“Swimming is magical.” That’s what Lauren S. replied when I emailed her with the information that swimming seemed to have miraculously cured my ailing back and hip.
Yes, I’m still referring to my little accident with lifting the bag a few Saturdays back. I haven’t been to boxing since the Wednesday night I had nothing to do but stretch, which, yes, I realize was good for me. My focus since then has been rest (yes!) and rehab (boo!).
But rehabbing in the pool was actually fun. I returned to this particular indoor pool where I hadn’t swum for a couple of years and which, incidentally, was the focus of an essay in my MFA creative nonfiction thesis. The proverbial memories of swimming before “hot dates” rushed past, as memories often do, and the screams of a baby being dunked in the water brought me back to reality. So did the black stuff on the bottom of the pool. More motivation to keep my feet off the ground, right?
My swim was slow–don’t get too excited. I focused on those muscles on my lower left side. I kicked with the board, swam freestyle, and swam breaststroke. This lasted for thirty minutes, and during every minute, I thought, why did I stop doing this? Why did I deprive myself of this?
Now, I have been swimming within the past two years, just not at this particular pool. Another gym nearby has a beautiful outdoor pool, and, in the summer, a glorious public pool near my house opens up. The last time I swam was probably in August. I was discouraged at the time because I felt sluggish. With the swimming trainers offering advanced lessons to pre-teens next to me, I felt inadequate, too. At some point, I want swimming lessons to get tips on my form and the most out of my workouts.
But I digress, you see, because now I am boxing. Well, now I’m resting, but on Monday I’ll be back at boxing. I just read that too many goals make one stagnant, too. I have a lot on my plate, though I hate to use that metaphor. In order to get good at one thing, I feel I need to drop other things. But is that always true?
For example, football players often take dance classes, I hear. And part of boxing is weight-lifting and running. It seems that, to get really good at one thing, one needs to get good at other things as well.
So how does one do that and keep his or her eye on the prize?
And what is the prize?
I think I’ve been reading too much about New Year’s Resolutions and how to keep them. I’m getting lost in a mountain of goals, being told I have too many. I don’t know how to prioritize what’s really important to me. Boxing feels good, but so does swimming, and, theoretically, there’s no reason I can’t swim in the morning and box at night–but if I pledge to do that, and knit, and write, and work, and spend less money, and eat well, will that be too much to handle?
This morning I read a NY Times opinion piece on motivation called “Be It Resolved.” Writer John Tierney cited a study led by Wilhelm Hofmann of the University of Chicago that showed that “the people with the best self-control . . . are the ones who use their willpower less often. . . . [T]hese people set up their lives to minimize temptations. They play offense, not defense, using their willpower in advance so that they avoid crises, conserve their energy and outsource as much self-control as they can” (Sunday Review, 6, 1/8/12).
The website stickK.com was recommended as a place where people who really want to get motivated can commit to a goal and set up a contract. This sounded like negative reinforcement to me, but I have not used the site, so I should not judge. There, you canT put up money against yourself in case of failure–such as pledging to commit to a cause you do not support if you fail.
Frankly, I’d rather do the opposite, owing my coaches money if I fail (yay, coaches) or somehow raising money for myself for fitness events or gear, using positive reinforcement rather than negative reinforcement. It’s just harder to figure out how that one would go.
Okay. Now, who has motivation advice for me? Swimming advice? Keeping-it-all-together advice?
I feel like I used to do this, and then met some life changes. These were mostly positive, like getting a new job, but they were changes to my routine nonetheless.
And then, of course, there’s definitely the possibility that I’m overthinking this. Do, don’t think, right?
Jumpsquat Girl 