Answers for Common Swimming Excuses

Sometimes, you just don’t want to swim. Even if you have a workout routine that works around swimming, there will be times when you feel perfectly comfortable above the water and would rather not trade warm and dry for cold and wet. Guess what? It’s time to squash those excuses once and for all. The next time you hear yourself coming up with one of these excuses, make sure that you remember how to respond.

Excuse #1: “I don’t want to be cold.” In many cases, especially if you do your swimming in an indoor pool, the cold upon entering the water is merely temporary. Sure, there are bodies of water too cold to swim in, but if you know that all it takes is one jump to get you acclimated to the temperature of the water, your decision is easy.

Have you ever been nervous to do something like public speaking, but felt fine once you’re in front of the audience? The solution to end nervousness isn’t rationalization and procrastination, it’s immersion. Get yourself wet, get in the pool, and you’ll find that the excuse dissolves right in front of your eyes.

Excuse #2: “I don’t have a swimmer’s body.” Um, yeah, that would be the point of swimming! It’s not realistic to will yourself into the body of Michael Phelps before you dive in the water, so don’t wait until your weight loss journey is over before you take a dip in the pool. Instead, embrace the embarrassment (which isn’t all that bad anyway), jump in the water, and do it whether or not you think you look good. There’s a good chance that the problem is largely in your head anyway.

Many people want to avoid failure on the way to success. You can’t, so stop trying. If you have a bit of a beer gut, flaunt it!

Excuse #3: “I’m not that good of a swimmer.” Again: this is one of the reasons to take up swimming, not to avoid it. If you want to become a better swimmer, watching Olympic swim trials won’t help you. You’ll have to take it upon yourself to improve yourself through experience, and experience only comes when you slap those trunks on and get into the water. If you have serious inabilities to swim, it’s not a good idea to get into the pool, but once you know you’ll be fine, there’s no reason to let a lack of swimming finesse keep you from swimming.

Photo Credits: Amy K Walker

This post involves:

audience, beer gut, bodies of water, embarrassment, excuse, failure, good chance, immersion, indoor pool, michael phelps, nervousness, olympic swim trials, procrastination, public speaking, rationalization, squash, swimmer, weight loss journey, workout routine

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Motivation, Swimming

Posted by Bike Swim Run on October 21, 2009 in Motivation, Swimming. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.