Reflecting on Sean Killion's Freestyle...
"Once you've taken inventory, you can start to make sense of your runway. But then comes a second challenge: finding the time to do what you need to do."
- David Allen
"Instead of stating 'What it takes', I start by asking my clients 'What have you got?' "
- Gordon Byrn taken from http://www.gordoworld.com/gblog/2008/08/add-it-up.html
Life is full of surprises. On Thursday, I was overtaken my a nasty flu bug that put me down completely until the latter part of yesterday. I wrestled with nonsensical dreams, sweated through a few shirts and a pair of sheets, and became sore from lying down for so long. But my mind was shaken to the point of clarity--either that or the caffeine deprivation just caused mental effects that made it seem like clarity. Anyway, as I was reassembling my mental and physical faculties today--somewhat--I began taking inventory of my life, what I want to see happen, and have begun to assemble a plan to get there.
Another surprise came today when I received a notification in my email account that an anonymous comment had been posted on this blog. At first I thought this related to some comments that my friend Jan the Swimmer had made. Then I realized that these comments related to a post I had written back in 2006 called "Swimmer Wisdom" and what I learned from the great Sean Killion back in 2001.
The anonymous person left the following comments: "Having grown up and spent countless hours in the pool with Sean, I can tell you that his greatness came from his desire and work ethic. It is pretty neat to read an account of a speaking engagement that I know is true. What ever you have learned from him, take to heart. He WAS the real deal."
For what it's worth, I'd love to know who wrote this. If for some strange reason you are reading this post, please email me at swimr80@gmail.com.
As I was assembling my plan for the upcoming year and reflecting upon what I heard Sean Killion talk about back in 2001--about both swimming and life--my thoughts sort of crystallized on one phrase: "Don't Put the the Objective Ahead of the Process."
Sean talked about a lot of different things during his speech back in 2001. If I stripped away most of the life lessons from his talk it would be called the following: "Core Based Swimming for Dummies." At the time if my coach would have said, "The arms are really secondary levers," I would have looked at him like leeches were spewing from his nostrils. I have some more experience under my belt now, so such statements don't scared me. But one of the things that Sean talked about was that you are only going to be able to hold stroke corrections for a limited amount of time at first. Making adjustments that fundamental alter a person's stroke take time, i.e. making bone deep changes is a process.
With this thought in mind, I began to frame his speech a little bit differently than I had as a younger man. As I played his words over in my mind--seven years has gone by so things aren't quite as sharp--the people who came to hear the man talk wanted to know about objectives that he had achieved: beating Salnikov in his signature event, holding an American record for an ungodly period of time, etc. But these weren't the things that Sean brought up himself. He wanted to talk about the processes, state of mind, and way of life that were involved to reach such heights. So that's what I have been mulling over the past couple hours: focus on the process and let the objective take care of itself.
On top of replaying the words of the aforementioned speech over in my head, and re-reading some of the posts of one Gordon Byrn, I recognize a key limiter that I haven't realized as a younger man: I can do one thing outside of work well and that's it. Gordo would say, "I can do two things well." Since I like to eat, and work puts food on the table, I already know what one of my two is. Now I just need to genuinely determine what the second thing will be.
In the past I have stated that things are priorities when they really weren't. In the past I have said that passing the CPA exam was the priority, but my behavior would indicate something else entirely. If I were to be really honest with myself, I would have to submit that at the time getting to a good spot in my personal life was really the priority. At the time, I didn't have the awareness to realize this, and said that the Exam was the priority in the hopes that something mysterious and magical would occur, and I would pass the Exam. Somewhere in the middle of 2008, I pulled the frayed edges of my life together. Currently, I would submit that I am in a good place--I have challenging, sustainable work, a healthy living environment, and boundaries in place with my family/personal life. Previous objective met; time to move on to the next thing.
Listening to the Gut right now, the thought I keep coming back to is this: stay focused at work, continue to clean up the personal balance sheet, and go all in towards the CPA exam in June of 2009. Historically, I have given myself not enough time to make bone deep changes. Maybe by giving myself too much time here to get additional traction on my current path at work and my continued clean-up financially, maybe deep set change will occur.
Those are my heavy thoughts for this evening. Tomorrow I will be back in the water, working on further deepening the stroke corrections that Coach Kevin and I have been hammering on, and replaying Sean Killion's freestyle clinic from 2001 in my mind once again.
Namaste
- David Allen
"Instead of stating 'What it takes', I start by asking my clients 'What have you got?' "
- Gordon Byrn taken from http://www.gordoworld.com/gblog/2008/08/add-it-up.html
Life is full of surprises. On Thursday, I was overtaken my a nasty flu bug that put me down completely until the latter part of yesterday. I wrestled with nonsensical dreams, sweated through a few shirts and a pair of sheets, and became sore from lying down for so long. But my mind was shaken to the point of clarity--either that or the caffeine deprivation just caused mental effects that made it seem like clarity. Anyway, as I was reassembling my mental and physical faculties today--somewhat--I began taking inventory of my life, what I want to see happen, and have begun to assemble a plan to get there.
