The Swimmer’s Guide to Creating Awesome Habits

By Olivier Poirier-Leroy (www.swimswam.com)

Going through your days and workouts trying to accomplish everything by virtue of willpower is not only mentally taxing, but comes with a cap. Willpower, or self-control, is much like a muscle in that it gets fatigued after it is used. Combined with the fact that it comes with a limited daily supply, it becomes necessary to find a way to insure that each day, each workout, we are unleashing our best and most intelligent effort.

The secret to making this happen is with habits. Habit takes the behaviors and actions – sticking to your 5-dolphin kick rule even when you are tired – and makes them routine, to the point that you hardly have to think about doing them anymore.

Similar to the way that we don’t have to think about how we brush our teeth, or put on our pants in the morning, you can imbed these positive habits to help you improve your swimming faster than you ever thought imaginable.

All it takes is application with repetition. Sounds simple enough, right? Here are some strategies and tips for installing those awesome, brand new habits:

Start so small that it is impossible to not start.

Wholesale habit-changing works for some people, while it is utterly disastrous for others. If you are like most (including myself), you need to work at a habit for a while before it sticks.

Let’s say you want to instill the habit of doing 5 dolphin kicks off of each start and turn. If you are currently doing none, than jumping from 0 to 5 is not only excruciatingly challenging to the point of being overwhelming, but keeping up that level of change over the long term is very untenable.

Chip away at the habit by committing to doing one dolphin kick off of each wall and no more. Once you are fully comfortable with that, and it has become an engrained habit (meaning that you hardly have to think about it), step it up to 2 or 3 dolphin kicks, and scale upwards accordingly.

When you fall off, jump back on quickly.

Momentum can be your best buddy, or the thing to send you hurtling backwards. When we nail off a series of victories we feel the wind behind our back and our confidence surges. Likewise when we hit a couple defeats in a row we panic, get demoralized, and tell ourselves that we are in an unshakable rut.

The common mental trap that ensnares swimmers when there is a hiccup is that they take it personally. They view missing the rep or workout as indicative of something that is profoundly wrong with them.

See, I don’t deserve success. I had a bad workout, I’ll never swim as fast as so-and-so.

Similarly, staying true to your new habit shouldn’t be a make-or-break proposition. View your habits as a work-in-progress, as something you are continually refining and improving to implement.

You’ll slip up. And it’s okay. It’s what you do what matters next that is key.

Piggyback current behaviors with your new habits.

Disrupting your current life and routines in the name of a new habit is difficult. Despite the sudden willingness to uproot our way of training (“Today is the day I become a championship swimmer!”), try making those things that are going to make you a championship swimmer fit into what you are already doing.

This will make the habit stick harder, and by combining the new habit with an old behavior, you are installing new and productive aspects to your training without completely uprooting your life. Partner up something you are already doing with your new habit, allowing them to become super friends, and the likelihood of the habit sticking will be greater.

Here are some examples, in which the first part is something you are already doing, and the second is the new habit you would like to attach to it:

• After I am done warming-down, I’ll stretch my hamstrings for 20 minutes.
• Once I finish eating dinner on Thursdays, I will do exactly 90 minutes of homework.

Make Fewer Decisions.

There is a lot of value in keeping things extraordinarily simple when it comes to not only your goals, but also your habits. By sticking with just the essentials, you are able to focus better and avoid the multi-tasking Kool-Aid that today’s society demands that we drink out of.

It is no different with our habits and willpower. The less decisions we have to make on a daily basis, the better equipped we are to make the right decisions with the ones that matter most. Even choices that seem simple or easy – should I hang out with so-and-so after school? What should I eat for lunch? – all things that are relatively necessary in our day-to-day life, but also drains the tank of willpower.

The solution? Routinize as much as you can. From the things you wear, to your meals, make all of those relatively mundane things routine so that you can devote your willpower to the things that will impact your life (and swimming) the most.

Prepare for the “what the heck” moments.

You’ve been there. I know you have. Because I have as well. It’s that moment, where you first begin to slip, where your fingers are loosening from the edge, and suddenly a resigned thought floats to the surface, “ah what the heck.” In a dizzying rush we release all of that bottled self-control and drop our new habit with remarkable speed.

