Adjust Your Sails

I was having a particular tough day at work a couple weeks ago. There were some things going on that were out of my control, but causing a lot of stress in my coaching. My wife pointed out to me a painting that we have on our wall in our home: “If you can’t control the wind… adjust the sails.”

Wow! What a paradigm shift!! I had utilized this philosophy countless times with my athletes, but had never thought about it in my own life.

I think way to often athletes focus too much on those things that they have no control over: other athletes, the pool schedule, the weather conditions, but fail to put a focus on the things that they CAN control: commitment to training, being adaptable to different racing situations or looking for the positives that come out of a really tough race.