were two of us during the class, both repeaters as the other student, a British lady also didn’t pass during her first try. She had problems with equalizing.

Before the serious class, our instructor took us to a cave, about 9 meters deep for a ‘leisure’ dive. We were with other people who came for snorkeling so we all decided to have some fun first before getting into business. Everyone tried to dive (and were able to except for my classmate and another guy who was a non diver) and my instructor asked me to give it a try.

I asked him, ‘is it dark inside?’ (Sometimes I ask silly questions, really).

He said no and he asked me if I want him to accompany me.

I told him, I will try to go by myself. I took my time, breathing in and out on the surface, watching everyone try. When I was ready, I took my last breathe and dived down. The cave was damn beautiful. The corals are colorful with lots of fishes. One of the divers came from the opposite side holding a camera, taking a video and gave me a high five.

As I went back to the surface my instructor laughed and asked, was it really you? I could not believe you did this after all the hard time you gave me two months ago.

That comment already made me happy and proud of myself.

As we went through the course, I did my constant weight and I can’t believe, until now that I’ve reached 15 meters when last time, I could only do as much as 7.8 meters.

My classmate didn’t make it as she had problems equalizing so she have to try again some other time.

Today I saw this newsletter about failing and failure contract reminding me that we fail from time to time, it’s not always an easy success for everyone and we don’t have to feel so down about it. That we have our own time and we can’t compare our success to that of others.

Free diving taught me so much more than I what expected to learn. Discipline first of all (one example is my saying goodbye to caffeine LOL) , patience, perseverance, acceptance of failure and trying to get back up after failing.

So if at this moment you feel like a failure, that you are not doing things right and your life is not going according to what you want, just relax, take a deep breath, clear your mind and don’t stress out.

Take a little break, give yourself some time. Work hard and be consistent. You’ll get what you want in time.