I’ve been a competitive swimmer since I was eight, and the lessons I’ve learned from the sport are invaluable. Compassion, leadership, grit. But for the first few years, I was mostly in it for the rewards. I loved going to meets and winning ribbons; practice not so much. However, something changed, I eventually learned to appreciate the daily struggle of swimming and began to focus on the lessons beyond the returns. There’s one particularly brutal swim practice that I attribute my change in mindset to. I think I was about 9 or 10, and the practice started out fairly standard. A 600 warm-up, followed by a small kick set. I had recently moved up to the “fast lane”, and I was feeling pretty good about myself, just for keeping up. Then Coach
