Do swimmers achieve greater career success?

Any intelligent person who has some discipline and a bit of luck, can have "success". What I think is strange, though, is that the definition of success usually revolves around career/money/material things. You can use your intellect to make money, but you can also use it to make time. I've deliberately chosen to not ride the career elevator, still make a good living (although not nearly what I could), and have plenty of time to do what I want to do. It drives my parents crazy that I'm not "president of IBM or something like that", but accumulating a bunch of stuff and then dropping dead of a heart attack in my early-50's doesn't seem to be the best use of my life. Bigger/better/faster/more isn't always bigger/better/faster/more. Your mileage may vary. -LBJ

Originally posted by Leonard Jansen Any intelligent person who has some discipline and a bit of luck, can have "success". What I think is strange, though, is that the definition of success usually revolves around career/money/material things. You can use your intellect to make money, but you can also use it to make time. I've deliberately chosen to not ride the career elevator, still make a good living (although not nearly what I could), and have plenty of time to do what I want to do. It drives my parents crazy that I'm not "president of IBM or something like that", but accumulating a bunch of stuff and then dropping dead of a heart attack in my early-50's doesn't seem to be the best use of my life. Bigger/better/faster/more isn't always bigger/better/faster/more. Your mileage may vary. -LBJ You are soooooo right. With Trump having his show now, a lot of people are using the old "I wish I was him." line. Not me. Too much constant work and always being driven. He can never let his guard down. He can never let up. I try to live life like this...... Wok hard and play hard. (I guess swimming is the mix of both!) I always tell my son (12 years old and real difficult to get to do school work) that he needs to do the things he has to do so that he can do the things he wants to do.

"I always tell my son (12 years old and real difficult to get to do school work) that he needs to do the things he has to do so that he can do the things he wants to do." Too right!! I've got twin girls that just turned 13 less than a month ago & we try to stress the same to them. They're usually pretty good about their swim practice (although they're a litle leary about their pending move to the Senior group!) but a little lax about chores & stuff. Even when we make a reward contingent upon successful completion of a task (that they have to do regardless) in a certain amount of time, they sometimes mess around until they lose the reward & still have to do the task!! They've both got 96 averages in school but like your son, it's hard to get them to do homework. (They do enjoy getting the academic rewadrs though! We try to point out the casue & effect.)

Wow! Where were all of you when I was writing the article? It was published many months ago, but this seems like an interesting discussion, regardless. The comment about Trump was interesting to me. I've never seen The Apprentice before last night. While I was watching, my impression was that he has other people doing the work for him. I'm sure his schedule is very full, and I'm sure he makes some important decisions and appears at multiple special events each day. It takes a lot of time to get places in Manhattan, so he probably spends a lot of time in the limo. It also takes a lot of time to do a television show. When I appeared on the Food Network, we shot from 9-5 for about 22 minutes of footage. SB

When I was in college, my electrical engineering class had four athletes from the swim team out of 36 total EE students. There were no other sports represented in my class. It left me with the impression that swimmers were smarter and more disciplined than the other athletes. Engineering was tough, and the additional responsibilities of swim meets and practices definitely required discipline. When I would take the easier introductory humanities courses, that's where I would find the football, basketball, and baseball players.

I have noticed here that there are so many different definitions of success, and I tend to agree... That being said, I'd also like to throw out that I bet people are a lot more successful than they think they are- it often seems that people are so busy (sorry for the coming cliche) "keeping up with the Jones's" that they don't take the time to enjoy, or appreciate, what they ALREADY have. And I'm not just talking about money. Success is everywhere and you probably don't have to look very far! In my life, in the last five years I have had no less than 20 traumatic experiences and, according to my husband's law enforcement background, I would have been a candidate for suicide not once, but twice! As you can see I survived, and nope, didn't try it :p Things are starting to settle back down in my (our) life. I am starting to notice that I am very lucky, fortunate, or whatever word of choice you'd like to use. I am very happily married (10 years this August), I have three extremely happy children who we absolutely adore, daily silliness, I have a job I love, a large house (compared to the very small one we started out in), one dog, a large extended family that is happy and healthy, wonderful teammates on WCM, and perhaps the most important- a God and faith that make all of the other things possible. In a word- happiness. Are ther still things I'd like to accomplish? Absolutely. What life would be worth living if you weren't always trying to live it? But I have come to realize that, in my eyes anyway, I am not only happy, but very blessed. So, if being happy and blessed are measurements of success, then, so far, I'm there :)

Originally posted by NKMD ..... Do you have goals.......... My goal is to keep on swimming........I am so amazed at the older swimmers, you are awesome. I agree 100%. I want to be swimming at 70, 80, 90... And of course I mean real swimming, not water walking, noodling, etc. I really believe that the more you use your body (and mind) the longer it will remain usable into retirement.

I recently gave a talk on goal setting to my former club, Iolani Swim Club in Honolulu, HI. I had a great time talking to kids, who enjoy the sport of swimming and who are willing to work hard. Most of these kids excel in academics and play other sports as well. To say that swimmers are more successful athletes.... I would have to say no-if you base success on money and exposure. However, I do feel that athletes in general are successful individuals. In my opinion athletes are more organized by balancing family with school and/or work. We are succeessful individuals because we set goals for ourselves. The decisions that we make on a daily basis effect how we reach our goals. And how we met challenges along the way make us stronger and better individuals. I don't feel that measurement of success is based on how many awrds someone wins, how much money someone makes..... Success is doing something that you love.........SWIM... That is challenging for a lot of master swimmers. Finding the time to swim in your busy schedule and staying healthy. I told the kids that they have it easy. Of course they all laughed. Do you have goals.......... My goal is to keep on swimming........I am so amazed at the older swimmers, you are awesome.

Tere are two studies that I've read. One was written int he 1980's comparing NCAA atheletes who graduated. I htink htat the conclusion was that football players who did actually graduate were more likely to have high incomes. Swimmers, baseball players and softball players were most ikely to go o graduate school. Tennis players,who graduated, though, were the all time acheivers in both income and prestige of their careers. They were, in the article, the most likely to become lawyers and doctors. You must remember this was in the early 1980's when lawyers weren't so disliked

Originally posted by craiglll@yahoo.com You must remember this was in the early 1980's when lawyers weren't so disliked In Hamilton Ontario there was a hotel named THE HONEST LAWYER the Law society made them change the name. George my other web site www.triswimmer.com