A Note on Acceptance
Acceptance is to…
NOTICE —> BREATHE —> CHOOSE —> GO.
This weekend, IDSA had the opportunity to run our very first high school clinic.
I pulled up to Fenwick and was met with 30 girls tired from a Saturday practice so I knew I had to ease into the lecture I had planned .
Who wants to go to school on a Saturday? Not me.
So we began with some breath — can we drop into this present moment together? Recognize that the soreness and fatigue from practice is only making us better? … Yes I guess so.
Alright, and maybe, we’ve got the energy to turn to our teammates and give them 3 compliments about the unique qualities we recognize in them:
“You’ve got an amazing smile.”
“Your energy makes me want to be better!”
“You are kind.”
The mood shifted a bit, nice. Then, maybe some motivational videos could do the trick - I always loved movie time in class.
So I put Kobe on the projector: “Failure doesn’t exist! What does that even mean to fail? You learn something every time you step onto the court … or the field, or the pool deck.” (I’m paraphrasing)…
The focus was solid now and I thought it’d be the perfect time to show the girls some swimcloud stats - specifically the progression of my times from freshman year to senior year.
I wanted them to see that you don’t have to be special - you just have to KEEP GOING. (Shoutout last week’s Current).
My freshman year: I was a 24.82 in the SCY 50 free. By senior year, I became the first high school female to break 22 seconds - going a 21.99.
In the 100 SCY back, my time freshman year was 57.52. Senior year? 51.43 - breaking the National Record at the time.
HOW did I do that? I honestly wanted to say that I didn’t know, but I’d be lying.
A couple things came to mind:
Meditation
Visualization
Goal Setting
Ridiculous Faith
ACCEPTANCE
What did I repeat religiously during the biggest breakout seasons of my career?
I Noticed: how I was feeling, how I was training, what was going well, and what I could do better…
I trained my Breath: whether through yoga, meditation, or the cadence of my inhales and exhales on the wall during a set…
I Chose who I wanted to be: Firstly, an Olympian. A champion. What qualities did those people embody? How can I be more like them?
I took Action: I would GO in the direction of those I admired, in the direction my coaches guided me.
And I repeated that over and over and over again. The stakes got higher every time I had a new ridiculous goal I wanted to reach.
So the last activity with the girls? “Write down a goal that terrifies you, one that you think is totally out of reach - your biggest dream goal.”
“Okay, and now underneath that goal, write these words down: This Goal is Attainable.”
You can do it. You know you can.
Love,
Olivia
This week, think about a goal that scares you …
Notice how you feel about it, and where you currently are…
Breathe through what comes up …
Choose what the person who’s achieved that goal would do.
Go and do that thing.
