Have you ever been face to face with a great white shark?

I have been face to face with a great white shark... and I lived to tell about it. Although the shark did bite the diving cage I was in — and almost spilled us into the ocean...

(More later.)

For now, I want to talk about the life lesson that I learned from this great white shark even BEFORE I was below the waterline.

A 15-foot female great white, with serrated, blade-like teeth. 😲 A life-changing experience for me, but not in the way that you might expect. Here’s what happened.

In 2003, I was living in Cape Town, South Africa for a couple of months. And in the cold ocean waters around this southern tip of Africa, there are lots of great white sharks.

Did you know that sharks are older than trees and they are one of the only animals to survive four of the five mass extinctions?

I never imagined getting up close and personal with these beings that have been swimming in the oceans for 450 million years.

They’re tough but not terrible, which is contrary to what most people think.

When I was young, JAWS was a blockbuster movie and the (inaccurate) terror of great whites took over people’s minds.

For me, that meant that even into my 20s I was terrified of sharks. Sometimes scared of the water in places that I logically knew that no sharks could reach. And yet there was always that lurking doubt.

I was even scared in the deep end of the pool as a child! 🥺

But for some unknown reason, I was getting ready to climb into a cage on the side of a boat — in Mosselbaai (Mussel Bay) — thanks to a company that educates people about great whites and the challenges they face.

Sharks can smell blood in the water from ½ a mile away. So as we were anchored and waiting a bucket of fish guts and blood were dumped into the water.

And then we waited for the sharks to show up… 40 minutes of mounting fear and terror.

I was having a hard time because I didn’t know about handy tools (like meditation). I was a wreck, waiting to hop into the water with an apex predator.

Then, the first dorsal fin breaks the water. That means a killing machine is coming in your direction. 🎶 Cue JAWS theme music. 🎶

But then something happened.

As soon I saw her up close (from the boat), I relaxed.

She was beautiful, magnificent, sleek, and a wonder of the world. 🧡

She was art swimming through the water.

And my fear evaporated. Decades of stories based on movies and sensationalized media disappeared in an instant.

When I reflect on that moment, it keeps reminding me of the lesson: so much fear happens because of what we don't know.

AND how we base so much of our fear on our habitual thoughts, tendencies, and memories.

We can’t control, well, pretty much anything. So we create stories to exercise some semblance of control. At the same time, we feel uncomfortable in our bodies and then embed those feelings into our muscle memory and associate them with the stories we’ve created about the thing we can’t control.

And then we suffer and compound that suffering and often avoid taking the risks (the good ones) that can transform and elevate our happiness, influence, and wealth.

(Like having a difficult conversation, taking better care of your health, starting your own business, or writing & publishing your book or brining your podcast to the world.)

It can be vicious circle and a vicious cycle.

But it doesn’t have to be like that.

And today is the day you can take the steps to make it happen (or build on your momentum if you've already begun).

How?

1. Meet what scares you (like I met that great white shark). Find out more about it. TALK to people. (Don’t just rely on the internet because you will make yourself scared, sad, and crazy). Trust yourself and your inner wisdom.

2. Smile and serve.

3. Put your toe in the water. Take that step. Own your time on the Earth and be the most you that you can and want to be.

4. Relax your head, relax your mind, face, and body... then smile and breathe some more.

5. Repeat #4 anytime you feel distracted (lost in the past or lost in the future AND/OR uncomfortable (mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually).

And tell that shark I said hi!

•••

Speaking of toes in the water... do you want to get your book or podcast done, but don't know a darn thing about any of it?

The I invite you to join us for a wonderful masterclass coming up this third Tuesday...

Don't Die With Your Story Inside

Join us for this transformational journey that will unlock the power of your podcast or book.

(And no sharks!)