“When continual improvement is the goal, momentum plays a vital role. When momentum stops—so does improvement, leaving swimmers feeling stagnant, discouraged, and fearful.”
– Olympic Coach Nick Baker
Dear Swimmer,
Have you ever said this to yourself?
- That’s too hard.
- That’s for other people, not me.
- I wish I could.
- I can’t do that.
- It’s too late for me.
- I don’t deserve it.
Just like that, you shut yourself down! You reject your creative impulses and dreams before you even had a chance to explore them. Besides missing out on some potentially life-changing swimming experiences, there’s another potential problem—you’re teaching yourself to ignore your inner voice without even realizing it!
Your inner voice is that still, small voice within that exists to help guide you through life. It’s much kinder and wiser than the doubtful and cynical one that often blabs in your head.
Another name for your inner voice is “gut feeling,” a bodily sense that can be hard to put into words but exist to help you navigate your way through tough times. Unfortunately, when you get in the habit of letting your external opinions guide you, like fear of failure, several bad things can happen.
Your PVC mission is to write down all of the things you know you should do to help yourself swim faster but resist because you listen to your external opinions (and not your inner voice).
You have 72 hours to complete your mission. Your response must be at least 300 words or more, as this will indicate you did some real soul searching. Incidentally, this article is 265 words.