when my daughter joined the local swim team, it was easy to become discouraged. there were children who had been swimming for several years longer than she and they had more developed skills. often, her coach would encourage her not to strive to be better than her team mate but to continue to work to beat her own swim time. with each length of the pool that she would swim, he wanted her to just shave a few seconds off the time. by doing so she would take the pressure off herself to be “better than or the best” and her skills would develop, she would get stronger as a swimmer and her swim time would get better.

pretty fun to stand at the end of the lane and cheer her on as she won…last place…next time, fourth place…and then second place…and on.

the pressure of expectation can have negative impacts on our ability to achieve our highest potential.

it’s not in striving for perfection…it’s in the process -giving our best every time so that with each step we become better than we were.

have a day or a result you aren’t happy with?

there’s always tomorrow…

D