I was out for a bike ride with my family last weekend when some friends came up behind us.
How’s your posture, Shannon?
Did you set an intention for your bike ride?
Are you going to journal about this later?
Each of them had attended some form of my coaching. They were reflecting back to me exactly how I try to help swimmers get out of their ego mind — to learn, grow, and find fulfillment in their practice.
I laughed. Because yes — that does sound like me.
But I kept thinking about it the rest of the ride. I know it’s true, but it stings a little to say out loud: not everyone takes their swimming seriously. Not everyone wants to get better, or track their progress, or find the lesson in it. Sometimes people just want to go for a swim. Or a bike ride. And not think.
There’s something I’ve been missing in that.
I’ve been in a reflective stretch lately — sitting with some bigger questions about what I’m doing and why. In doing so, I’ve started to wonder if I make the whole thing too heavy. Too intentional. Not enough just going.
The friends on the bike path weren’t wrong to tease me. They were handing back something I keep forgetting: sometimes the best thing you can do is show up with nothing to prove and nowhere to be. Move your body. Embrace a beautiful day. Crash on the couch later feeling fulfilled.
But here’s what I kept sitting with after: that crash feels good because of the intention, not in spite of it. Moving with some awareness, being present in it — that’s what makes it feel like you did something real. The play and the intention aren’t opposites. I’d just forgotten they were supposed to coexist.
We’ve been talking about this at The Water’s Edge too — how to take it a little less seriously without losing what makes the practice meaningful. Turns out that’s not a contradiction. It’s actually the whole thing.
And I’m still finding my way back to it.
This isn’t really about swimming, is it. It’s about anything we love that we’ve started treating like homework.
Where are you on the spectrum right now — more play, more intention, or somewhere in between? Hit reply. I’m curious.
Shannon
