Lesson From A Hot Tub Floater

Welcome back to Bogey's & Breakthroughs! April 7 was the last time I uploaded a pod. There's been lots going on, and I feel like I've finally caught up with life a bit.

In this episode, I share what I believe to be a great metaphor for life, inspired by a hot tub floater—you know, the thing you put chlorine pucks in? Watching it get stuck on the top step led me to reflect on why we get stuck in life and what it might take to start moving again. I had this realization months ago and it resurfaced during a recent hot tub session.

I hope you enjoy this listen, and if you have any questions or comments, it would be great to hear from you!

@ikescoaching

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there. It's been quite a while. I uh I haven't got on here in some time and just life's been busy and chaotic at times and just haven't felt the desire or the call to to share. So um shit happens, but now I'm back and I feel really motivated to share what's uh been showing up for me. And um yeah, I don't even know how to intro this just because I have so much on my mind and my heart and just kind of want to get into it. So, you know, the one thing that kind of sparked my revitalization, I guess you could say, and wanting to do the podcast, is my uh podcast host Buzzsprout. I get updates from it almost every week. And without me posting anything, not sharing it on Instagram or posting any new podcast updates, I was still getting like six listens a week. One week I think I had 18 downloads, and I'm like, what in the fuck? I'm not even doing anything with this, and people are listening to it, and I don't know if they listen to the whole thing if they download a podcast or just a segment of it or if they're just curious. I don't know, but regardless, um still feels kind of cool. So I thought, you know what? Let's uh now that I feel like I've created some more space in my life and things feel a little more congruent and coherent, and I dare say I feel more grounded than I have. Um fuck, let's get back on the horse here. So this topic today has been on my my mind for quite some time, and I had this um meditative experience in the hot tub months and months ago, and then just the other day I was in the hot tub. It's become a summer routine of mine. I really enjoy it. I get up early in the morning and I get in the hot tub for a quick cycle, and then I'll jump in our pool. And there's about a 30-degree, maybe sometimes 40-degree temperature change between the hot tub and the pool, and it's just kind of a little bit of uh contrast therapy first thing in the morning. And so, with that being said, getting into the hot tub, I learned a lot from the floater, the bobber that distributes chlorine in the hot tub. And so, if you can stick with me here, I've got I think I've got a really beautiful metaphor, and I'm gonna try and tie this and come back full circle as I go down the path of the notes I've taken here. And so, yeah, months ago, and again, I it it happened just this other day, and that's why it sparked my memory to share this metaphor and this story. But I'm sitting there in contemplation, and all of a second, all of a second, all of a sudden rather, I recognize that the floater, the bobber, is just come to rest on the step. And in that moment, I started experiencing and reflecting on the amount of perfection required for that bobber to stop. Like the perfect amount of friction, the amount of chlorine pucks that are in the cylinder, just maybe supporting the weight or changing the weight of it a little bit, the the ripples, because the you know the jets are going in the hot tub, and so it's like there's a lack of disturbance just enough for that bobber to catch the step, and it just sits there, and it kind of oscillates and it it moves a little bit, but for the most part it's pretty stationary, and it just stays there. And I just marveled again at the perfection of what it would take for that bobber, like the perfect water level, the water in the hot tub has to be perfect for that bobber to catch just enough friction to step or to you know to to to stop on that step. And then I started to extrapolate that a little bit more, meaning expand on the idea of it. I started thinking about you know, a stick floating down a river, and maybe getting stuck on a rock or stuck against the riverbank or whatever it might be, sandbar. And then so comparing that idea, and you know, the river being the flow of life, the vortex, just energy moving constantly. And I started to think about when I felt stuck in my life, and maybe there's something there for us to experience as opposed to seeing life go by and the water flowing, and you know, we dare compare ourselves to other people, and we're just feeling stuck and anxious, and maybe there's a little bit of depression there, and just you know, just thickness. And I started to think, well, maybe that stuckness is there for a purpose, obviously. Maybe that stick in the river needs to stop just long enough to take a look of its take inventory of its surroundings and look at the trees above, maybe look at the fish swimming below it, maybe the the uh crayfish or other life that might be experiencing the water, the riverbed. Maybe it's looking up and seeing a bird fly by or a family of ducks or geese paddle through the water. Like it's endless of why and what you could do in those moments if you're feeling stuck. And to me, it was just the this this metaphor of needing to stop and take a breath, and it's serving a purpose if we have the courage to just slow down a little bit and acknowledge the stuckness, acknowledge the thickness, and see what's there for us because it's trying to reveal something, and so the funny thing is in the hot tub, as I watch this bobber just experience this stuckness, all of a sudden, the right ripple, the right amount of water volume, flow, splashing, whatever, the combination to knock it off the step, and it just starts floating and bobbing and doing its thing, and you know, coming around and kind of annoying me. You know, when you're in a hot tub when that floater might come into you and just keeps fucking coming into your lap or under your arm or whatever it might be, and you're like, fuck off a little bit. Um but but no, seriously, like just witnessing its time, like the bobber didn't know when it was gonna be time to get off that step. The water determined something outside of itself determined when it was time to move on. And I think so many times I've been in areas of my life where I feel like I need to force something, I need to correct something, I need to put a lot of effort into something to get out of a position that I'm uncomfortable in. And again, what this metaphor is is explaining to me is you can't you can't force the move. You have to let life unfold in perfect order. And when I think about the stick in the river, I think it's the same thing. It's it might take a winter and some ice to