Those glorious new habits, so fragile in the opening days and weeks, require some insulation from those moments where you find yourself inundated with thoughts telling you that it doesn’t really matter, that you can skip just one, that no one will notice.

The key in being ready for those moments – and they will happen – is to make things as easy as possible for the execution of your new habits. Any reason, any justification you will and have used in the past to skip out on staying true to your new habit should be minimized.

If you are having a hard time getting up in the morning, get everything ready the night before. Similar to the first point about keeping the starting steps as small as possible, align your life to help your habits have a chance to crystallize and stick.

The Next Step:

Pick 3-5 things that you want to improve with your swimming.

Improving your dolphin kicks. Not picking your head up in the finish. Keeping your elbows up in your catch when you are getting tired.

Pick out the things that will have the most profound impact on your swimming and vow to make these excellent new habits part of your day-to-day training moving forward.

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Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national level swimmer based out of Victoria, BC. In feeding his passion for swimming, he has developed YourSwimBook, a powerful log book and goal setting guide made specifically for swimmers. Sign up for the YourSwimBook newsletter (free) and get weekly motivational tips by clicking here.

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5 Tips To Help You To Discover Your Maximum Potential

By Vincent Tan of http://tinybuddha.com/

“You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you.” ~Eckhart Tolle

Don’t doubt yourself. You are more than enough.

You are good enough. If no one else tells you that, I will reaffirm you that you are good enough to do whatever you want in life. Life is too short for you to paralyze yourself with doubts.

I used to doubt my capabilities, and I was so unhappy and frustrated with life. I tried to bury myself in self-help books to find the answers to achieve success and happiness. One book after another, I kept reading, but I had little results to show for it.

The pain became unbearable, particularly when my friends made fun of the books that I read.

But I didn’t give up. I kept on searching for answers by listening to audio books, reading books, and attending seminars by revered masters in the topic of personal development. One baby step at a time, I started to apply the knowledge I had gained.

That’s when things started to change around me. Once I started applying what I learned, I:

• Created a popular personal development blog without any technical skills.
• Started exercising regularly, ate healthier, and lost thirteen pounds in the process.
• Wrote an eBook to help others to unleash their maximum potential.
• Completed two half marathons and registered for the full marathon at the end of 2010.

After I took action and saw results, I felt much happier and more peaceful with myself. My doubts slowly started to fade away. I thought to myself, “Maybe I am really good enough to achieve in life.”

I am good enough.

This is all any of us need to know. When you believe in yourself, your potential isn’t something you need to reach; it’s something waiting to be discovered.

I want to let you know you are capable of doing anything you want in life. You don’t need to suffer with your doubts.

Here are five ideas to help clear your doubts, build your confidence, and find the sleeping potential within you:

1. Make a conscious choice to pursue personal growth.

The decision to change and grow is a powerful tool that can help you move forward. Make a decision that you will start to pursue growth. Start reading books and blogs about stretching yourself, listen to audio books, or attend seminars with other like-minded people.

Materials and mentors are everywhere. There are many blogs, books, and podcasts on personal development. Tiny Buddha is a good place to start. Go read up the articles and quotes in this blog. There are many lessons and tips that can help you discover your inner potential.

2. Set a goal to work toward.

It’s easy to feel aimless when you don’t have a concrete goal you’re working toward. Narrow in on what you’d like to accomplish in the near future. Maybe it’s to get fit, start your own business, or clear your debts. The point is to get specific about exactly what you’d like to do and when.

Ask yourself, “If I knew I couldn’t fail, what would I want to achieve?” Don’t drag out this process by trying to find the perfect answer. There is no perfect answer, and the only way you can find the answer is through trial and error.

When you delay action, you make it harder to identify the things you’d enjoy doing. The only way to learn is to jump into something that sounds right and make adjustments as you go.

3. Take baby steps.

Action fights doubts. By taking small steps, you’re building evidence to show your mind that you are more and can do more than you think.

Now that you have something to aim for, brainstorm for ways to get yourself to where you want to be. A good plan is to look to people who have already done what you’d like to do.

Seek them out and learn from them. You can find out whether they have blog, coaching programs, or books that you can read. Having a mentor will help you accelerate your growth progress. They can help point out what you need to do and avoid to follow in their footsteps.

