by Olivier Poirier-Leroy 3

Commitments to the team matter.

Is there anything more disappointing than being the teammate that people can’t rely on? You probably have already swum with this teammate at some point, the swimmer who, when they miss practice, isn’t given a second thought as to why they aren’t there. Or it becomes noteworthy when they actually do show up to practice.

The promises and commitments you make to yourself matter, and so do the commitments you make to the team and the goals you guys have for the season.

One of the benefits of swimming with a team and a group are the communal goals and the momentum that they create. It is times specifically like these where that commitment helps to pull you along.

How you do anything is how you do everything.

I recently discussed this exact message recently with the subscribers of the newsletter. How doing the seeming benign things well can have a compounding effect on the other, larger aspects of your life.

Consistency, attendance and effort in one area always bleed over into another. It’s no accident that high performance achievers in one area tend to excel in others as well.

When you are able to suffer through the off-days to get your swimming workouts done you develop a type of resiliency and attention to effort that cannot help but bleed into the other areas of your life.

It’s never just “one.”

Making exceptions is a dangerous thing. Once made they can spread like wildfire. Don’t underestimate your ability to reason your way out of something.

The solution?

Draw a clear line in the sand for your workouts. There are things where you have to miss training, things like a family emergency, illness/injury, and so on. Draw a clear line between those and days like today.

Once you start making exceptions for things like “I just don’t feel like it today” the slippery slope of excuses and rationalizations becomes treacherous and endless.

You’ll feel better after.

It would be impossible for me to count how many times I grudgingly showed up to practice, expecting nothing and feeling rugged, only to emerge from the water an hour and a half later grateful that I’d shown up.

While there have been plenty of times I’ve had my mind racing before practice trying to justify bailing, I’ve not once ended up regretting showing up and doing the practice. (Low expectations tend to have a way of creating higher than expected bounce-back reactions –“Hey,that wasn’t so bad!“).

Often we fall into the line of thinking that because we aren’t feeling super motivated, or because we are stressed out, that we can’t have a good practice, and as a result, there’s no point even going.

In these moments you will surprise yourself. Some of the best practices I’ve had occurred in moments where expectations were hilariously low.

Keep in mind that when all is said and done, nobody ever regretted going to the pool and giving a good effort.

In Closing

Is this a call to go to workout no matter how sick you are? Or when you are neck-deep in overdue assignments? Or when you have a serious family emergency? Of course not. There will be days where the last place you need to be is at the pool.

But for the rest…

See you at practice.