Friday Five #2

Hey, good evening!

Here is your Friday 5 roundup of this week’s freediving facts, fun and f’ups…

🍩 What I never realized about willpower until now?

• I knew that willpower has a limited battery life. It basically starts in the morning like a full battery on your phone. Then as the day goes on, every time you draw from it you’re using up some of the battery. So every time you make a decision, you work, say no to that donut (!), train, etc, your willpower battery gets less and less. And then eventually it goes red and you’re done.
  
  It can be recharged with some downtime – so it’s basically a limited but renewable resource.
   
• So this I knew. But what I didn’t realize until after reading The One Thing is that, each act of will creates a win-lose scenario! So ‘winning’ in an immediate situation through willpower makes you more likely to ‘lose’ later because you have less of it. 
  
  So for example, if you do a deep dive sesh or do a tough freediving training in the morning, you ‘win’ on the freediving-side. But then later if you plan to work / clean the house / spend time with friends or family, you might not do as well in those things (maybe you don’t end up doing them at all!), also the reason why so many people battle on their diet with late-night snacking or drinking. You basically ‘loose’ on those things in order to ‘win’ on freediving.
  
  (And visa versa, if you work or do other things in the morning, you’ll ‘win’ on those, but then you ‘loose’ in freediving by training later in the day.)
  
  Now do I train in freediving sometimes late in the day? Yes definitely, but it’s certainly a lot harder to muster up that willpower!
   
• But I suppose the takeaway is this – if you choose the one thing that you really want to ‘win’ at that day, and then try to do THAT THING FIRST, before anything else. (Because if you try to it later your willpower might not be there when you really really need it.) AND THEN ALSO CONSIDER… what you will ‘lose’ by doing that ‘win’…

😀 Why I try NOT to get a big head in freediving!

• In most (not all!) of the sports documentaries I’ve seen, I’ve noticed that top athletes in general have very intense ‘performance-based identities’. This is when athletes identify with their sports performance at a very personal level. Take Muhammad Ali for example, who had an incredibly intense self belief with his famous ‘I am the greatest!’ poem.
  
  Although performance-based identities have a lot of positive things about them for the athletes, like self-esteem and confidence. And it provides protection against periods of poor performance or failures (because if you and other people know you’re a top performer, if you’re not performing well in a moment, it’ll just be brushed off as a temporary thing.)
   
• BUT! There is a dark side to these identities too! Here are 3 problems with having a performance-based identity, which you can read about in more detail on Sports Chaplaincy
  
  1. It never lasts! 
  You can quickly go from hero to zero! Almost every athlete, no-matter how talented and well trained he or she is, will go through moments of failure and difficulties. So your identity is going to take a major hit!
  
  2. Even when you’re on top of the world, it’s not enough!
  Athletes with performance-based identities will often feel down immediately after the win, when it’s supposed to be their biggest moment. Keep in mind, the journey that you go on and the relationships you form, is a lot more important than the achievement itself!
  
  3. One day you may have to stop freediving: you retire / get injured / relocate / something happens
  What happens to your identity in freediving then? “Cricket gave me a life, it gave me an identity, and when it was taken away it took everything. I was like what do I do with myself? Who am I? What am I doing?” – Andrew Flintoff
   
• For many freedivers, and also myself at times (!), our identities are tied up in freediving; the numbers, the results, the wins, it’s only natural. But this can make our self-worth extremely fragile!
  
  Try to remember that you are more than freediving! You are more than the numbers and more than what other people think of you and your performance. Your value lies in who you are, not what you achieve, and freediving is one part of your life, it may be an important part, but it’s only a part. 
  
  Did you fall into this trap of sport’s identity which so many other athletes did? Check out Brian Mac’s article:
  
  “If you take away the part of you who is an athlete, how would you describe yourself? What are your personal characteristics that describe you? This is what self-esteem should be based on.”

💬 What quote I’ve been thinking about?

You have to do it because you can’t stand not to. That’s the best reason to do anything.

– Linda Ronstadt

💪 A swimming drill for free-immersion

• I came across this freestyle drill on YouTube, which I think is just AWESOME for training free-immersion!

• I’ve been doing this drill in the bay, 2X per week for the past 2-3 weeks, adding a small butterfly kick, and I’ve noticed a massive difference in my upper body and core strength and body awareness! And my FIM dives are definitely getting easier, smoother and more enjoyable! And even a bit deeper! (slowly slowly!)

🌾 What tough advise from the farm I enjoyed?

• Moody Younger, a co-founder of Younger Partners, who grew up on a farm in Texas, offered some life lessons from the farm, things that her father used to say which resonate with her quite often, especially in these strange times we are in
  
  “It’s always something” – He used this phrase anytime any of us complained about unexpected changes or outcomes that we didn’t think were fair. There may be more ‘somethings’ this year, but there is always ‘something’ if you choose to focus on the negative. By saying this, his message was for us to basically shut up and keep moving forward. Focus on what we could do to improve things and don’t waste time thinking or talking about the ‘something’ that is always there if you choose to make excuses. 
  
  “Off your ass and on your feet, out of the shade and in the heat!” This is what he said in the morning to get us up or if he ever saw us sitting around, not doing anything. For dad, it didn’t just mean that you were going to work hard, it meant that you were going to work hard and fast.

As always, it’s a pleasure and honor getting to spend some time with you, I hope you have a great weekend!

Renee