There is a steadiness inside of you.
I want you to imagine a big body of water — maybe an ocean or a lake.
There are 3 things inside this body of water.
There’s fish.
Tons of fish swimming all around the lake — darting, splashing, wiggling, and stirring up the water.
There’s a tall, steady pole at the center.
This pole is rooted to the lake bed and cannot be moved, no matter how hard you try.
And there’s a swimmer.
They’re in their swim trunks and goggles, just swimming and bopping around the lake.
Now, the swimmer has a few options.
They can grab one of the fish that are swimming by.
If the swimmer grabs a fish, they’ll be pulled along by it and they’ll go wherever the fish is going.
As long as the swimmer is holding on to the fish, they’ll be pulled relentlessly along its track.
Even if it goes too fast. Even if it goes too deep.
If the swimmer is holding on to the fish, they’re going wherever the fish is going.
They can float in the water.
The swimmer can choose not to grab any fish and just stay in the water and do nothing.
No movement. No action. No journey.
They just stay in one spot, totally still, while all the fish swim around them.
Or the swimmer can put their hand on the tall, steady pole at the center.
Now this pole is an interesting thing.
I told you that the pole is rooted to the lake bed and cannot be moved, no matter how hard you try.
And yet…
When the swimmer puts their hand on the pole…
The pole — slowly, slowly — turns into a ship.
A ship that somehow retains the rooted, steadfast quality of the deeply-anchored pole from which it’s made.
And yet, a ship that moves forward — that glides powerfully through the water in a way that is both steady and propulsive.
The longer the swimmer keeps their hand on the pole, the more the pole transforms into this potent, steadfastly moving thing.
And if they keep their hand on the pole long enough, before long, the swimmer can climb onto this ship and sail with it wherever the ship takes them.
And if the swimmer takes their hand off the pole, the transformation is paused.
Nothing bad happens. The pole is still there. Nothing can get rid of it.
The swimmer can put their hand back on it and turn it back into a ship anytime.
But if the swimmer isn’t touching it, it just goes back to being a pole, standing quietly, firmly rooted in the middle of the lake.
And in the midst of these 3 options, the swimmer can do whatever they want.
Now, why am I telling you all of this?
Because this lake is your brain.
The tall, steady pole at the center of the lake…
That tall, steady pole is the True You.
It is who you are when your protective mechanisms aren’t activated.
It is your true essence — who you are at your very core.
It never goes away.
It is firmly rooted to the bottom of the lake and it cannot be moved.
The fish are your protective mechanisms.
They are fears.
Worries.
Doubts.
Concerns.
They are thoughts like…
“I should be practical.”
“This isn’t going to work.”
“I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“I’ll look so stupid if I fail.”
“I need to get my shit together.”
“What will people think?”
These thoughts dart and flash in the lake in a flurry of agitation.
If it feels like worry and it smells like fear — it’s a fish.
It’s a protective mechanism.
Just like the steady, rooted pole — these don’t go away either!
And you don’t need them to :)
Because…
The swimmer is your attention.
All those big, scary fish in the lake?
They can’t hurt you unless you grab onto them.
Once you grab a fish, you’re going to go wherever it wants to go.
Once you grab onto “I’ll look so stupid if I fail,” that thought-fish will take you on a whole journey — imagining everyone laughing at you, you falling behind your peers, you moving back into your parents’ house, you not being able to provide for your family, you being destitute on the streets…
You’ll feel all those emotions in your body — a micro-version of what you’d feel if those things actually happened.
And you’ll make decisions as if that thought is the absolute truth.
You’ll say, “Okay damn, let me not do that. It’s way too risky!”
But you don’t have to grab the fish.
You can also just let the fish float on by.
Because it’s only a fish. It’s only a thought.
It doesn’t mean anything by itself.
Its presence in the lake is completely neutral.
And you don’t have to be afraid of it at all.
Because it can’t hurt you unless you grab it.
And you don’t have to grab it.
You can just say, “Hi, fish!” and let it float on by.
So you let go of the fish.
You let it swim on by…
But I’m guessing that you’re not content to just float there in the water.
I’m guessing that you still want to DO something — that you still want to solve your problems.
And that’s why I’m telling you…
You don’t have to grab on to the fish and go on its scary journey.
You also don’t have to just float there in the water, doing nothing.
You can send the swimmer to touch the pole.
You can direct your attention away from the flashing fish of your protective mechanisms…
And instead send your attention to touch the steadiness of the True You — of the you that you are when your protective mechanisms aren’t activated — which always exists and cannot be erased.
And once you touch the pole, you don’t have to do very much.
You just have to keep your attention on it.
You just have to touch that steadiness and stay with it until it grows into a ship and tells you what to do.
This is what’s happening in your brain all the time.
Tons of fish are flashing by.
Protective mechanisms are constantly getting activated.
Because your brain is doing its best to keep you safe!
And as a result, fears and concerns and doubts and worries are constantly sparking up and splashing by in the lake of your mind.
The steady pole of the True You is also always there.
Deeply rooted. Unmoving.
Your truest, steadiest essence — who you are outside of your protective mechanisms.
That steady pole is ready to build a ship whenever you need it.
And right now, I’m guessing that your swimmer is swimming unsupervised.
That you’re letting the swimmer just grab onto whatever shiny thing flashes in front of them (almost always a fear)…
And not realizing that you actually have the power to DIRECT that swimmer to go where you want them to go.
Not realizing that you can let a big, scary fish swim by you without grabbing it.
Not realizing that you can cheerlead your swimmer on and say, “Wow! That was a scary one, huh? Great job staying focused! You’re crushing it! I’m with you!”
Not realizing that all those fearful, well-meaning thoughts are not truths — they’re just…single flashes of thought with no meaning or significance unless you give it to them.
Not realizing that the True You has been there all along — just not activated because your attention wasn’t touching it.
Not realizing that the path forward is waiting to unfurl in front of you — if you just touch the steadiness and let it tell you what to do.
Come tell me how this concept lands for you.
I know it can be a little heady.
This is just the start of the conversation, not the end of it.
There are two ways we can talk.
You can book a free anonymized public coaching call, and we can talk about this concept right away :)
This is a 30 minute one-on-one call where we can coach on and discuss anything you like.
And after we talk, I will fully anonymize your voice so no one can trace the call back to you and release the recording as a coaching demo for my audience :)
Or you can book a free consult call and we can talk about working together in my one-on-one coaching program and really implementing these principles into your life.
What my clients have to say…
“If you’re just starting out, you should learn this toolkit with an expert like Pooja.
Now I’m able to open up a Google Doc and make good progress on my own.
But if you want to do it the right way, you really should have someone listening to what you’re saying, guiding you, and course-correcting you.”
—Client | Solutions Engineer at Fintech company
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