Corporate Ink LogoCorporate Ink Logo - Boston Marketing AgencyCorporate Ink LogoCorporate Ink Logo
  • About
  • Clients
  • Services
  • Expertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Blog
Supply Chain Marketers, Listen Up: The Trends You Need to Know About
March 27, 2018
Crisis Communication Starts with Customer $LUV
April 20, 2018

Remember to breathe

Published by Greg Hakim at March 29, 2018
Categories
  • Corporate Ink
Tags
  • corporate ink
  • hiring

 

One of the best benefits my agency offers is a paid three-week sabbatical. The only rule: give back, or learn or experience something new, but don’t do anything related to marketing or PR.

My opportunity came last year. I decided to get trained as an open-water scuba diver and spent weeks diving the amazing reefs of the Florida Keys. Naturally, after logging about 20 dives last year, I haven’t gone since. Blame it on the extremely cold and very dirty Boston water.

Fast forward to last week, and I’m finally back in warm weather, ready to dive again.

For trained divers, scuba diving is relatively safe. But there’s a lot to remember – like how to safely descend and ascend and the impact of pressure and density at different depths. When you dive 60-feet under, there’s always risk.

So here I am, the night before my trip, frantically searching online for best practices, safety tips and reminders. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous and anxious. During my sabbatical, diving felt like second nature. Now, I couldn’t remember a thing.

Thankfully, Google brought me back to the most important rule of scuba diving: Never stop breathing.

At risk of boring you with too many details, the air in a diver’s lung contracts on the way down and expands on the way up. When you hold your breath, the air can’t escape, which can cause severe damage. Proper breathing is also critical to establishing buoyancy underwater and staying calm. Panic underwater leads to rapid, shallow breathing – causing divers to breathe faster, use their air too quickly, act irrationally and sometimes, drop their regulators and bolt to the surface (a major no-no). In fact, panic is said to cause roughly 20 percent of all scuba fatalities.

That’s why the first lesson divers learn in training is to never stop breathing. Closely behind: stay relaxed underwater. Such simple concepts. And they apply to so much more than scuba.

We’re all under intense pressure – at work, home and in our personal lives. But when you lose your cool, and your stress affects how you communicate with others and make decisions, the results are never pretty.

If that message didn’t hit me hard enough, a few days later I was browsing Quora (a new guilty pleasure of mine) and I came across a thread on “the best advice anyone ever gave you.” The top-rated answer: “Strike while the iron is cold.” The basic premise: when emotions and stress are running hot, take a step back, collect yourself, and then act.

Or in other words: remember to breathe.

Interested in exploring a career at Corporate Ink? We’re always looking for talented tech marketing and PR talent. Check out our current opportunities here.

Share
0
mm
Greg Hakim
Greg’s an expert at building marketing and PR programs that drive real business results and knowing which levers to pull for maximum impact. His primary motivator is building a people-first workplace and talent-led agency that enables his clients to grow, lead and overachieve.

Related posts

Marketing executives are watching the economy closely in the new year. Prepare for everything with must-watch 2023 economic trends.
January 9, 2023

Worried about a Recession in 2023? Here are 10 Must-Watch Economic Trends


Read more
Corporate Ink had a great year in 2022. Tori Stevenson reflects on all the successes of 2022, in and out of the office.
December 20, 2022

Corporate Ink’s Year in Review: Big Wins & Reasons to Celebrate


Read more
Corporate Ink Vice President Tori Stevenson covers how the team successfully made the switch to a four-day workweek.
December 1, 2022

Corporate Ink’s 4-Day Workweek: How We Made It Possible


Read more

Comments are closed.

The Power of
Buyer-Centric PR

We are Corporate Ink - a buyer-centric B2B tech PR and content marketing agency in Boston. We build brands. We create demand. And we accelerate growth.

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram

About Us
Careers
Blog

Contact
Services
Expertise

    Interested in learning more? Fill out the contact form below and we'll provide you with the latest and greatest from Corporate Ink!

    © 2019 Corporate Ink. All Rights Reserved. InSightCCM.com