Responding to less than ideal circumstances

photo of an athlete swimming underwater

Today when I was in the pool, another person came into my lane. Now, normally I have zero problem with this, as long as the person can observe simple rules, sticking to the right side of the lane, and giving way to the faster swimmer, then there shouldn't be a problem. But when people break this rule, i.e. by not timing the swim so that the faster swimmer has to wait for the slower swimmer to make a turn before they can even have a chance at overtaking them, then we have a problem. And that's what happened today.

Granted, the person would have seen me warming up, when I was swimming relatively slowly, but after the first time I overtook them, they probably should have either changed lanes, or rethought their timing. They didn't, and I ended up having to stop in the middle of the lane more than once (which is strictly not allowed by the way, but I had no choice). So my times got messed up a bit, but instead of stopping and complaining, I sucked it up and thought about during triathlons when this sort of thing is a given, and I gave myself a challenge of still beating the set time, which I was able to do.

If that person hadn't gotten into my lane, I wouldn't have known how to act when I was all flustered, so I think of this as a good opportunity to see how well I could respond to less than ideal circumstances.

ENJOYED THIS? HAVE MORE.

MOUNTAINS OF WISDOM

Subscribe to my yamabushi newsletter

RECENT BLOG POSTS

Tim Bunting AKA Kiwi Yamabushi on Zao-san
Not what not to do
Tim Bunting AKA Kiwi Yamabushi on Zao-san
Is it really more important?
Tim Bunting AKA Kiwi Yamabushi on Zao-san
Chances are

YAMABUSHI BLOG POSTS

Care about others, but don’t care about them
Your presence makes all the difference
Tim Bunting AKA Kiwi Yamabushi on Zao-san
The Whole Nine Yards

RANDOM POSTS

Say Sayonara to Sayonara: Japanese words that are misunderstood
Change your perspective, change your path, change your experience
To find the you, we need the I
Tim Bunting Kiwi Yamabushi

Tim Bunting Kiwi Yamabushi

Get In Touch

Sakata City, Yamagata, Japan 

tim@timbunting.com

Share this:

Like this:

Like Loading...
Scroll to Top