Success and Hydrodynamics – Life Lessons from the Pool
THE HISTORY
Keep your elbow up. Reach and slide. No, keep your arm straight, don’t drop it. Toes in the water first. Keep your hand cupped like a spoon, not a fork, not a knife, a spoon. Rotate your hips. Keep your body rigid. Your whole body should lean to one side. Rotate your hips. Don’t spread your legs. Keep them straight. Breathe every third puff. Keep your elbow up. Reach and slide. Rotate your hips. Rotate your hips. Rotate your hips!
I thought I knew how to swim.
I mean, I love water. I always have. I took swimming lessons as a child and spent my summers in the pool. I took the “walk in water until you feel like you’re going to die” test and passed with flying colors. For a while I even thought I was going to be a marine biologist and swim with the whales for a living.
In fact, it was partly my love of swimming that made me choose to train for a triathlon in the first place.
You see, I was taking a home study course on life achievement, and one of the exercises was writing a list of 101 things you want to do before you die. As I thought about what would really give me a sense of accomplishment, a marathon popped into my head. Boy, if I could finish a marathon, that would really be something. The problem is that I don’t like running!
At the time, I had a friend who was training for a triathlon. I love to swim, I thought, and I also like to ride my bike, so I scored a triathlon instead.
On my first day of swim training, I jumped into the water with confidence. I set out to do my first front crawl down the lane and…quickly hurt my shoulder.
What? That never happened when I was a kid! What had he done wrong?
My research into my shoulder injury quickly led me to the conclusion that, in fact, I couldn’t swim.
Countless articles and YouTube videos revealed that to avoid injury, you have to swim a certain way. You must keep your elbow up. Your fingers must return to the water first. You should bring your arm in front of your body, not to the side.
So I humbly began the process of “re-learning” how to swim.
And boy, was it frustrating. So many things to think about at the same time! She could barely keep everything in order. After a while I was able to get it right when I was going slow, but when I sped up I fell on my old clothes and just flopped around in the pool.
I constantly had to remind myself that if I wanted to be successful, I had to learn the principles of success, in this case, the principles of hydrodynamics. It wouldn’t do to continue my old habits in the pool. If I did, I would continue to injure myself, I wouldn’t be able to go as far, and because I wasn’t as efficient, I would quickly lose strength and not be able to complete the race.
THE LESSON
Just like in the pool, the principles of success are part of the fabric of the Universe. There is no use going our own way: we will only injure ourselves or work more than necessary to reach our goal, if we achieve it at all.
No, the best course of action is to understand the universal laws that govern what we are trying to do and work with them to our best advantage.
If I understand hydrodynamics, if I understand how to position and move my body in the most aerodynamic way, the law will work with me, instead of against me. The law will actually push me towards my goal, instead of holding me back.
The laws of success are the same. In fact, Wallace D. Wattles, in his classic book, The Science of Getting Rich, wrote:
“There is a science to getting rich, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws that govern the process of acquiring riches; once these laws are learned and obeyed by any man, he will become rich with knowledge.” mathematicians”. certainty.
“Ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way; those who do things in this certain way, whether on purpose or by accident, get rich; while those who do not do things in In this Certain Way, no matter how hard you work or how capable you are, you remain poor.”
The other day I was reading one of my triathlon training books and the author mentioned a technique I had never heard of before. In fact, it seemed completely counter-intuitive to me. It wasn’t what I had been taught, not what I had seen other people do. It didn’t make any sense.
Skeptical, I decided to give it a try for just one lap and see what happened. To my amazement, I was able to remove FOUR hits from a length of 25 yards. Reducing my stroke count was something he had been working on, but no matter how much he did, no matter how fast he tried to go, he hadn’t been able to reduce it by even one stroke.
My success in the pool that day was a direct result of setting aside my personal beliefs and learning to work with the laws of hydrodynamics, and it still amazes me today how far I can go and how easy it seems when I apply the correct laws. technique and “go with the flow”.
You really can have whatever you want. But whether you’re learning to swim, working to get rich, or even figuring out how to bake a cake, you need to stop fighting for “your” way of doing things and look for the universal principles that will float you to your goal. Easy way.
TO TAKE ACTION
Are you frustrated with the results you are getting in some area of your life? To take action!
Today’s Action Step: Find someone who is successful at doing what you’re trying to do.
Too often, our tendency is to stick with people who are in the same struggle as us. If we are trying to lose weight, we often go out with other people who are also trying to lose weight. If we’re trying to make ends meet, we hang out with people who are doing the same thing. But in both cases, it is the blind leading the blind. It may make us feel more comfortable, but it rarely helps either side achieve their goals.
Instead, decide today to get in touch with someone who has already lost weight or who has already made money or who has already done what you want to do. There’s a good chance they’ll be willing to help you, or willing to find someone else who can.