Swimming for the Win

I recently read somewhere that in order to consider yourself an expert at something you must do it for 90 minutes a day without stopping. The principle, much like in exercise is to push yourself beyond ‘comfortable’, into ‘challenge’ and then recover.

I’ve decided to apply this in my life. I do not do things to merely be ‘good’ at them. The perfectionist in me has to pursue the ‘expert’ level. This makes me both a fierce competitor and a sore loser.

Today I decided to continue to put the principle in action. Today I swam. This time with a new resolve ‘be an expert at this, LLE’. Ninety minutes of continual, nonstop, quiet swimming. This is my resolve.

I’ve been a water baby my whole life- lessons when I was five at Maslow Pool with the instructor who looked like Joey McIntyre from New Kids on the Block, a pool in my backyard growing up. Truly a Vegas kid. Then when I was 14, I decided to take up swimming competitively. My mom took me to practice three times a week. She’d read a book and sit in the concrete bleachers. She bought me all the necessary equipment and I ran around my house with a swim cap on- I was so excited. For a whole summer I swam. My shoulders began to get definition. (For a chubby kid, this was impressive.) Then, one day, I found something else to be an expert in and I moved from competitive swimming to competitive performance. I moved past it and chose something else. Now, here I am relinquishing the past and reclaiming my right in the pool.

Today I was stopped by a wonderfully nice man in the lane next to me. With five minutes left on the clock he said “Wow, you look like you could do that all day.”

“Oh! Thank you. This is what I am doing for 90 minutes, every day.”

He was taken aback. “I do one lap and I’m tired.” he said.

Wow, I thought. Really? Am I actually good at this? Has old and new training paid off? Have I passed novice? Am I getting closer to expert?

Yes.

You see, I’ve been on this regimen for about a week- on and off. During this past summer I would swim for an hour, but wasn’t pushing myself past the ‘intermediate’ level. Today’s impressed neighbor has renewed my drive for the ‘expert’ status and led me to a refreshed determination to make this a part of my life while also incorporating it into the practice of my business.

Had I known I already had an advantage in this swim-challenge, perhaps I wouldn’t have been so slow to start. Perhaps, being an expert is within reach. Perhaps, the thought was always scarier than the action.

And so goes with my business. The more I develop, the more I pursue the goal of being an ‘expert’, the more I realize how far I already am in this game.

“Lauralie, this is the point in time where you will determine if you win or lose.” says my muse, Carla Taylor.

Her advice ringing true. Will I do it? Will I go full force in my business or will I shrink away at the thought of ‘becoming’?

Pshawwww, no. I’ve got this. In the pool. In my business.

This passion, the excitement of the competition and the challenge of winning makes me keep swimming. Plus, what can I say, the water’s nice. Feels like I could do it all day.

Carry on, carry on.

Expert, hello.