Water
Water has shaped me more than almost anything outside of work.
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I started swimming as a kid, but I only knew the shallow version of it, fun, familiar, feet near the floor. That changed after a long post-Covid month in Gokarna. A lifeguard friend took me out past the point where you can stand. That was when I fell for the deep.
It took me to the Andaman Islands, where I learned to dive, trained up to rescue diver, and started freediving. Along the way I noticed something: plenty of people can swim. Far fewer are actually comfortable in water.
That stuck with me when I moved to Sydney and started teaching at In The Deep Swim School. Their whole approach is comfort before performance, help kids feel safe, and the skill follows. It matched exactly what I'd seen in the ocean.
I teach children aged 3 to 10. Watching a nervous kid go from gripping the wall to diving for a high-five never gets old. It keeps proving the same point: confidence comes before skill, not after.
Teaching swimming turned out to be a masterclass in things I use everywhere, patience, calm, earning trust, and guiding someone through fear instead of forcing them through it.
“Confidence changes everything. In water, and out of it.”