[Flash] Are You Chasing a Better Version of Yourself?

My niece Lulu is playing the same game. As a varsity swimmer ranked 13th in the state and a freshman in high school, she swims 36 miles a week!

Last weekend, Lulu competed in a 4-day regional swim meet. Before she left, she shared with me the goals she set for each race in the competition – she had typed the following into the Notes app on her iPhone:

• 400 Freestyle: drop 6 seconds
• 100 Freestyle: under a minute, sprint all out, maintain breathing every 3 and 6 dolphin kicks off the wall
• 200 Breaststroke: under 3 minutes, aim for 2:58:59
• 200 IM: drop 2 seconds to get champ cut
• 100 Fly: 6 dolphin kicks off each wall and kick more fluently
• 200 Freestyle: hold 32 and get NCSA cut
• 50 Freestyle: go a 28 to get my speedo sectional cut
• 100 Breaststroke: hold a good pace
• 50 Breaststroke: swim and enjoy it
• 200 Backstroke: try not to die on the last 50 and just swim (She detests the backstroke.)

Lulu doesn’t just swim to win a race. She swims to improve her performance, her skills, her team, and her experience.

When she returned from the competition, she sent me a screenshot of the Notes app where she captured her results (set forth below).

Notice how she frames every result in a reflective, self-affirming, swimming-toward-a-better-version-of-myself way.

Results:

• 400 Freestyle: added time but got second and I’m happy with my swim. I also stuck to my breathing pattern and kicks off the wall
• 100 Freestyle: I was super close to under a minute which will be good for next time. I got 1:00.09
• 200 Breaststroke: went under 3 minutes by a lot and dropped 13 seconds. Very happy with that swim
• 200 IM: very happy with my swim, dropped 5 seconds
• 100 Fly: Very happy with my swim, dropped 3 seconds and swam it very smart
• 200 Freestyle: I didn’t do as good as I wanted to but I’m still happy with it because I dropped in it and I hadn’t dropped in over a year
• 50 Freestyle: did well but didn’t drop; I’m happy with my swim
• 100 Breaststroke: Added but still had a good race; smart swimming and got points for the team 
• 50 Breaststroke: fun race, did good, and got points for the team
• 200 Backstroke: happy with my swim but was very tired when swimming

In our goal-obsessed culture, it’s easy to only value races won, mountains climbed, breakthroughs discovered, solutions invented, money made, and degrees earned.

No wonder some mentees struggle to get started with their mentor – they think they need a career-pivoting, earth-shattering goal.

What if instead we simply showed up in search of a better version of ourselves? Seeking to be a bit more patient, empathetic, productive, strategic, or kinder today than we were yesterday.

We might be happy with our swim, too.

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