What Would It Take To Make You Happy?

If you have been following my blogs for a while you will know by now that I took up swimming about 15 months ago, at the initial suggestion from my then physiotherapist. That and the invitation of a previous employer of mine to join him in swimming once a week. You will also know that while I have finally been able to get some distance in and swim around 1 km each time, basically I suck as a swimmer, and am as slow as a wet weekend.
Last year our son decided to go scuba diving in the Whitsunday passage for a week with some of his friends and so went for His “Basic Diving licence” before hand. Despite not having swum since he left school and not even much then, he was soon doing the required 200 odd meters required before I was even doing 100.
Then a couple of months back our last born started swimming once a week with her friends and thought she would get some extra practice in with Dad. Well her mother decided she would come too, so the three of us went swimming. By the second week my wife was doing 600 metres and our last-born was doing even more, and much more than me, and much faster too!
A fact that I lamented to our first born, who replied, “ Well dad, what do you want me to do? Come swimming with you too, and drown in the first 50 metres, just to prove that you are not the worst swimmer in the Family?” (Now somehow, I rather suspect that rather than drown in the first 50 metres, it too would not be long before she would be swimming as far as the rest of us, if not better than me.)
However her comment made me wonder if sometimes we do focus too much on what we can’t do, or on what others can do better than us. Rather than on focusing on what we can actually do, no matter how poorly compared to others. After all, many have drowned simply because they could not swim, even as poorly as me.
So the lesson for today is, to be happy with what you have and with what you can do, and not to worry about what you don’t have and can’t do! So, get out there and enjoy your own achievements, no matter how limited they may seem to others and ENJOY the rest of your life.