Diving (Pt. 1?)

SO, quick life catch up... I've been finishing up my divemaster in Nusa Penida, Indonesia over the last 4 months. I also haven't wrote anything in WAY TOO LONG... So, here to catching up, here's to reflecting, here's to writing. I want to cover some of the things I've learned from diving (and oh yeah, its gonna be deep) Quick thanks to my mentors and amazing friends while diving that have helped me along the way, Eric, Felipe, and Marina as well as the beautiful ocean. Thanks for reading!1. RELAXThis lesson comes from one of the first times I hung out with Felipe. I remember we were discussing some customer story's and he told me that he had said to the customers everything we do in diving we do SLOW, and it really resonated with me. Not only in the fact that now I say it in all my briefings and to every customer (because I do), but also in life. So many times we find ourselves in hectic situations, stressful conditions, or even just stuck on deciding what to do next. RELAX. Everything we do in life can be slowww. Take a moment to take a breath. Vent the idea, the thought, the decision and don't forget what is important to you. Just relax!!2. Small Problems can become BIG ProblemsIn diving we have to first relax, because sometimes we can have problems. The solution to your problems is not to panic, nor to spit out your regulator and run to the surface (Eric's favorite line). This is because what can start as a small problem can become a very big problem. First, you may get a little water in your mask, then as you're trying to clear it you realize your GoPro wasn't clipped to you and it is now dropping to the ocean floor all the while the customer next to you just shot up to the surface and your didn't have a free hand to help just before you hit the down current from hell and now are heading off to Austrail.... You get my point. When a problem arrises in your life if you allow it to fester or grow that small problem may turn into two small problems and eventually snowball into a mess you can't handle anymore. SO, before you take a spontaneous trip with Squirt in the EAC down to Brizzy, deal with your problems.3. Just because its easy doesn't mean it's rightAhhh, one of my favorite lessons. This one will be coming from my wonderful DMT instructor Eric. We have been in a few sticky situations together, one of which involved me almost running out of air. During this situation, we were experiencing some of the strongest current I have been in that came from out of nowhere. In this instance we grabbed onto the reef for protection from getting pulled down to the bottom of the ocean, but in this instance one person from our group had decided to abort and left our group and ran to the surface, with 1/4 of a tank of air left in his tank. Time kept ticking and we were attempting to climb out of the current to no avail. Eventually we got into a position where we were able to send up our SMB (google it) and begin to make our ascent. During our ascent we had 4 people sharing air on two tanks and bubbles flying all around us as we were trying our best to make a controlled ascent in order to assure our safety. Looking back on this situation I have a million things I could talk about and things I wish I could have changed, but one lesson is this. Just because it's easy, doesn't mean it's right. We are confronted in our life with challenges. Jordan Peterson says life IS suffering. When confronted with these challenges we can't always take the path of least resistance. Sometimes we must choose the harder path. The way that is going to knock you down, tear you up, and question yourself. Because in the end we remember those hard times, and how they shaped us to become the beautiful people we are now.4. ComparisonsNow, this one comes from the wonderful and beautiful Marina. One night we were all sitting on the beach having a lovely little chat about all things diving (duh) and Eric had expressed some frustration with some recent divers. Saying something like" I just want them to be better". Marina, brought up the topics of discussions. She reminded him that not all divers will be as good as him, but also that he cannot always hold his recently certified students to the same standard as himself (like comparing a middle school football player to a blue chip college player). Although he gets frustrated with where they are at, he has to learn to not compare them to himself. This beautiful lesson also comes from JP's (Jordan and I are on a nickname level now) book. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not who someone else is today. Our capacity for progress, our standards, our abilities are all different. We are all in different places in ALL areas of our life. Judge yourself based on yourself, leave everyone else out of it. Seek your discomfort, avoid complacency, and GROW.5. Your environmentThis last lesson comes from a recent dive that I had time to reflect on while underwater and then discuss with Eric on the surface. I was sitting down below and while I was drifting I became very entranced with some of the fish. I stopped what I was doing and sat and watched them. I watched them swim against the current, hide in the coral, and even group together for protection from other predators. Not that on this day was it any different as Ive seen many similar things happen on many different occasions in different forms. That day was the day it clicked for me. We can learn so much from our surroundings. When I am diving in current or with challenging customers or some other erroneous problem I try to think about how can my environment help me? What do I have at my disposal to help me? Just like in every novel about the plane crash where there is one survivor who ends up living and making it back to civilization to write a book about how he/she did it. They learned from the environment. They analyzed their surroundings. They understood what was going on from things that have been there WAY longer (fish dude fish, they are freaking old). Don't forget to take a moment to reflect on what is going on around you, if not to learn from it then at least to enjoy it...Which is where part 1 ends for me. Enjoy it. I recently watched a video from Rory Kramer where he was talking about the "now".As much as we are always planning for the future and deciding what you want, and ensuring your life is going "right"... we often overlook the now. There are so many things I want to list as examples right here, but it just doesnt feel right. I'll end it on a song I just listened to from Mike Posner, Live before I die. Life Is Now. (live it)On purpose,Matthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXeZNXdu-gs