Another surprise came today when I received a notification in my email account that an anonymous comment had been posted on this blog. At first I thought this related to some comments that my friend Jan the Swimmer had made. Then I realized that these comments related to a post I had written back in 2006 called "Swimmer Wisdom" and what I learned from the great Sean Killion back in 2001.
The anonymous person left the following comments: "Having grown up and spent countless hours in the pool with Sean, I can tell you that his greatness came from his desire and work ethic. It is pretty neat to read an account of a speaking engagement that I know is true. What ever you have learned from him, take to heart. He WAS the real deal."
For what it's worth, I'd love to know who wrote this. If for some strange reason you are reading this post, please email me at swimr80@gmail.com.
As I was assembling my plan for the upcoming year and reflecting upon what I heard Sean Killion talk about back in 2001--about both swimming and life--my thoughts sort of crystallized on one phrase: "Don't Put the the Objective Ahead of the Process."
Sean talked about a lot of different things during his speech back in 2001. If I stripped away most of the life lessons from his talk it would be called the following: "Core Based Swimming for Dummies." At the time if my coach would have said, "The arms are really secondary levers," I would have looked at him like leeches were spewing from his nostrils. I have some more experience under my belt now, so such statements don't scared me. But one of the things that Sean talked about was that you are only going to be able to hold stroke corrections for a limited amount of time at first. Making adjustments that fundamental alter a person's stroke take time, i.e. making bone deep changes is a process.
With this thought in mind, I began to frame his speech a little bit differently than I had as a younger man. As I played his words over in my mind--seven years has gone by so things aren't quite as sharp--the people who came to hear the man talk wanted to know about objectives that he had achieved: beating Salnikov in his signature event, holding an American record for an ungodly period of time, etc. But these weren't the things that Sean brought up himself. He wanted to talk about the processes, state of mind, and way of life that were involved to reach such heights. So that's what I have been mulling over the past couple hours: focus on the process and let the objective take care of itself.
On top of replaying the words of the aforementioned speech over in my head, and re-reading some of the posts of one Gordon Byrn, I recognize a key limiter that I haven't realized as a younger man: I can do one thing outside of work well and that's it. Gordo would say, "I can do two things well." Since I like to eat, and work puts food on the table, I already know what one of my two is. Now I just need to genuinely determine what the second thing will be.
In the past I have stated that things are priorities when they really weren't. In the past I have said that passing the CPA exam was the priority, but my behavior would indicate something else entirely. If I were to be really honest with myself, I would have to submit that at the time getting to a good spot in my personal life was really the priority. At the time, I didn't have the awareness to realize this, and said that the Exam was the priority in the hopes that something mysterious and magical would occur, and I would pass the Exam. Somewhere in the middle of 2008, I pulled the frayed edges of my life together. Currently, I would submit that I am in a good place--I have challenging, sustainable work, a healthy living environment, and boundaries in place with my family/personal life. Previous objective met; time to move on to the next thing.
Listening to the Gut right now, the thought I keep coming back to is this: stay focused at work, continue to clean up the personal balance sheet, and go all in towards the CPA exam in June of 2009. Historically, I have given myself not enough time to make bone deep changes. Maybe by giving myself too much time here to get additional traction on my current path at work and my continued clean-up financially, maybe deep set change will occur.
Those are my heavy thoughts for this evening. Tomorrow I will be back in the water, working on further deepening the stroke corrections that Coach Kevin and I have been hammering on, and replaying Sean Killion's freestyle clinic from 2001 in my mind once again.
Namaste
posted by Zen_Accountant at 4:11 PM
1 Comments:
Wow. Could it really have been this long since I checked your blog? Anyway, only one comment today. I understand everyone works differently. Your statement "Maybe by giving myself too much time here to get additional traction on my current path at work and my continued clean-up financially, maybe deep set change will occur." wouldn't work for me at all. I agree with focus on the process and let the objective take care of itself - sort of. I only really work effectivly if I have some pressure. Achieving something a year from now, even if it takes a year to achieve, doesn't exert enough pressure for me to start doing it. I need smaller attainable goals in the near future. For example with the CPA exam, maybe not "and go all in towards the CPA exam in June of 2009" but more like, "Have the Legal section of the CPA exam down pat by December 2008, the Accounting section down pat by Feb of 2009..." Then you can go back and review a month before the exam to freshen all your knowledge.
Just a thought.
MAD
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