Today, I finished up a meditation series with the Headspace app on the idea of Acceptance.

Acceptance is such a great thing to keep in mind no matter what part of life you are trying to get better at.

Accept the present moment for what it is, and the world is “yours”.

I went to Chipotle the other day (one of my favorite places to eat), and there was no line but a lady with 2 young children walked in just before me.

She proceeded to have the most complicated order in the history of Chipotle orders. And just when I thought she was done ordering, she would add something to the order.

I started getting that feeling of irritation. The thoughts crept in “can’t she hurry up? How hard can it be to order?”

Then the fact that there were only 2 people apparently working the register, and I started to question that.

Why only 2 workers?

STOP!

I had to stop myself. I wasn’t accepting the present moment, wanting badly for things to be different.

I turned it around. The lady looks stressed. She’s clearly struggling with her two kids. Not surprising the order was taking a while.

The girl taking the orders behind the counter also looked stressed. Not her fault they were short staffed, and she was doing her best to deal with the situation.

I felt so much better about the situation by reframing it like that.

(And I even tipped the Chipotle girl a couple bucks!)

So what’s this got to do with swimming & training?

Everything.

With your swim, you need to absolutely practice acceptance.

It’s not the way you want it? Totally fine, now you can just work on the little stuff that will eventually add up to big gains.

Think about the physical contact at the beginning of any open water triathlon. Kicking, flailing…hands and arms flying all over the place, most of the crowd trying to get pole position on that first buoy.

Consistent acceptance of the situation will pull you through without expending unnecessary energy.

In general, if you aren’t happy with where you are currently, start thinking:

“What am I resisting?”

It could be a person, the present situation, a challenge, or something else.

But when you experience frustration and plateaus, this usually means there is something you are not accepting, and instead, using your energy resisting it.

On that note, I accept that the weekend is almost here, and you may be one of those who is ready to start it!

Enjoy and befriend that water.