Getting Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable
By: John Leonard
All human beings seem to have a natural reluctance to accept change and enjoy change.
Yet, change is the only way we can grow and improve.
On a swim trip one time, I drove with my team in an old van from Chicago to Southern Illinois, where Bob Steele was then coaching, for an opportunity to swim in a long course competition against some college age swimmers. It was June, we'd cleared out the back of the van, and put down a mattress, and we had 6 or seven swimmers sprawled back there. It started out very comfortable, but like a lot of Chicago area vehicles, the van didn't have any air-conditioning, and as the day wore on (it's a long drive from Chicago to SIU) the temperature started to rise.
As the temperature rose, swimmers began to remove various items of clothing. Several swimmers began to complain of the heat. Soon we had a chorus going about the heat. The last hour of the ride was truly unconfortable as the temperature outside had risen into the triple digits.
One young man, Mark Morrison, had yet to say a word. As we pulled into the SIU campus, there was a bit of relieved silence in the back of the van. Then, I heard Mark start to chuckle, and it gradually turned into a full-fledged teenage laugh fest. I asked, 'what's up?' and Mark replied, 'look at the way the sweat is pooling up in my belly button.' He continued to laugh and relax about the situation. Later that day, despite continued 100 degree outside heat, he went a national qualifying time (his first) in the 100 breastroke.
The rest of our group continued to have a negative view of the environmental conditions within and without the van and our hotel and pool accommodations. Naturally, they did not perform up to expectations.
Mark had succeeded in being comfortable with being uncomfortable. He was unshakeable, unrattleable, and composed with the idea of being mildly uncomfortable. And he was able to perform well.
THIS BRIEF STORY DEMONSTRATES A SIMPLE BUT POWERFUL PRINCIPLE . . . IT'S NOT WHAT WE FACE, BUT HOW WE FACE IT THAT MATTERS. SWIMMERS (INDEED ANYONE WISHING TO IMPROVEMENT/CHANGE) MUST LEARN TO RELAX, ACCEPT AND EMBRACE THE SITUATIONS CREATED BY CHANGE, AND WORK WITH THEM. INDEED, THEY MUST BECOME COMFORTABLE WITH BEING UNCOMFORTABLE.
