Hello from Belle!

Published 2 months ago • 1 min read

SURFACE INTERVAL

The start of a leap into the unknown

I’m about to pack up my life and head to the Philippines to try and dive 40m into the ocean.

Let’s rewind.

At the start of 2026 I quit a job I loved.

Actually, let’s rewind some more.

After a decade in community services I was working as a People & Culture Executive, trying to be a good leader for other people. Someone asked me, “But Belle, what do you want” and I couldn’t answer that question.

Trying to do something for myself, I booked a freediving course on Lord Howe Island and then had really intense anxiety about the trip. I had been trying to work out what I wanted and instead I’d booked a trip to somewhere I’d never heard of, doing an activity I almost certainly wasn’t physically capable of, and worst of all it was in the water where I couldn’t wear my cochlear implant - I'd be totally deaf.

But as a side effect of working for a deaf organization, I'd stopped being ashamed of my disability, and advocating for my own access had become second nature. But still - I'd felt like a burden for 30 something years and that does not go away overnight.

I was terrified. But I went anyway.

I found something on that trip I wasn’t expecting to find and I met a version of myself I wasn’t expecting to meet

Fast forward to now and I’ve left a genuinely fulfilling job to try and become a freediving instructor. It’s not an easy goal - achieving the physical requirements will take a combination of practice, skill, and fitness. But more than anything, freediving is an internal journey, where to progress you need to let go of many truths you might have thought were immutable.

It’s that internal journey that has given me a perspective on leadership that I want to share.

A version of myself that can dive 40m deep does not exist yet. I've already left behind the known and the safe, and I have absolutely no idea what's coming. I'll be honest - I am really scared. What if I fail? What if I look stupid? But freediving has taught me those are not reasons not to try.

You might find something useful in watching this unfold. I hope so. Either way - welcome and thank you for being here.

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