Always win, swim for fun!

For those who love to divide the world between "winners" and "losers," it would be interesting to see if they have the fortitude to tell us the areas in which they are "losers." C'mon, abc, rather than parading your self-styled "accomplishments," how about if you fess up to the areas in which you're a "loser?" Do you have the "guts" to do that?

Let me begin by saying that I can’t believe this thread is still kickin’. I guess some people are still mad at me. I definitely would not categorize the world into just “winners” and “losers”; however, I would say that both of these categories exist (along with a bunch of others). I never had the intention of portraying myself as a “winner.” My example of my own swimming was to point out that I failed. I was never an Olympian, and the U.S. didn’t send me anything for being a participant. The same thing happened when I was a kid and lost races, I didn’t get anything then either. I learned that you shouldn’t expect anything. As for other areas of my life, I would be classified as a resounding “loser” in all of them. I have never been the world’s best at anything and won’t be. Pretty much everyone is a loser to some degree, and that’s why I think it’s important to teach kids how to behave later in life. Your boss (if you’re not self-employed) isn’t going to say, “You did your best and your special for just being you and we wanted to recognize you by giving you this ‘employee’ ribbon for being an employee, Congratulations!” I’m also not saying you should forgo the “Participant” ribbon. If you want to hand them out then hand them out. I’m just saying that I personally do not like them.

I got a participating letter from the Canadian Government. They sent me a letter for Chuckie and my 50th years anniversery last June. I represented Canada in the 1958 Commonwealth Games. I got a paticipating medal plus a silver medal for our medley relay. They did not book a return ticket for me with the rest of the team. I had to pay for my own fare home. When I tried to get the return fare back no one replied to my request. I must be a looser - I was a loser the flights were expensive in those days lost a few bucks.

To be .61 away from the national cut with only 2 years experience, that's impressive. Getting close to a standard or goal is sometimes better in the long run, if you persevere. It adds determination to the next training cycle, and is that much more rewarding when you achieve the goal. Work on some aspects of the race that you've been neglecting, and it should be there for you. Also, set more than one goal, that helps as well. Often at a meet I might reach one or two goals, but miss a few others... That way I can have the best of both, the reward and the determination for next time. I started swimming 2 years ago - with NO previous competitive training or experience at the ripe age of 41. It may have been an early midlife crisis but I felt in some way I had to put myself on the line and take something on that I might fail at. I have loved winning a few heats, but also I have loved setting goals and making some, and falling short of some ( 0.61 seconds short of the national qualifying time in the 50 BR that I devoted many months toward making - grrr...). I'm still swimming the 50 BR at Nationals and plan to shave off even more than 0.61 seconds because I love doing this.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE QUOTES! Thanks for sharing it! My pleasure; it's one of my favorites too. I am a counselor and I share it often and in meaningful ways with my clients as well. I'm not sure why this thread has become argumentative; which is why I posted the quote - it seems to bring it all together. I thought of this quote when I started swimming 2 years ago - with NO previous competitive training or experience at the ripe age of 41. It may have been an early midlife crisis but I felt in some way I had to put myself on the line and take something on that I might fail at. I have loved winning a few heats, but also I have loved setting goals and making some, and falling short of some ( 0.61 seconds short of the national qualifying time in the 50 BR that I devoted many months toward making - grrr...). I'm still swimming the 50 BR at Nationals and plan to shave off even more than 0.61 seconds because I love doing this. I also teach counseling and as I constantly tell my class, "it is all about the process of becoming" (a Rogers term) and the Roosevelt quote sums it up for me! I'm glad to know others like it too.

I'm 49. I just swam several events at the South Central Zones meet. Didn't taper for this - hope to for Nationals. But I was pleased because I had 3 PBs. No zone records or top 10 times. The most cool part of this is that I apparently haven't yet hit the point where I'm working to minimize how much worse my times get. Improvement is good. I'm still pissed my 50 fly has improved only .3 in 2 years. The only good part of turning 50 later this year will be aging up.