Life Lessons From Swimming

My swimming journey came with a whole lot of experiences and lessons that I got a chance to learn from. The reason I call them ‘ life lessons’ is that, over the years, I realized that everything I picked up from my experiences, I ended up incorporating in my other activities as well. I recognized that everything I learned will help me throughout my life.

Everyone needs to learn how to be disciplined. Swimming helped me learn this skill at a young age. Initially, it was hard. However, I set a goal and always tried to ace it. Being disciplined slowly became easier and I like to think it’s because I was disciplined about something that I was passionate about. Reaching a goal is anyway going to be very hard; why should you make it harder by not being disciplined? Of course, being disciplined does require you to sacrifice several other things that may seem more important, but are really not. In the end, it is the discipline that helps you accomplish your aim.

No one gets away without putting in hard work, no matter how talented you are. Competitive swimming forced me to work super-hard, not only in the pool but at school as well. I missed a lot of school and had to catch up at home. I used to train twice a day, so the only time I really got to study was an hour at night. Even though my schedule was tiring, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Tenacity came with hard work. It’s not about putting in the hard work for a week, but for the whole year. Trust me, it isn’t that bad, as long as you’re doing something you’re truly passionate about.