I’ve recently taken up swimming and those long quiet stretches doing lengths got me thinking about the value of humility. I haven’t swum properly since I was pregnant with my first child and before that since I was a child myself. I’ve recently gone back to the pool as a fitness push – but it didn’t go to plan.
Your Identity
I’d say I’m a fairly fit person. I’ve run two marathons in the last few years and I’m in the last few belts now of kickboxing. In my head, that made me fit, and I’m proud of it – it’s been years of hard work and attempting to make good choices. Turns out though, swimming is a whole different thing. Being running fit did not translate into being swimming fit.
There was cramping. There was swallowed pool water. There was exhaustion and a lot of frustration. It wasn’t pretty. I wasn’t the elegant swimmer pumping out high numbers of lengths I thought (maybe even assumed) I might be. Instead it was a hard, hard graft just to get 20 lengths.
Your Now Versus Next
It didn’t help that I saw someone I knew – I tripped up on pride. I felt the awkwardness of the gap, between where I wanted to be and where I actually was. I felt the need to explain, excuse, to extract empathy.
But my now isn’t where I’ll always be. Like my running, like my kickboxing, like so many things in life, I need to practice, invest time and learn some skills. Maybe I’ll look into adult coaching – get some advice from someone more experienced.
So I’m taking the lesson in humility, that I’m far from where I want to be, but where else do you start out? The beauty is putting the work in and eventually looking back at how far you’ve come. Much like running your own business, it’s an uphill battle sometimes but eventually you get to enjoy a good view. So here’s to tackling the hard stuff, it’s the only way we grow.
Photo by Marcus Ng on Unsplash