My 2018: Learning to swim

Hello again everyone.

Today I wanted to talk about what is perhaps one of my biggest and longest-lasting goals.

I WANT TO LEARN TO SWIM

I have thought about this a lot and have come up with a list of reasons why I don’t think it’s happened before now and why I have decided that I want to learn now.

WHY NOT BEFORE NOW?

I wasn’t comfortable in water

I think this is perhaps the biggest thing that has held me back over the years, and I’m sure this is the case for a lot of people who can’t swim, both children and adults. For me, water has always been something to fear and I could never quite feel safe enough to stop panicking and focus on learning how to swim instead of how scared I was.

Not confident enough in my body

I’m not sure if I’ve ever really posted about my body issues online but for a long time they have been so severe that I haven’t wanted to be seen in public without my shirt on or even in a pair of shorts. I’m going to talk about this more in an upcoming post, so for now that’s all I will say.

I was too introverted

Another thing which held me back was being socially awkward and lacking in confidence around other people which meant I spent a lot of time squirreling myself away at home to avoid social contact.

I wasn’t ready to challenge myself

I think this is something a lot of people feel as a teenager/young adult. If you lack confidence you never quite feel brave enough to challenge yourself to new things and there is always a fear of it not working out or of failing.

For me, I just wasn’t ready to push myself to learn to swim during my teenage years.

WHY IS NOW THE RIGHT TIME TO LEARN?

I have become more comfortable in water

Over the years, I am now more happy (to a certain depth) in water than I used to be. It doesn’t scare me quite as much as it used to.

I’m working on my body confidence

As mentioned above, I will be going into more detail about this in a future post.

I’m a lot less introverted

I am now less withdrawn and feel far more at ease going out in public and being around others than in the past.

I’m ready

After all of these years, I have finally overcome the things that were holding me back. I want to learn to swim because I am at last ready enough and confident enough to pursue this thing that I have been unable to do for nearly 24 years. I also want to feel the sense of achievement when I’ve finally conquered the water.

I’ve wanted to learn to swim for such a long time and I want to make it happen in 2018. I am more determined than ever to achieve this goal and gain such an important life skill.

My next post will be up tomorrow. Until then, keep positive, keep smiling, and above all, keep believing!