build up to nudge that. Maybe a beaver comes by and grabs that stick and builds a dam. Or maybe some other animal utilizes that stick, finds a purpose for it. Maybe it stays where it is, maybe that's its purpose. Maybe it becomes a habitat for fish to lay eggs and find shelter under. You know, there's a a million things of what that stick could do to that riverbank, but the point is it's gonna find its purpose, the purpose will find it, if it is patient enough just to get out of its own way, and if it can stop long enough to again to smell the roses and take inventory of what's around it and acknowledge what is. It's kind of beautiful, and so that's my that's my takeaway from the the hot tub bobber. And the crazy thing is I'm actually sitting on the shores right now of Georgian Bay, just I can see as far as Meaford and Own Sound to the west. I can see Christian Island, Penitang, Midland, over to Wasega Beach. I'm uh sitting on a rock about two feet from the water. I don't know if you can hear it in the background or not, just kind of gently brushing against the shore here. And I'm on a property that uh that I built, I built a golf complex here about 13 years ago. And I still come back and service the property and check on the customer and check on the the project and just make sure that Mother Nature isn't overtaking it and it's just being maintained as well as possible. And I just think it's kind of interesting that I'm feeling called to share this message today sitting here by the water. And so I know for me for the last little while, maybe it's six months, maybe it's more, but life has just felt very chaotic, and there is a there is a stuckness to it, and I think today is just a beautiful reminder to myself, and hopefully this share with you can support you if you're feeling something similar. But just this idea that it's really outside of our control, and the only thing we can control is our emotions and how we react to situations, and if we can do that from a regulated, grounded space, then life's not too bad. But when we create stories and expectations and all the other potentially harmful mental gymnastics we come up with to justify shit, we can cause a lot more suffering than necessary. And so the thing maybe to wrap this up, what I would share here, I got another note here about um seeds, whether it's grass seed, weed seeds, flower seeds, just nature in general. But I think I was I think I was tuning up a golf green or something, and you know, uh there's some weed seeds, dame the lions, for example, that might grow in a golf cup or you know, around the edge of the where the the natural grass might transition with the artificial turf. There always teams always seem to be weeds that germinate along that edge. You know, when you can think about a crack in the concrete, and you see weeds grow in a in an environment, you think don't think they can. But my what I'm trying to share here is weeds or pardon me, seeds need to stop long enough to germinate, and so that stuckness, that slowing down is necessary for growth. Because if you continue to flow with the water and the vortex of life and you never really stop or get stuck, how do you take time to see what you want? How do I slow down enough to go, hey, what what's actually working for me? What's not working for me? And I think if we can understand and again look at nature, you know, there's so many amazing philosophers out there and storytellers in history that talk about nature and how much wisdom it has to share with us, and you see think about something like a seed, it needs to slow down, it needs to stop in order to take in enough moisture, enough even darkness to get started, but then sunlight, nutrients to germinate, take root, and then grow into its divine intention. And so I think that's what I'm really focusing on right now in this season of my life is acknowledging uh the challenges I've been through, whether that's loss in life and our family, uh just stuff with business and kids and family and all the things, family or uh you know, friends that that are going through challenges and just witnessing all that and supporting them. It's taking time to rest and digest this summer from all that I've experienced the last couple of years, while at the same time making space for what's next and being really excited for our business and the upcoming indoor golf season and just the different things I have on my horizon when it comes to coaching and golf. And I've had to kind of detoxify a lot of things and uh conditionings and you know, potentially choosing comfort over discomfort, but also taking time to acknowledge the hesitation and see what's there for me and see what's trying to be revealed, as opposed to just saying, uh fuck it, fuck fear, just step over it. It's like no, there's there's something there that's it maybe in a fucked up way trying to reveal something to you. So, Jeffrey, just take a second to really get deep. You know, I'm already a relatively deep thinker, but it's like really explore this, excavate what could be here for you. And um, you know, I think what's happen what's helpful right now too is I've I've I started working with uh with a coach and I've only had uh three calls with him. We had uh about a month ago we started, and then he got really busy for four weeks, so I we we kind of had to take a break, which was nice because to be honest, um it allowed me to just uh to integrate some of the things we we talked about in the first couple calls, and now I'm really excited to start building some momentum with him and uh speak with him on a more consistent basis. And yeah, really excited about what's to come. So, all that to say. I hope you uh have some takeaways from what I shared here, and you know, if you're going through something similar, I'd love for you to reach out and chat and maybe DM me or just share a comment if you like on uh on what you just heard. I'm gonna give my phone number. I don't know if I've done this in a podcast before, but I'll give you my phone number in case you want to text me. But yeah, it's 705-606-1477. And if you listen to this little blurb, it'd be so cool to hear from you. So, wherever you're at in this season of your life, just make sure to be kind to yourself and have compassion and grace. And it's it's fucking crazy out there at times. This world is just it's a wild place right now. But again, when I sit here on this shoreline and I just look at the infinity of this horizon and the expansiveness of this universe and this world, and just even this Georgian Bay area, like fuck, I worry a lot more than I ever need to. But that's just my brain trying to protect me and keep me safe and keep my family safe and all that sort of stuff. But in the end, just like nature, it'll run its course and it's outside of your control. So anyway, thanks for being here, and I'm looking forward to the next one. Lots to talk about, and uh hope to hear from you soon. Alright, much love.