I need more SCUBA in my life. By more, I mean any.

I say this as someone who has only just begun diving. But it was a challenge that pushed me.

I’ve never really been afraid of the water. Not since, as a young boy, I was tossed into the pool by my father, the bright orange plastic floaties jammed onto my arms no match for the force of gravity. I sunk to the bottom then shot back up to the surface when buoyancy won out. Dog paddling back to the deck, I hauled myself out, coughing and choking on the water I’d swallowed. But later I had no problem jumping in. And the water wings quickly fell to the wayside.

That little story – long a staple of my personal history – actually illustrates what I’m getting at here nicely. Change can be brutal. It can be terrifying. But it can also lead to growth. It can push you to a place beyond what you had previously known to be possible. Before that big splashdown from all those years ago, I had been stuck, unable to move to the next level in my skills. But getting tossed into the deep end – literally – forced me to face the fear, to move forward, to expand my skill set, and opened up an array of new possibilities for me.

SCUBA was the same. Not that I was scared to do it. But I was holding myself back, making excuses not to try it. To be sure, dropping your air regulator and removing your mask sixty feet below the surface (skill requirements for certification) in sixty-five degree water took some courage. And make no mistake – it is a risky endeavour. But it is also exhilarating. And tranquil. And beautiful. Even at the bottom of Lake Ontario in late September with visibility at less than ten feet and nothing much to see even if you could. It was a new threshold. Suddenly there were new skills to hone and apply, a whole other world to see and explore.

So I need more SCUBA in my life. I need to get back into the water. Enjoy the peace. Find the serenity and the quiet of floating suspended through the deep. But I also need to find other challenges in my life, things I’m holding back on, things I’m afraid to do, and meet them head-on. As with SCUBA and those earliest days in the pool, it’s time to quit making excuses, to stop letting fear hold me back.

It’s time to dive in.