Put together from the thoughts of Mike Gustafson of usaswimming.org
So many times in our lives we have what I like to call “Feet Eyes.” We’re walking down a path, and it’s at night, and we’re only looking at our feet. We can only see what’s in front of our feet, which is usually some rocks, a few twigs. We can’t see down the path, we can’t see what’s coming. Maybe the flashlight is too weak. Maybe it’s foggy that night. Whatever the case, we have Feet Eyes. We’re just staring at our feet, unable to see down the path or what’s at the end. Well, eventually, if you stay on that path long enough, the sun will come up, birds will chirp, the fog and nighttime blanket will lift, and you’ll be able to see again.
I know this is a cheesy metaphor, but go with me. When we’re young, our path just seems so much smaller than what it really is. We can’t see what’s ahead. We can’t see where we’ve been. My advice, first of all, is to just keep walking. Just keep walking down that path. In my (also short and naïve) experience with life, when I’m walking down a path, staring at my feet, unable to see ahead, I’ll stick it out, and continue to walk. One minute, I have Feet Eyes. And the next minute, suddenly, the sun rises – briefly – and I realize I’m standing on the edge of a hill, overlooking a beautiful mountain valley, with a stream and all sorts of other beautiful, mushy, gushy, wonderful things. Then it goes away, and it’s night again. But at least I remember that one vision of all that beautifulness, even if it was just a millisecond long – and that keeps me going. My point (sorry this is so cliché) is that we don’t know where we’re walking until we know where we are, and “knowing where we are” sometimes takes a while to see.
We are not defined by the activities we do but by our actions and how we do our activities.
Zen Buddhists believe that the whole point of life is not necessarily what you do, but how you do it. By staying in the moment and focusing all energy on the present, you can do virtually anything and still find meaning. You can find purpose whether you are sweeping rocks on a beach or swimming 400 IM repeats.
When you find joy and happiness in something as arbitrary as swimming in a pool, when you push off the wall and think, “Now I will work hard and adjust the pitch of my hands like this and ignore this amount of pain and all that doubt I feel,” you’re not floating in arbitrary space anymore. You’re learning. You’re improving character. Like a Zen Buddhist sweeping a driveway for hours on end, in the pool, you can learn infinite amounts about yourself, your mentality, your attitude, and your adjustment to pain and doubt.
Swimming is a vehicle to learn these things - but only if you want it to be. Swimming like virtually any activity, is simply a vehicle to connect to yourself and be in the moment and learn how to cope when difficulties arise, you will understand more about yourself, your brain, your body, and – as cheesy as it sounds – your soul.
Our choices define us and we can always choose to change.
The definition of a ‘pool’ is whatever you want it to be. The definition of ‘swimming’ is whatever relevancy you allow it to have in your life. If you think swimming is all about results or obtaining an arbitrary goal, then it will be. If you think swimming is a vehicle towards understanding yourself and how to overcome obstacles more, then it will be.
We set goals not to achieve them but to compel us to become the person it takes to achieve them.
The point of our sport is the people who fully invest themselves in it, who immerse themselves in it, because it makes them feel strong, or better, or healthier. I’ve always found that the people who “don’t care” about swimming, or “don’t care” about any activity in general, are also the people who haven’t fully invested themselves into that activity. Not fully. They haven’t felt the pain involved with failure after putting their entire soul into a pursuit, only to lose.
The journey to becoming the person capable of achieving that goal is infinitely more important than actually achieving the goal itself.
Ultimately, when I found myself truly investing my heart and soul into swimming – really going after goals, enjoying the process, embracing this fleeting opportunity to mesh mind, body, and soul in common pursuit of a goal – that’s when I have believed swimming does matter.
Because, to me, it does. It didn’t always, but it does now. Swimming taught me how to keep a great attitude. How to overcome injury. It’s taught me that pain exists in the mind. Swimming taught me that no obstacle is a real obstacle. It’s taught me that effort is more valuable than success. And so on.
What has swimming taught you about yourself?
I’m just telling you my own experience with this sport. Swimming didn’t give me end-all be-all euphoria or enlightenment, but it has taught me a few things about myself, and it’s only taught me those things because I didn’t quit, and because, over time, I invested myself fully into the activity. It’s made me feel strong, even for just a few, short, fleeting moments in my life – moments I return to during times of hardship, when I think to myself, “If I can survive 10x 400 IMs, I can survive this.”
But that’s me. You’re different. Swimming might not teach you these things. And that’s OK, too.
The meaning of life is up to us. And it’s dictated by our actions. Life is so short and so fleeting, we have a limited opportunity to do things with our lives. If you decide to continue to swim, my advice to you is to pour your entire self and soul into it. That’s the only way to see how it can matter. Or, if you decide to take calculus, no matter how trivial or boring, pour yourself into it. If you decide to take a walk, pour your entire being into that walk. If you decide to clean the table, clean it. It sounds ridiculous and silly, but really clean that table. Embrace where you are, the things around you, and be in the moment, whatever that moment may be. There are Buddhist monks who seek enlightenment by sweeping rocks. To you or me, sweeping rocks seems to be about as boring as it sounds – it’s just sweeping rocks. But to them, sweeping rocks is a way towards spiritual enlightenment.
