The whole session was not as boring or hard as I thought it might be. In fact the hardest part of it was the last 15 minutes of the session. Not because I was getting tired, but because this was the first time that I checked my progress by the clock. I had forgotten to wear a watch for the swim so thought no problem, I'll just check my timing on the pool clock. I then thought to myself, why don't I ignore the clock and just concentrate on each stroke or my thoughts at the time. This I did for the next 75 minutes.
Now, here's a strange thing, the moment I checked in with the clock at 75 minutes my swim felt very hard and tiring. Nothing had changed apart from my awareness of time. So a valuable lesson was learned - ignore time and stay in the NOW. The NOW is the only thing that we have control over and can do anything about. I am now convinced that goals, be they athletic, personal or business only seem big or scary when viewed through the filter of time.
For example, say you want a mid-life career change and decide you want to become a Doctor. I would bet that the greatest barrier to stop someone is not the cost, intellectual demands or the method of training. I would suggest that the biggest obstacle is time and the time it will take to train. You see most of us fall in love with the end result - the money, the trappings or the status. But so many of us are put off attaining those things by the process and time involved in getting them; not ignoring the effort involved either. But if you did want to become that Doctor in 6-8 years time, then NOW is the time to start out on that journey. You're going to get to 6-8 years time anyway, so why waste the opportunity! The same can be said for an Ironman or Double Ironman - focus on what you can do now in working towards that goal.
I just need to remember this when the going gets tough and all I want is to finish. I'll let you know what I learn when that NOW comes!
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