Welp, Happy New Years!
It’s officially 2019, and it’s officially time to rock out on our goals for the year.
Like most swimmers you probably set yourself some shiny new resolutions for the year.
I’m never going to eat junk food again!
I’m going to go to every practice this year!
I’m gonna work the hardest every single day!
I love the energy, and I love the enthusiasm…
But instead of going full blown grandiose with goals, let’s give the standard resolutions a twist this year.
Instead of a resolution, decide what kind of swimmer you want to be.
This starts with identity-based goals:
I am the swimmer who never gives up during the main set.
I am the swimmer who shows up to practice on time every day.
I am the athlete who goes to bed early each night.
Sound a little silly?
Here’s an example of how powerful identity-based goals can be for supercharging performance in the pool.
Mary T. Meagher is a legend in our sport.
At age 14 she broke the world record in the 200m butterfly for the first time. Over the next year she would take the WR from 2:09.77 to 2:06.37. At 16, she would swim a 2:05.97, a time that would hold up for 19 years.
The big change in her performance came the year before she first broke her first world record, when she made a couple small decisions that would end up having a big impact.
First, she was determined to make it to practice on time every single day, which gave “her the sense that every minute of practice time counted.”
The second was to perform each turn in the pool as quickly and as technically perfectly as possible. While most swimmers tend to float like manatees in and out of the walls, performing turns that are on the cusp of getting them disqualified in competition, Meagher charged in, touched perfectly, and charged out.
She decided to be the swimmer who showed up to practice every day on time.
She decided to be the swimmer who executed every turn to the best of her abilities.
Those seemingly little changes radiated outwards into the rest of her swimming.
Showing up on time—with her mom speeding across Louisville, Kentucky from school to make it happen—instilled a sense of urgency in training.
Faster turns made for faster breakouts, faster breakouts meant faster average speed per length, and so on.
These little adjustments on the surface (ha—swimming pun!) look boring and border-line meaningless.
Taken individually and when done intermittently they don’t really impact performance. Showing up to one practice on time and doing a practice worth of great turns once isn’t going to turn you into a world record holder overnight.
But done repeatedly over time they quickly accrue some serious performance value.
Especially when you consider that excellence has a habit of spilling over into other habits.
So, with that in mind…
What is an identity-based goal you can set for yourself this year?
See ya in the water,
Olivier
P.S. New year, new you, right? If 2019 is the year that you finally want to get serious about developing a high-performance mindset, I got you covered.
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