Hello and welcome to the swim brief. The swim brief is brought to you, as always, by Jersey Wahoos. My employer and sponsor of this podcast, a great USA Swimming Silver Medal Club in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. We provide instruction to all levels of swimming and staring at our banner right out the window as I record this. And we've just had a great meet over the weekend with some of our age groupers going to a meet at the Keystone Aquatic Center. Had a lot of fun following that over the weekend. Today, probably about 90 minutes from when I start recording this, so a lot of recording going on today. I'm going to be recording an episode of the Poolside Pass with Jamie Fowler. A week ago, Jamie came on my podcast and I had a lot of questions for him about the interviews that he was doing, and we agreed to do sort of like a home and home. So I will be going on his to talk through some of the same things. He'll be asking the questions this time. So be really interested to see what kind of stuff he wants to talk about. I thought that I would take the opportunity here to sort of do a state of positive psychology in coaching, swim coaching specifically, on here March 16th, 2021. Because I actually think we're at a really interesting juncture, and um there's a lot of themes I sort of see out there uh developing that I think are worth exploring and relevant to the people that listen to this podcast, swim coaches and um and people around the sport of swimming. Um to just sort of back out to some of the uh bigger themes first. So um people who've been listening to the podcast or or reading what I've written know that um uh positive psychology is something that's been a big part of my life for the last 12, 13 years. Um, ever since I read Martin Seligman's Learned Optimism, and then got into the uh Applied Positive Psychology program at uh University of Pennsylvania. And um for me, like optimism is the foundational topic uh when it comes to positive psychology, and one that is uh incredibly relevant to what we're trying to do as coaches, you know. Um we're asking people to do really challenging things to put their energy into activities that uh are ambitious and demanding, and optimism quite obviously plays a huge role in that because uh the more optimism uh or the more optimistic outlook that uh we have and the people that we coach have, the more likely they are to persevere on those tasks. Um and I think um what's been interesting in the last year, and uh I've been out there you know talking about optimism for years and years and years, and one of the points that I made over and over again is there's there's it I believe that there is an evolutionary reason for pessimism. I'm not the only one who believes that, of course, I'm borrowing that idea from a number of uh sources that came before me, but I believe that there's an evolutionary reason for pessimism, and one of the things about pessimism is it's really useful in um uh uh super adverse situations when it's really a matter of survival. And that's relevant because, you know, in this time of a coronavirus pandemic that we've all we're all sort of celebrating here, at least here in the US, we're sort of celebrating uh our one-year anniversary. Um I was working out at my gym uh yesterday, and we were talking about how it'd been one year since the gym shut down. Um, and you know, uh the coach asked for some gratitude. Not he didn't like say, hey, be grateful. He said, uh just think about the fact that you know a year ago um this thing that you enjoy doing went away with no idea of when it was going to come back. And um sort of circle back around to that, but we're all sort of celebrating this one year, and there have been a lot of parts of this pandemic where pessimism has been not only warranted, but uh useful. So there's a there's always for for for all the natural pessimism that we have, um, it does have a lot of use. And um the other thing here is that pessimism, you're never gonna be a hundred percent optimistic person. That's impossible to do. You're never going to sort of rid yourself completely of pessimistic thought. It's that's in itself uh a completely unrealistic expectation to have of yourself. So um the question is, you know, where do you want to try and train up your optimism skills so that you can uh leverage them for a better life? And there are some situations where um pessimism is the best option. And and like I said, what one of those uh ones that I really believe is when you're um when you're faced with basically a survival type situation, and I feel that just myself and uh people around me, people that I know, people that I interact with, a lot of us have been in survival mode for the better part of a year. Okay um because the adversity went way, way up, and um we did need some degree of pessimism to deal with that. I'll give I could give you an example of it. Okay, um uh so I remember a year ago when uh you know I got sent home from the uh college swim coaches invitational. Um, you know, they had shut my kids' daycare down. I had I had a uh one-year-old son and a a six-year-old. My six-year-old was in kindergarten, uh, my one-year-old was in daycare, and uh they shut both of them down. And at that time, the um the prognosis was we're gonna shut down for a couple weeks, you know, everybody remembers flatten the curve, and then we can maybe get back to