Episode #13: You Can Learn From Anyone

Transcript

Go, Ally! Go! Go! Go! Go!

On this episode of Simply Brilliant, I'd like to talk to you about learning from your children and their approach to life, and how dedication and being self-reliant can be extremely important and ultimately successful.

Really, what I want to talk about is sort of swimming as a sport, and the perseverance and the self-confidence that's required to achieve that. A lot of the other sports that are common in high school, and a lot of our kids play, are team sports, and that's really a fun, social type event. There's cheering between outs, or when you score a point, or whatever, whereas swimming is very much an individual sport. Even though you're part of a bigger team, at the end of the day you rely on yourself. And the most team-oriented portion of it is the relay.

But, practices in a cold pool, your head is underwater, you're not playing, you're not socializing, you're not communicating. You're just swimming laps hours on end, and it's literally, in my daughter's case, about two hours a day, maybe four or five days a week, and it can be quite boring, and quite tedious, and quite challenging, and it's really easy to give up. But, that ability to persevere through it all and sort of see the end results, manifested itself when she beat the school record in the 100m breaststroke that stood since 2007.

She is thin and small. She's skipped a grade so she's the youngest in her grade, and in ninth grade, the first year of high school as a freshman, a lot of her peers are actually women now, and she's still really just a small child. And when myself and my wife, and the rest of the people were standing there watching this race begin, she stood up on the platform and it was literally like a child amongst adults.

Now, my daughter's fortunately very skilled and talented in the breaststroke, which is a finesse stroke, not so much about the strength, it's all about the technique, and so she went out there and determined that she could win. You know, she was sort of like that little engine that could, she believed in herself, and she went and she swam the race of her life, and she broke the school record and won, based on her own confidence, dedication and perseverance.

And so, the point of this conversation is how, if you take a look at everyday situations through a learning lens, you can find inspiration and learn from your children, and that's sort of the point of this story. So I hope you've enjoyed it, and I look forward to seeing you all on the next episode of Simply Brilliant. Until then, thank you very much. I really appreciate your time and your feedback. Have a great day.

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