Just Swim!

Don’t let the pressure of your goals cloud your ability to simply execute.

This past weekend I did my first sprint triathlon. I am not telling you this to boast as I found the entire experience to be quite humbling. I also learned a lot about pushing yourself to do things that are uncomfortable and things you are not naturally good at to achieve a goal.

My biggest challenge, I am not a swimmer. Until about 8 weeks ago I had never been in a pool to swim laps. I certainly had never put on a wetsuit, jumped into the ocean with 150 other men and attempted to swim 400 meters as fast as I could.

So I went to the pool, put on my new goggles and my new “swim hat,” yes, that’s an indication of how little I know about swimming, and I gave it a go. I couldn’t swim 100m in a pool without having to stop to catch my breath and calm myself so I wouldn’t hyperventilate. I was humbled by the experience.

I typically do not do anything without setting some type of goal. This triathlon was no different. I wanted to finish under specific times for each section of the race. I wasn’t trying to win, just pushing myself to be respectable.

The swim was a consistent worry. Every time I went to the pool, I wanted to be faster and able to swim longer distances. The goal of hitting a time mark in the triathlon was weighing over me.

On Sunday I completed the triathlon and beat my goals for the swim and the bike by considerable margins but missed my goal on the run. Lesson learned, save a bit for the last mile!

This morning, I went to the pool and just swam. No goal. No pressure. Just a morning swim. During my training I found myself pushing and having to stop after several laps to collect myself and catch my breath. Not this morning. I swam longer and faster than I had on any of my training swims without stopping. I was just swimming.

I see this happen a lot with the salespeople I train. They get so caught up in the goals of finding an opportunity, developing it, and closing it, they lose sight of the fact that selling is just a series of good conversations. Just have the conversation. Relax, do it with purpose, genuine curiosity, and sincerity. The rest will take care of itself.

What have you pushed yourself to do that you're uncomfortable doing?

eric.warner@sandler.com • 781-499-2030 • go.sandler.com/praxis