Mastery: Where Do You Use Time as Your Magic Ingredient?
“When it comes to mastering a skill, time is the magic ingredient. Assuming your practice proceeds at a steady level, over days and weeks certain elements of the skill become hardwired. Slowly, the entire skill becomes internalized, part of your nervous system.” — Robert Greene, author of Mastery
My favorite part of every swim practice is the warm down.
I mean, we’re done, right?!?
The hard work is over. Most of the time, we’re given the space to not even really do the warm down as written. Everyone kind of shuts down for the morning—even the coach.
Who wouldn’t love that part of practice?!?
I love it for a different reason, though.
For me, the warm down is when the real work starts: the work after the work. This is the free space I get in my daily routine to feed my obsession of mastering swimming because, at my core, I’m really no good at swimming.
Maybe none of us are really that good, naturally, at anything
The warm down is the time where I get to attend to the details — the parts — that make up the whole of swimming.
The warm down is my space to find mastery — to strive for perfection.
“This part of their lives — a largely self-directed apprenticeship that lasts some five to ten years — receives little attention because it does not contain stories of great achievement or discovery.” — Robert Greene, author of Mastery
Why strive for perfection?
Because perfection is beautiful.
Perfection is fast.
Perfection is efficient.
And, I know I’ll never achieve it.
And that’s exactly what keeps me coming back.
None of us will achieve perfection
When I was younger, I realized that I’m not naturally talented at swimming.
I’m also not built like a swimmer.
Size 9 feet are little stubs compared to the likes of a Michael Phelps.
But, as a kid, I watched and studied the good swimmers of our sport. I noticed that not only did they possess talent but, perhaps more importantly, their technique was flawless.
They had developed a mastery of quickly and efficiently moving their body through the water while making things look effortlessly beautiful.
At a young age, mastery became my focus in the water because it provided a piece to the puzzle of swimming success that I could control.
How can I find speed and efficiency through technique to benefit the hard work I’m putting in during the grind of regular workouts?!?
Time is your magic ingredient
I started swimming when I was 9 years old.
I was no good.
Like slowest heat, lane 6-type swimmer.
And yet, from the start, I have fond memories of summers where my brothers and I would bike to morning swim practice. We’d bike home with a few friends, watch The Price Is Right while having lunch, and then we’d bike or rollerblade back to the pool to spend the day — and on really lucky days even nights — playing at the pool.
At a young age, this was the work after the work.
This is where I learned to start to manipulate and use the water to my advantage so that I could win games of sharks and minnows, perfect dives off the diving board, and collect the most amount of coins on the bottom of the pool that we’re thrown into the water by lifeguards during 4th of July and Labor Day celebrations.
Where can I get faster?
Where can I get more efficient?
How can I get closer to perfection?
The work after the work
While I think we should all still allow for the space to play a game of sharks and minnows, the look of this work after the work has transformed over time.
But, the questions are the same:
Where can I get faster?
Where can I get more efficient?
How can I get closer to perfect?
At 41, I’m still coming back to the pool on a regular basis. And, as time creeps along, I know that I don’t have it working for me like I did when I was in my 20s: I’m a little more tired, I have a little bit less flexibility, I’m a little sorer after workouts, I take a little longer to recover, ad infinitum as the years continue to pass.
But, I still have time on my side as a magic ingredient to search for where form and technique — my pursuit of mastery — can help me continue to find speed and efficiency.
I do the work that is necessary during the workout.
And then I do the warm down — the work after the work—where I can do the work that is necessary for me.
The work after the work is where I have the freedom to search for perfection.
Photo courtesy of Julie Anne Photography
At 41, I’m far from perfect.
Anywhere.
Especially in the water.
And perhaps my obsession with striving for perfection in the water has made me realize that the more and more I learn about swimming from studying it and working at it, I’m reminded of how little I actually know and how long I actually have to go.
And so, I know it’s the one thing I can keep working on.
And that is precisely what keeps me coming back on a consistent basis.
And maybe that’s what is most important.
Finding something that keeps us coming back to focus on self-improvement.
Finding something that keeps us coming back so that we can strive for mastery.
Finding something that we want to perfect.
Finding something that allows us to use time as a magic ingredient.
I’m guessing that if we do this, we’ll find success.