Have you ever wondered where you fit in? What am I supposed to be doing? Is this my purpose?
Each of us are put into groups. You can call them sandboxes, clicks, or clubs! I call them swimming lanes.
I guess I like this term because it fits into my lifestyle at the moment. I am training for Ironman Boulder. This is 2 of 12 for The Chase.
Well, to the point. When you are swimming in a pool there are typically swimming lanes. Each marked by ropes on each side and a black strip on the bottom of the pool. The reasons for them are to keep you in the lane and as straight as possible. These are tools to make you efficient.
Our life and careers are like being in the swimming lane. The black line represents our path. It shows us the way. We periodically put our face in the water to ensure we are still going the right way. The ropes keep us within the boundaries so we do not get completely off track. We can get off path a little and explore other areas. The ropes represent our values, our integrity. They are our character.
Typically in life and our careers we get overwhelmed. We feel as if the world is coming down on us. That is when we need to just breath. That is when we need to assess our vision. Am I still on this path? Like swimming, every few strokes we need to breath and sight our vision. The vision is the other side of the pool. The swim stroke and technique is a representation of our everything else we need to be successful. It is our attitude, communication, relationships, and our accountability. These things help us to reach our goals faster, more efficiently. In life, there are plenty of people and times when we have bad attitudes, poor communication, not enough relationships, we do not accept responsibility for our actions. Also, in life all these things can be quite the opposite, or some we are great at and others not so great. Either way, the point is these tools make us successful. These tools move us forward the better we are at using them. They move us along our path faster.
Also, when swimming I look to see who is the best swimmer here today. That is who I want to swim next to. Why? Well, we are typically only as good as those around us. Swimming next to someone better makes you swim better. If not necessarily better, it surely makes you work harder.
Just like in our career we want to get to the top as fast as we can so you work on all these things. You surround yourself with the best possible people to learn from. You work on your attitude, communication, relationships, so you become efficient and better. When you are overwhelmed you stop for a moment so you can breathe and sight your vision.
So yeah, we are all in swimming lanes. And some of us, we are still holding on to the other end watching others improve and making it the other side faster. You can live your life with fear or you can live it with courage. It takes courage to let go of the wall and start swimming. You may not be the best when you start but I am proof that if you work on your technique and work to be efficient you will get to the other side faster. What does your swimming lane look like? What does your technique look like? Are you still holding on to the wall because of fear, or do you have the courage to let go and try?
The greatest thing about these questions is you can answer them any way you like. You do not have to look to someone else for them. Just look into your heart. Now who wants to go for a swim?!
Tribe of Mentors
John Maxwell Daily Reader
Lewis Howes School of Greatness featuring Les Brown--Overcoming all odds and how to change the world.