Daffodil Principle

Why do I love that I get to teach survival swim skills to kids?

To put it simply, it is because I am investing in the future.

I am investing not only in my community and the world around me, but I am investing in the lives of numerous individual children. I make a difference daily. I am making a positive change in my world for each child whose life is changed by the gift I can give them. That gift is survival swim skills.

There is a story called The Daffodil Principal that my husband shared with me years ago after he heard it at a conference he attended for his job. The story is about investing in the future.

I get to do that daily! I am investing in the future of each child that I am blessed to teach! 

You see, “The Daffodil Principal – A Story About Investing in the Future” talks about this beautiful place, a mountain side, covered in daffodils. A sight to behold; people come from all over to see it. It is said to be a real place. Imagine a mountainside covered in “ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow” daffodils!

The story questions, “How did it get that way?”

The story gives us the answer:

“50,000 bulbs”

“One at a time, by one woman.”

“Two hands, two feet, and very little brain.”

It was by one woman who wanted to make a difference in her corner of the world.

As the story tells it, “just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, she had changed the world in which she lived.”

That whole story, I realized this morning, sums up – in a nice little package with a bow on top – why I love being blessed with teaching survival swim to children and babies.  It is that fact that I am investing in the future “one baby step at a time – learning to love the doing, learning to the use the accumulation of time.  We multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.” And the same goes for my kiddos that I teach… “one baby step at a time – learning to love the doing (the water) and learning to use the accumulation of time (15-minute lessons).  As that time builds up lesson by lesson, these kiddos can multiply “tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort,” and they too “can accomplish magnificent things” (survival skills in and around the water).

One last thing: I recommend that you look up The Daffodil Principle and read it.  Your time will not be wasted.  You may find yourself asking:

“What is your garden?”

“What are you doing to create it?”

“The Daffodil Principle-A Story About Investing in the Future”: www.betterlifecoachingblog.com/2011/04/15/the-daffodil-principle-a-story-about-investing-in-the-future/ 

Alicia Allen

Swim instructor, Oklahoma Swim Academy