normal. Well, that didn't happen, right? Uh two weeks turned into two more weeks, turned into the rest of the school year, turned into we're not coming back in the fall, and now it's been over a year since my daughter set foot in a school building. Right? My son went back to daycare in August, um, but my daughter's still home every day. She's now made it through most of first grade, all virtual. Okay? And that's been extremely challenging. And at some point, I had to, for um, for my own sort of mental health, I had to say, I'm going to stop hoping that she goes back to school, you know, as they say, maybe at the next marking period. That's not to say that uh I don't want to get into all the politics of it. I would like her to be able to go back to school. I think there's plenty of scientific reasons why she could go back to school and why she could resume in-person instruction, but it's not it's not within my control um individually. I cannot will it to happen. Okay, and so uh myself, my wife, eventually had to settle into sort of an attitude of how do we the situation that um we would not like to see repeat itself, how do we continue on? And it and it involved a little bit of pessimism about you know that this thing that we don't like, we don't like that she's home doing virtual school, but it will continue to repeat itself, right? So first tenet of optimism is when you're faced with a a negative event, right, being able to convince yourself that it's unlikely to keep repeating itself. Well, I think in this case, optimism, you know, continually trying to convince myself that like her going back to school was just around the corner from happening, would have been extremely foolish from a psychological perspective. So there was a certain level of acceptance of here's this adverse event that doesn't make me feel very good, that I believe will keep repeating itself, right? And I don't feel great about it. Um I don't feel great about the circumstances that created it, this sort of second uh environmental category. Again, go back. I have a podcast that's all about optimism. If you want to, if you're sort of like a little bit more curious about these categories, you get a much more deeper explanation for it. I'm just sort of like, this is um this is for um slightly more advanced users of optimism. And um, you know, the one category where uh of of sort of optimistic thought where I could make some headway was, you know, in not blaming myself entirely for you know like living in the wrong place when three towns over, you know, they've got a hybrid model or people are in person this way or whatnot. Um where I live in New Jersey, actually there's sort of very few places that are full-time in person anyway. Um I'm not really sure a hybrid model is better. Um that's that's one thing. We talk about that on an individual level. The second thing is, you know, in terms of the broader uh news, news by nature tends to be pessimistic, right? It tends to present a lot of conflict, it tends to um, you know, people want to read about problems, and um that's been fueled by a lot of social media that um you know has found sort of leverage through an algorithm like that uh people getting angry really drives uh usership of their platforms. Um and so I I have noticed that uh the news is has been extra extra pessimistic during it, you know, like especially if you just look at the last few months and we look at sort of coronavirus news, like we we we've seen, you know, uh despite the fact that there's plenty of reasons for um optimism that things are going to get better um with vaccines and such, you know, we keep hearing about oh, there's another variant, this variant is spreading, and it could, you know, sort of upset that whole plan for the future. Um and so I think that that presents a challenge to people on an individual level who are um uh trying to do really ambitious things and trying to uh push for uh sort of new accomplishments and and you know, in the sport of swimming, some better level of performance. And what I mean to say is, and then the reason I'm recording this podcast, now I've gotten 15 minutes into it, I'm sort of getting to the big point, is I do think we're actually at a turning point where more optimism is really warranted. And where you it's a it's a time to reexamine how many situations um where, like me, and the situation I described with uh my daughter's you know virtual schooling, where you have turned to pessimism because it was the healthiest thing for you, and where you might reevaluate and go, no, now now it's time to start having a little bit of optimism, training up a little bit of optimism because it's a skill. It's you don't, you know, you you you it takes time to unwind, right? Took me a while to unwind to that pessimistic vision. It takes time to rewind or build up on it, right? And what I'm suggesting to a lot of people is right now, March 16th, is a time to take stock. What things have you given up hope on? Okay. Um what things and and and and what things have you given up hope on in order to protect yourself? And how many of them, if you take a second look at it, if you're really thoughtful about it, how many of them can you start to can you restart the hope cycle on? Can you start to imagine a situation in the near future where that situation will not necessarily repeat itself, right? Where it won't just be inevitable that that is