My home town of Morden, Manitoba has the longest running triathlon in Manitoba, Canada and I have been intrigued with the sport since I first volunteered and participated on a relay team (run leg) as a high school student.
For me it was a good experience but unfortunately I allowed myself to be limited from triathlon due to a fear of swimming. Although I could swim (barely), I thought it was too difficult of a skill for me to learn properly; thus I couldn’t do it because “I am wasn’t a swimmer”.
This thinking error prevented me from getting involved in a sport which I was interested in. I had this belief blown out of the water by a friend of mine over a cup of coffee in Dharamsalla, India.
My friend had completed an IronMan and many other distances of triathlon so we began discussing the sport. He sensed my excitement about participating in triathlon one day but I explained my reluctance with swimming and my belief that swimming was something I “couldn’t do”. My friend asked “if you want to do the sport why don’t you learn how to swim?” to which I responded “yeah, I should do that someday”. He then asserted “you just said should; why don’t you make a promise to yourself and do it?”
Right then and there I took on his challenge and set a goal to participate in a triathlon within the next few months.
I followed through with my promise by participating in my first sprint distance triathlon even though “I couldn’t swim and didn’t have proper equipment” (i.e. a good bike or wetsuit). I did it regardless and survived; it wasn’t pretty, but I kept up my promise to myself and had an awesome experience.
Actually, when I exited the swim portion I looked back to see only one other participant behind me. There were a few spectators on the shore who gave me a polite round of golf claps, and who yelled out words of encouragement such as “you can do it”, “keep going”, and “don’t quit”. The good news about my poor swimming performance was that it was easy to find my bike in transition – there were only two left!
As I rode my bike I realized that I wasn’t blazing through the course but I was well on my way to achieving my goal of completing a triathlon; it felt so good and it was a very proud experience for me. I realized “I didn’t drown” and was about to complete my first triathlon; something I had aspired to do for over 20 years.
It wasn’t about what place I was in or what time I was going to finish with. It was about overcoming the limiting belief that “I am not a swimmer”, conquering a fear of swimming, honouring a promise to myself, and achieving a 20-year desire that I had been procrastinating.
I realized that the lessons learned that day had nothing to do with swimming, cycling or running. They had to do with challenging myself on an intellectual level. That multi-sport event
opened up my eyes to the possibility of challenging my beliefs, identifying my limitations and being accountable for them.
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I didn’t like that my thinking had held me back from such a positive experience for over 20 years, so I declared to myself the intention to work diligently on expanding my horizons. I avowed to expose the thinking which wasn’t serving me well and replace it with thinking which was more helpful, positive and productive. These are the lessons I learned from my first triathlon.
My desire is not to have a tension-free life of rest and relaxation, but rather to do the things that excite me. Triathlon happens to be one of those things. It offers me a sense of accomplishment along with the potential for even more growth and learning.
By moving out of the mindset of “I can’t”, I am reaping rewards I hadn’t even imagined.
Is there something you feel you “can’t do”?
Make it happen!
Dan
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