Get Clarity! 3 Surprising Life Lessons from a Toxic Green Pool

The Opposite of Clarity

About a month ago, my pool looked like this…

Looks like the ooze from the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie (the one from ’91 for those that don’t know what I’m talking about)…

If you went into that, you’d probably come out with an extra leg or some new superpower.

It’s funny to joke about, but what’s not funny is telling your pregnant wife that there’s a nice cold pool right outside that she can’t even use… Especially when she’s four weeks from her due date and it’s the middle of summer…

There are several reasons it got to this point, including neglect, improper pool closing the year before, conflicting advice about how to open it, a beat-up pool tarp, never-ending leaves, and the list goes on.

Now, we can at least swim in it, but it was a challenge getting it to that point. A challenge with its fair share of life lessons on achieving clarity… Three lessons precisely…

1. Sometimes you need outside help to find clarity.

If you’re stuck somewhere in life and things are too cloudy to navigate, you may need someone to step in and give you a boost. At least to get started down the right path…

Here are some common dilemmas where people often need clarity:

Lack of motivation in life or finding meaning in the world
Uncertainty about the career or business path you should be going down
Uncertainty about who you want to be in a relationship with
Overcoming plateaus in exercise, martial arts, or even weight loss

Luckily, there are experts and sages to help in these areas. The only problem is that we have to be willing to put our ego aside and be open to the insights that arise when we start digging.

I’ve actually owned my pool for a few years now (inherited it when I bought the house), but I’ve always worked on it myself. During the summers, I put in countless hours scooping out leaves, vacuuming it, testing it, filling it, and getting chemicals up to par. Along the way, I spend hundreds of dollars on supplies, a lot of it which is wasted due to my own ignorance.

Part of me is proud of the effort, but another part of me knows that there are better things I could be doing with my time, like having fun with the family.

This year, I decided that family was more important and that it would be better to leave the pool opening to an expert. So, I put my pride aside and hired a small company to come in and do the work. Actually, I had to hire two companies. The first didn’t work out, but that’s a story for a different day.

Having a company come in to open the pool was the best thing I could’ve done (second to buying one of those cool pool-cleaning robots). It was a huge burden off my shoulders and gave me the boost in clarity that I needed. Plus, it made my wife happy!

2. Clarity often requires patience and diligence.

When I sat down with my pool guy to talk about ongoing maintenance, he said there were two things I needed to keep the water clear.

Patience and diligence…

Two simple, yet profound words that blew my mind…

Of course, he was talking about things like regularly back-washing the pool and keeping the chemicals up to par. He was also saying that my pool wouldn’t turn blue at the snap of my fingers. Even with flocculant, it would take a few days to clear, and once it got there, it would take some consistent TLC to stay that way.

Sure, I could dump a ton of chemicals in it and see some short-term results, but for long-term success, it was the small consistent tasks that mattered the most.

You can apply this same concept to other areas of life as well.

For example, small, yet recurring tokens of appreciation go a long way in relationships. Telling your partner you love them on a regular basis and going out of your way for them makes a huge difference in the long-term.

In terms of career development, small, consistent changes can have both a direct and indirect impact. Learning a new skill or gaining new experiences can yield better jobs and better pay, as well as more respect and authority.

3. A change of course may be needed at times.

In my first couple summers of owning this pool, I learned mostly by trial and error. I would read some article about pool chemistry online or watch a quick YouTube video, and when things didn’t work or make sense, I tried something else.

Is that the smartest or most efficient approach? Probably not. But I learned a lot more in the process, and took more pride in it when things worked.

The downside is that I may have done more harm than good. Sure, I learned as I went, but it cost me an ass-ton of time of money in the process. I eventually had to ask myself: “Do I want to keep pouring resources into this pool and losing time with my family, or do I want to hire someone who can help me get on track and become a smarter pool owner?”

A change of course was desperately needed, so I went with option 2.

In life, we often get to a point where we’re just spinning our wheels. The thing that worked yesterday or even five years ago no longer does the trick. Career growth becomes stagnant. Your workout loses its thrill as gains begin to slow. Your business passion begins to fade. Something traumatic happens in your life and that fire inside of you turns to smoke.

When the cloudiness sets in and you’re uncertain about what direction to go next, that’s typically a cue that it’s time for a change. It’s time to mix things up and try something different.