Are You Swimming, Floating or Drowning?

This week, Traverse Worldwide moved from the amazing city of Lima, to Medellin in Colombia. Far from the Narco’s portrayed badlands of Pablo Escobar, this place has transformed itself into a vibrant, colourful town full of steely people who have lived through adversity and come out stronger as a result. For those of you who don’t know, Medellin has developed in the valley of the Medellin (Porce) River – which is where I start to make my point in this week’s insight.

It seems that a lot of my coaching, both formal and informal this week have taken on a theme. That of life being a river which we all navigate in our own way – some people more successfully than others. The river of life is full of rapids, obstacles, eddy currents and meanders. This powerful metaphor of the ocean and water is central to understanding life transitions.

When we swim through life, we take ownership for our course at a pace determined by us. Some of us occasionally use the current to our advantage; making the swim even more efficient and getting to where we want to be with less effort. In life, if we identify our destination or goals, we can actively “swim” towards them. That positive action keeps us on the surface and with a higher chance of reaching those goals. We can use different “swimming” techniques to get where we want, and vary the amount of energy we use. However the key piece is not being passive and letting life happen to you. This active approach is key to intentional living and purpose driven living.

If not actively swimming, we are floating. The only direction we will go is where life takes us. That isn’t to say that we should swim all the time. Absolutely not! But if we have no desire or motivation to swim, or are continually passive in how we approach life, we often end up somewhere we didn’t intend to be. Often with unhappy consequences. Then we may have to swim harder to regain our desired course and losing any momentary advantage or respite we may have had from stopping swimming. Floating can also very quickly lead us into obstacles or rapids which cause us pain and panic. Sometimes, this passive state leads to people feeling like they are drowning in life.

And this is where drowning starts. People who have suddenly become overwhelmed by life and are unable to take sufficient action to save themselves. They are in panic, stressed, thrashing around whilst still being swept through life. They scream for help and climb on top of anyone who comes near them in the hope that they can save themselves. All because they failed to swim in the right direction at the right time.

There is one other type of person. They are not floating or drowning – simply swimming hard against the current. Fruitlessly expending energy towards a goal that isn’t truly going to make them happy but with a determined intention which keeps them going until they are exhausted. Truth be told this is probably most of us. Finding your flow state and understanding life direction can help prevent this exhaustion.

One of the most frequent comments I get from people who see what we do on Remote Year is;
“I wish my life was like that – I work in a drab office doing a grey job and you are off seeing X, Y and Z around the world”
Or words to that effect.

In truth, I recognised the same thing in myself 18 months ago. I was floating down the river not swimming in the direction I wanted to but working hard for things that I didn’t truly feel were important to me. I was also letting other people control my direction. And so I made a change and here I am. All many of us need is for someone to point us in the right direction – which is where a coach like me comes in. This is the essence of personal growth and personal development.

So if you would like to change direction and stop floating, why not have a look at Remote Year yourself? You would be surprised how much you can gain from it. Here is a quick link to find out more information about whether Remote Year is for you. Full disclosure, I’d love to see people on this programme, swimming and the team here are great at answering your questions! We also both get something from it too which makes it even better.

So stop floating, avoid drowning and start swimming through life. The river runs through Medellin!

Navigating the river of life requires resilience and perseverance. When the currents of mental health challenges arise, practicing mindfulness can help keep you afloat. Resources like Headspace, Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now, and Carol Dweck's Mindset are excellent self-help tools to build your motivation. Whether you are in a chaotic ocean, a calm swimming pool, or a rushing river, the metaphor remains the same: true personal growth comes from taking intentional action rather than simply floating.

Where to take this next

If your management layer is running flat out and still falling behind, that is friction in the system rather than a lack of effort. Take the Leadership Friction Finder (https://jblhighperformance.com/leadership-friction-finder) and see where the drag actually sits. It takes a few minutes.

If you would rather keep reading, here are more articles on burnout.