What Deep Diving Taught Me About Habit Change

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Welcome to The Pressure Zone, a weekly newsletter with tools and mental models for those who play life on hard mode.

Today’s Zone Brief

Last time, we explored why this newsletter is called The Pressure Zone and why it’s okay for you to feel tired during seasons of sprinting towards your goals.

This week, we're diving into the pressure zone itself: how deep-sea divers “decompress” after returning from the depths, and what their ascent can teach us about navigating change in both your personal and professional life.

Framework: What Deep Diving Taught Me About Habit Change

130ft down, your gauges are ticking. You and your buddy are at the end of a successful dive and have checked off some serious bucket list items from your list. It’s time to come up.

You see the sunlight above, your air gauge dipping lower, and instincts scream the same thing: “Up”. But if you obey that impulse, you risk more than discomfort. You could cripple yourself before you ever break the surface.

I’ve been lately thinking of this as a metaphor for habit change. If you try to “surface” from a deeply ingrained behavior too fast, the pressure inside you fights back.

The result? Relapse, burnout, or self-sabotage.

The Science of Dive Decompression

Decompression theory has a deep history in diving (pun intended). But the basic version is easy to understand.

At depth, the pressure forces more nitrogen from the air you breathe into your blood and tissues. Ascend too fast, and those nitrogen bubbles expand dangerously, just like a soda can fizzing over when you pop it open too quickly.

Divers use decompression stops, deliberate pauses along the ascent, to let their bodies adapt to the change in pressure.

Why fast change fails

Over the years, every habit we build, good or bad, takes us a little deeper. Layer by layer, those patterns create their own psychological pressure.

Your body and brain have an internal drive to maintain stability, called homeostasis. Whenever you make a change, all your systems try to bring you back to the baseline.

Your brain doesn’t care if your baseline is healthy or harmful; it just knows it’s “normal.” And normal is what it will fight to protect. The further you drift from the baseline, the stronger the drive.

When you try to change too quickly, you’re not just fighting the habit; you’re fighting your brain’s pressure regulation system.

Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast

So how do you apply this to your life?

If you are considering starting a workout routine, don’t jump straight from couch to six days a week of CrossFit with the goal of shedding 20 pounds in a month. Begin by walking 10-20 minutes after each meal and working out once a week. Then, increase the frequency and intensity.

If you are considering eating healthier, instead of cutting sugary drinks from your diet, consider replacing them with 3-4 liters of water. If that’s challenging at first, consider flavored water.

Want to network more? Don’t go from zero events to five a week. Start by sending one message a week to someone you admire.

Trying to stop scrolling on your phone before bed? Don’t banish it overnight. First, charge your phone across the room. Consider moving it to another room. Then replace 10 minutes of scrolling with reading. Expand from there.

Each step along the way serves as your “decompression stop,” allowing your body and mind to adapt to your new habit and establish a new baseline.

Why Most People Skip Decompression (and Fail)

We live in a culture obsessed with overnight transformations.

Our feeds overflow with highlight reels: people who’ve shed 100 pounds in three months, quit their jobs and became multi-millionaires in the same timespan, learned a new language in a week, or “found themselves” on a 10-day retreat.

This zero-to-hero narrative lacks respect for how long the old habits’ “pressure” has been building.

And here’s the kicker. Most people telling these stories aren’t giving you the full picture. They’re selling you a magic pill, not the messy, gradual reality of lasting change.

In diving, that’s like skipping your decompression stops because someone told you they once shot straight to the surface and “felt fine.” Maybe they got lucky. Most people don’t.

How to Apply the Decompression Rule to Habit Change

1. Read Your Gauges

   • Divers constantly check depth, time, and air supply. You should track your habit-change metrics: mood, energy, cravings, progress markers. Don’t rely on “feel”. Measure it.

2. Have a Dive Buddy

   • Divers rarely go alone. Your buddy is an accountability partner: a friend, coach, or community who keeps you honest when the surface looks too tempting.

3. Plan Your Stops Before You Dive

   • Every dive has an ascent plan. Before you start changing a habit, map out your “stops”, the smaller milestones between where you are now and where you want to be.

4. Control Your Ascent Rate

   • Divers ascend at a safe speed (usually 30 feet per minute). Translate this into your change: no more than one major shift at a time. Resist stacking new habits too quickly.

5. Off-Gas Between Stops

   • After each milestone, give yourself time to adapt. Lock in the new behavior for a week or two before adding more.

6. Surface With Reserves

   • Divers never finish a dive with empty tanks. End your habit-change journey with extra willpower and resources so you don’t burn out the moment you “reach the surface.”

Big changes are like a deep dive. You can blast to the surface and gamble with the decompression sickness, or you can respect the ascent and arrive strong enough to stay there.

And remember, 1% changes compound over time. It doesn’t matter how long it took you to get there; it matters that you stay there for the long haul.

The Pressure Test

What’s one habit you’ve tried to “surface” from too quickly? And what would your next decompression stop look like if you slowed down?

I’d love to know how this newsletter is landing. What part of this week’s mental rep stuck with you, or what would you want me to explore more deeply next time?

Just hit reply. I read and respond to every message, and your feedback shapes the next issue.

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