Why You Should Live Life In Over Your Head

Life can be like a Saturday afternoon at a swimming pool.

There are different options to “swim.” Most pools have an incredibly shallow end, a kiddie pool that averages 6 inches in depth.

And most have a deep end with a 3 meter high dive.

If you climb in the kiddie pool, you get wet. You can splash. You can blow bubbles. You can almost stick your entire head under the water.

When the day is over, your eyes sting with chlorine. By most definitions, it is swimming.

photo by Monik Markus

But the kiddie pool is designed to allow you both to swim and to be safe. The experience provides cautionary thrills.

In the deep end, there is nothing to keep you safe. This part of the pool is so deep, that it can be hard to even try to touch the bottom. The only way to stay afloat is to swim.

You will get wet. You will be completely immersed in water. Maybe even in over your head.

It is dangerous, but it is exhilarating. It is risky, but it is fun. It fills you with both excitement and fear.

In an article called “How to Change Your Life”, I recently read this quote from Julien Smith.

In over your head should be the state you are always reaching towards– not knowing entirely what you’re doing, having taken on too much, being too ambitious because you’ve made ridiculous promises . . .

Like the deep end, we can live life many different ways. We are still living. We are probably even enjoying it.

But there is so much more than a kiddie pool out there for us.

When we stay in the shallow end, keeping not just our heads but also the rest of our bodies above water, we miss out on this great experience of life.

• Are you reaching out to something different? Or are you content to stay exactly where you are?
• Are you trying anything new with the hope to learn and grow? Or are you happy putting your face in shallow water, blowing bubbles?
• Do you take on more, maybe even struggling to get it all done? Or do you minimize your effort, saving room in your life for activities that do nothing good for anyone else but yourself?
• Do you make ridiculous promises, and then keep them? Or do you sand bag, keeping other’s expectations low?

If you told your friends you went swimming last weekend and stayed in the kiddie pool the entire time, chances are, they would laugh.

I invite you to the deep end.

When it comes to living your own story, which side of the pool are you in? Tell us which pool you are in and what is like for you in the comments.