4. Keep a success list.

We all need reminders that we are good enough. You are more than capable enough to achieve whatever you want to achieve, but you might forget that when you hit an obstacle. A success list can help to remind you why you shouldn’t let go of your confidence.

A success list is the collection of all your accomplishments. Get a book or create a personal blog. Record all accomplishments regardless it is big or small. Here are some examples of what you can record in your success list.

• Completed all your tasks in your to-do list
• Workout for three days in a week
• Jogged around your block
• Created your own blog
• Attracted 10 subscribers to your blog

Don’t worry about whether your accomplishments are big or small. If it is an accomplishment, just record it down in your success list.

When you start to doubt yourself, go get your success list. Look at all of the positive things you’ve done. Remind yourself that you are capable and you have the evidence to prove it.

Large accomplishments are really just a collection of small accomplishments. Your confidence will also grow when you are aware that you are accomplishing something.

5. Set your own bench mark.

Don’t ever think that your accomplishments are too small to be proud of. It may seem that way if you start comparing yourself to other people. Even if you complete a marathon, there will be others out there who completed an iron man race. It’s an endless cycle when you compare yourself to others all the time.

Set your own benchmark. Be proud of yourself if you’re making progress. Some people progress faster than others will. That’s okay. Life is not a sprint; it’s a marathon.

Focus on what you can do to improve yourself instead of comparing yourself to other people. Keep growing, setting goals, and moving forward, one step at a time, and you will continually impress yourself.

It doesn’t matter how slowly we go. What matters is that we keep going.

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About Vincent Tan

Vincent writes at HealthMoneySuccess, a personal development blog that teaches you how to change your life and design your desired lifestyle. Get his free ebook, Unleash Your Maximum Potential by signing up for his free personal development newsletter. You can subscribe to his blog to receive his latest updates and you can add him on Twitter @vincent_tan

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Mental Endurance Is As Important As Physical

By Seeley Gutierrez

"The longest distance in any race is the 6 inches between your ears."

Although this quote is originally attributed to a golfer, I think it applies most accurately to any distance athlete. Swimmers, cyclists, runners, triathletes — individual sport athletes whose primary goal is to get to the finish line as quickly as possible.

And when we're in the middle of a race or training session, when we feel as though our head will explode and our legs can't move any faster, how do we find the persistence to press on? It all comes down to mental toughness, an often overlooked but extremely important component for anyone serious about reaching their potential.

Perhaps the most important strategy to improve mental toughness in race situations is making a connection in every workout to how that workout will help you achieve your long term goals. Prior to each workout, take a moment to think about how that session will help you on race day. For key workouts, like interval sessions or long runs, this may seem obvious. Using this strategy on recovery days is also beneficial, as it can serve as a reminder to take it easy or focus on technique.

Don't be afraid of mentally pushing yourself during workouts. Entering "the pain cave," as some refer to it, during sessions can help you develop strategies for how to deal with similar feelings during a race. When you feel the lactate building in your legs during a track session, think about how you will handle a similar feeling on race day. Will you slow down so your legs don't hurt as bad, will you start beating yourself up for running so slowly or will you acknowledge the discomfort and move on, perhaps stating a positive affirmation, such as "the faster my legs go now, the faster they will go on race day"?

If you allow yourself to start down the path of self-pity or negative talk, your performance will most likely suffer. Oftentimes when you find yourself in this downward mental spiral, you are focusing on things out of your control, like the weather, water conditions or your competitors.

The key to success in endurance sports is to stay relaxed. If you allow yourself to get worked up over things out of your control, you are using valuable energy you will need to get you to the end of your race. Instead of focusing on the negative event, try shifting your focus to your breathing pattern. Even if you are at your max effort, try to consciously calm your breathing. This should help move your focus from whatever is causing you stress to something you are able to control.

Another stress reduction tip you may want to utilize is to perform a full body scan. Start by relaxing your face muscles. Just relaxing the muscles in your face can cause other muscles to relax as well. Continue relaxing your muscles downwards through the tips of your toes. Not only will you get the benefit of performing in a less tense state, you will also stop the negative chit-chat going on inside your head.

Experiencing ups and downs in endurance is a part of the sport, but how you deal with them is up to you. Developing strong mental skills will help you perform consistently through training and racing challenges.

Seeley Gutierrez is a social worker by day. She has been competing in triathlon since 2001.