Still Swimming!

I told you earlier, that early this year, (Mid Jan), nearly 6 months after my then Physiotherapist suggested it, I finally started swimming one morning a week, due entirely from bumping into a former employer of mine who lives nearby and who swims between 20 – 30 laps 3 days a week at 6AM.

So due to his encouragement and the fact that he picks me up each Friday morning, I started swimming, after probably a 40 year break and even then probably only capable of just doing 20–25 metres at a push. So it has been a real struggle to get up, get in the pool, and get going, let alone actually making it to the end of the 50-metre pool.

Lately, thanks to some advice from my son (Just try and swim a little further each day, even if it is only a half a metre further, at least it is a little further, and eventually you will get there.”) That; and a change in my swimming style helped immensely and now I have been able to swim the length of the pool 8 times without stopping and after a short break do 6 more. So now I am getting keener on swimming than I was originally and starting to look forward to going each week. (Although currently I have had a two-week break because of an ear infection.)

The thing that really surprises me about my swimming, is that I am still doing it 5 months down the track. Had you asked me when I began, how long I would last, I would have said about one month. In fact that was all I mentally committed myself to. I originally refused to buy a ten-entry pass, at a much cheaper rate than a “Daily” entry, as I didn’t think I would last ten weeks. Well I did, and recently I bought a ten-entry pass, and so now I am committed to another 8 weeks (as soon as my ear cleans up) and actually quite looking forward to seeing just how many laps of the pool I will eventually be able to do in the same time as my mate does his. I have no intention or desire to match or even beat him. My only aim is to try and achieve the best that I, myself and me, can do.

What about you? Is there something that you are currently doing, maybe even something you have been coerced into doing against your own initial desires, yet something that know that you know is good for you and that you will personally benefit from it? Well, hang on in there and be encouraged and inspired by others, but only commit and do that which you can do. Don’t try and match or beat others, just do your best and achieve your best, even if it is no good for anyone else but you. What say you?