happening, right? How many um of these situations can you start to take stock of what is good in the environment and the people you surrounded yourself with? You know, like I'll I'll give you another very swimming example. Like I talked to I talked to kids on my own team and I talked to uh people all around, and you know, there's this sort of general sense of like if you've been doing swim meets in in most parts of the country, you know, you haven't had a lot of opportunities to do what you're used to pre-pandemic in terms of swimming competitions. So, you know, maybe you're having you've had a series of competitions like we have here at Wahoos, we've had a series of competitions at your own pool. Uh we've been really lucky, as I've said on previous podcasts, um, to have another really local good team G Pack to come here and compete with us. But, you know, people sort of start to get into this like, oh, another meet, it's at our pool, same people I'm racing. I get it. Okay. I get that um this is when you compare it to what is happening, or what was happening pre-pandemic, that on some level it doesn't seem as exciting to you. But now is the time March 16th, 2021, I'll keep saying it. Now is the time to start having a little bit more gratitude. Okay? I I realized that in that moment when I was working out yesterday, I'm wearing my sweatshirt from my gym today. That like, God, I am really lucky to be able to do this again. This is something that I really enjoy. Um, I get to be surrounded by people that I enjoy, and I I I am very grateful for this experience. And in the swimming context, I feel that there's been a very, very quick adaptation from so many of us had so many months where we could not do anything directly involved with this sport that we love so much. We just simply, you may not enter the pool and swim. Okay. And then we came back and there was a very brief period. Addressed this in a podcast with Garrett McCaffrey earlier, where people were like so excited, we finally get to do this again, they had maybe have that first meet, right? And they're like, oh, this is so great to be able to compete again. And then then we sort of adapt back and we start comparing it. Now's the time, okay, before life goes back to normal, which I do believe it will um start to do, like we're picking up momentum in that direction in many places in America. Okay. But if you're not thoughtful before that happens, if you don't pause to start building optimism before the circumstances change, it's a misopportunity. If you don't pause for gratitude before you move on to things getting better, it's a huge missopportunity. Right now is the time to do those two things. Okay. And the reason for that is on the optimism front, if you as I said, this stuff takes time to wind around. If you just passively allow for the situation to improve, and then you know, you're sort of a little bit more naturally optimistic because stuff's going better. You miss that opportunity to get that training. It's it's it's as if, you know, again, in a swimming context, it's as if um, you know, you're showing up to practice every day and you're just like, I'm just gonna wait until I feel really good to train hard. I uh what I'm not suggesting is that you train as hard as you possibly can when you feel like absolute dirt because um the the circumstances outside of the pool have that are beyond your control have made it really impossible for you to push to the full max. Or made it actually a bad idea to push to the full max. But what I'm saying is right now things are are aligning such that, yes, it's gonna be challenging to find optimism right now. And that's the best time, but it's just challenging enough that you can do it. It's time to train it. Okay? The same thing with gratitude, because if you look back at that adaptation process, you know, you can actually influence how quickly that adaptation from the absence of something to having something goes. And you can actually stretch out that natural gratitude period where you are thoughtful and aware that things are getting better in your life and that you gain momentum from that. But you won't be able to do that unless you start practicing the gratitude before the sex circumstances really necessarily get better to where you want them to get. So that's my message. That's a state of positive psychology as I see it in the swimming world right now. Um thank you to everybody so much for listening. Again, look uh I don't know exactly when it's gonna come out. Look for uh Poolside Pass um in regards to uh you know my conversation on there. I'm lining up some really good guests for uh this podcast. Uh Women's NCA is coming up on the weekend. Uh we'll have a little bit of that underway uh when uh Eric and Joel and I talk on Thursday, and then I got Danny Corman from the University of California uh women's swimming and diving team coming on with me after the meet uh to talk about this NCA season and uh Cal and Bravely gonna discuss you know what happens at this NCA be um we've booked it without you know without knowing that result. So um look forward to that. Continue to follow, continue to um give uh feedback. I've got a really nice note from somebody in regards to the podcast earlier this week. So I really appreciate that. And uh for more great swimming conversations, go to chrisdcoach.com, C H R S D as indesantiscoach.com, and I will see you later this week.