Swim Upstream

Transmission Double-O-Seven.

I’ll resist the obvious jokes.

But since we’re here, it’s worth saying this:

There’ll be someone reading this today tasked with a different brief.

That tends to happen when you choose a different path.

My wife said this week that is something I’ve always done.

Swim upstream.

Choose the harder path.

Say the thing others are thinking but won’t voice.

Hold a standard when lowering it would be easier.

She meant it as an observation.

Not a compliment.

But I took it as one.

Because swimming upstream has a personal cost.

When you move against the current, you feel resistance.

From individuals and organisations who are more comfortable drifting.

And occasionally, from people who mistake your refusal to conform for arrogance or betrayal.

There’s a reason salmon don’t swim downstream to reproduce.

Instinct drives them the other way.

Upstream is harder and colder and lonelier.

But it leads somewhere intentional.

Be more salmon!

Over the years I’ve felt that resistance in different forms.

When I chose to leave a career that prized silence and started speaking openly.

When I decided that our academy would operate at the highest standard, even if that meant losing people who didn’t want to meet it.

When I’ve written or said things that made certain institutions uncomfortable.

Pressure has a way of arriving when you refuse to settle for where everyone else is.

But not everyone celebrates you climbing.

There’s an old analogy about crabs in a bucket.

When one starts climbing out, the others pull it back down.

It’s easier to criticise the climber than confront the walls of the bucket.

That dynamic never really goes away.

If you raise your standards, some people will raise theirs with you and join you on the journey.

Others won’t.

And a small number will resent the fact that you did.

That’s not something to fear.

It’s something to understand.

Swimming upstream isn’t rebellion for the sake of it.

It’s alignment.

It’s choosing the path that feels true, even when it isn’t popular.

My wife reminded me of a scene from Dead Poets Society. Robin Williams marching his students around a courtyard, urging them to see the world differently.

To walk out of time and to think for themselves.

Not because it’s dramatic.

Because normal is average.

And average is rarely fulfilling.

Before we go any further, let’s pause and debrief together:

Where in your life are you drifting with the current?

Where are you lowering your standard because it’s easier to fit in?

And where might you need to turn - even slightly - and start swimming the other way?

No judgement.

Just awareness.

Your mission this week (if you choose to accept it):

Pick one area where you know you’ve been compromising.

One difficult conversation that needs to be had.

Raise the standard and hold it.

Even if it costs you comfort.

Even if it costs you approval.

Even if it costs you company.

Because the alternative is quieter and more dangerous.

It’s waking up one day and realising you lived someone else’s version of your own life.

That’s enough for now.

More next Sunday.

Mike
Hold the line. Do the hard things.