Sink or Swim? How about Sink, Float or Swim?
The age old adage, “sink or swim” is something I’ve held a grudge against for a while.
Why are there just two options, sink or swim? I propose adding a third one, float, sink or swim. Sometimes, you’re too tired to swim. Sometimes, the best you can do is float. Sometimes, things get too much & just keeping it together takes ultrahuman effort. And that’s okay.
As long as you can float, gather your energy & then swim tomorrow. Or day after. Or whenever. Whats the problem? Suppose, you’re an average swimmer. You’re out for a sailing trip & had trouble with your boat, about hundred km from the shore. The boat starts sinking & you have no option but to abandon ship.
You go into the water & start swimming towards land. But, because you’re not an endurance athlete, you get tired after 10km. Shore is still 90 km away. Considering there is no life threatening danger (sharks, asteroids, scary deep sea creatures coming up for their annual sun bath), you probably have two options:
- Use minimal effort to float, gather your energy & swim another 10km when you feel up to it.
- Keep trying to swim when you’re tired & lose all hope & maybe drown after 15km.
There’s a lot of times when there’s no end in sight & we might feel exhausted on the way. Instead of giving up when we’re tired, how about just floating for a bit, getting our bearings right & then swimming again when we gather the energy?