Swimming & What I Learned

Swimming is a big force behind who I am today as a person. The way I think. The way I approach things. It molded my character. It instilled in me many values, lessons and virtues.

So here are some of them:

1) Discipline To The Bigger Goal

To me – discipline is suppressing your impulsive “short-term” desires and the willingness to push yourself through difficult tasks and actions because you have a bigger goal in mind. It is the difference between what you want IN THE MOMENT and what you really want IN YOUR FUTURE.

There were so many 4:30am wake-ups where the I would think “I just want to go back to sleep”, or so many times when I felt like giving up, 100m into the session, when I knew there was another 6km to go. But I kept pushing forward because it is the “right” thing to do. And I became mentally stronger for it.

“Motivation” is easy, impulsive and short-lasting. “Discipline” is hard, real and long-lasting. “Motivation” alone will never yield any real results. Because everything worth having in this world takes constant commitment and consistent hard work (day, after day, after day, after day).

I’m very grateful to have this concept be instilled into me at a young age. It has propelled me forward in other areas of my life, with academic studies and financial habits too.

2) Self-Identity And Re-Invention

Often you hear elite athletes become depressed after they retire… why is that?

It’s because they let their “role” and “goal” become attached to their core idea of themselves. I was in a similar mindset for many years, especially when I was very young, where my only goal was “to swim at the Olympics” and I attached the sport of swimming to my personal core being. The thought of not having “swimming” as my primary goal and focus was daunting and scary.

However as I matured, my mindset began to shift and I could see that this was dangerous, counter-productive and narrow minded. I learnt to detach my core being from concrete associations with external things. I think, the key is to maintain a balance of openness and detachment. Whilst still being committed to put in your best effort to achieve your goals in that moment.

Why is it dangerous and counter-productive to remain attached?

Because you are preventing yourself from adapting, progressing and evolving. As you evolve as a person, you will embody many roles – anything from the “teenager”, the “university student”, the “swimmer”, the “young adult”, the “newly graduated professional”, the “businessperson”, the “inexperienced parent” or wherever your journey may take you. You have to mentally prepare yourself for the evolution between different roles, and not become so attached to the previous roles that you cannot let go.
Because you will need to use all your energy and focus to be at your best in the present and near-future.

Progression is inevitable, and it is a good thing. Be open-minded to new opportunities.

You have to know who you are, without regardless of what role you embody at that particular time.

3) Preparation Is Key

With swimming, there are 2 parts: training and racing. Training is the preparation and racing is the execution. The nature of swimming is: the bulk of the serious fitness and strength training happens many months before the big race. Unlike football where you play 20 games a year in a 5 month block, you only have 3-5 major competitions a year and the preparation phase is much longer.

When you are at the pool on competition day, deep down, you already know how well you are going to swim.
Because you are aware of how you prepared the last few months.

If you know you lack proper preparation, doesn’t matter how hard you try on the day, you know where your ceiling is.
If you know you did prepare well, that gives you the confidence to execute with a higher ceiling.

And this swimming example is a concept that translates to other areas of life.

The execution phase is really just a by-product of your preparation phase. On the surface and for many people still, it appears that the effort spent should be 10% preparation 90% execution. But really, it is 90% preparation 10% execution.

Learn to connect the pair of dots to succeed.
Don’t expect the second dot to appear without putting work into the first dot.

Max Chien is a former national level swimmer based in Sydney, Australia. He is a university student studying a Bachelor of Applied Science (Physiotherapy) Honours degree at the University of Sydney. As a side project, he has a personal website where he journals about his life experiences. You can read more on his blog by clicking here.