Heya Team,
Being in the full National Competition season now,
its a good time to sit down and re-visit your goals.
Sooooo I have question for ya.
What is it that you want to do with your time in the pool?
What goals and aspirations do you have?
And I don’t mean…
“I want to swim fast.”
Or…
“I’d like to be a good swimmer.”
I mean in precise, exact terms, what do you really want?
Is it a specific time? Placing on a team? Winning a particular race? Proving the doubters in your life wrong?
And no, don’t look to your idols and say that’s what you want.
It’s tempting to look around at what someone else is doing and think to yourself, “Hey, that looks cool. I wanna do that too.”
And then getting frustrated when we don’t achieve the success that they are seeing.
(More on the downsides of comparison-making another time.)
Look…
It’s impossible to achieve anything until you know precisely what it is you want… deep down…in your heart-of-hearts.
You know…
That thing you dream about.
That you visualize about when you should be studying.
The thing that is always in the back of your mind, no matter what else you are doing.
Avoid Bad-Bad Goals
On the other hand, we can all fairly easily say with alarming specificity what we don’t want.
I don’t want to DQ on my biggest race of the year.
I don’t want my goggles to fill up when I dive in.
I don’t want to disappoint my coach at the big meet.
We are naturally drawn to the fearful and the negative side of things.
But if you want to initiate action, momentum, confidence and all the other goodies that come with positive, forward movement, you need to figure that thing out…
Whatever it is that you really want.
Change only happens when we make the decision.
How often do you tell yourself that things are going to change? That you are tired of the status quo? That you want better for yourself?
The current status is comfortable. It is familiar.
But if you really want change…
You gotta start out by figuring out what it is you really want to accomplish in the water.
Stay strong and trust the work and the process
Now that we are in the nitty gritty of the season, be prepared for the body to be going through some strange states. Taper alone has some extreme ups and downs as your body is transitioning from a training state to a racing state.
You will have some moments of brilliance and some moments of well... no so brilliance.
But remember your goal is to be fast when and where it counts.
So Trust the process.
Trust in your Coach.
We have been there and we have experienced it all.
See you at the pool!