This morning I took myself for a quick dip. It felt like something I needed to do. But what constitutes a “quick dip”? I tracked my own thoughts and feelings as I went for the swim. This is what I found.

I put my shirt keys and phone on some dry rocks near the ocean and was surprised to discover that I was not comfortable with the small waves lapping up against my feet. I wanted to have control over when I got wet, not the ocean when I was ready I dived into the deep water from a sandbar. I was completely submerged.

I was “in”, and the dip had begun, but If I had climbed out of the water at that point, my quick dip would not be complete. I sensed there was something that had to happen. What was it?

For a minute or two I hung around in the inlet to the tidal lake. A set of waves came in and brought the water up around my middle, and then the water went out and the level dropped to just above my knees.

Still not complete.

I headed out deeper into the ocean, into the mess of waves. The small oncoming breakers fought with the surges of the lake flows and created a tangle of forces. I had to dive under a few broken wave fronts.

But something still felt unfinished. There was a lack of satisfaction with the swim.

It was only when some bigger combers rolled in, buffeting and kicking me as they passed over that I realised I was in the moment. I was experiencing the power of the ocean, surrendering to it, and letting it happen to me. Somehow, this moment was disconnected from the moments before. I had lost track of time, if only for a few seconds. It was like the clock had reset.

This is the difference between a dip in the pool and a dip in the ocean. In the ocean, you get to feel small. You get to experience your human self, feeble yet in control, contrasted against the inhuman raw power of the sea.

Yep, that will do it, I thought, as I surfaced after hiding below a thundering charge of whitewater. I’ve been for a dip!

But my dip had one more surprise. As I walked out of the sea, back to my shirt, keys and phone, I noticed something rolling around in the bottom of my mind. It was small, but beautifully formed and complete. An idea. Like a small shell on the ocean floor that had worked its way up through the sand of my subconscious. It had surfaced there when I wasn’t looking, in the moment I had been preoccupied with the power of the waves.

This idea was the solution to a problem that had been bugging me for days.

I emerged from the ocean with a new plan.