Life is a swimathon and you have to keep moving

A couple of years ago, I started swimming regularly as part of a New Year's Resolution to improve my health and fitness. We are very fortunate to have a 30-metre swimming pool within five minutes' walk from home so there really was no reason why I could not easily achieve this part of my resolution. I did in fact swim 2 or 3 times a week for over a year - including Saturdays, when I would take my kids along.


Last year, a change in my job and my finances meant I wasn't able to get to the pool so easily and, for several months, neither I nor my kids went swimming.


2012 brought another new year and a renewed determination to maintain a healthier life style, so I managed a swim last week and will attempt to swim at least once a week (with or without kids).


What has this got to do with the blog title or anything, for that matter, that anyone is likely to be remotely interested in?


One of the incidental benefits of swimming, I found, was time to think and, as I swam and attempted to refine my style, develop my stamina and generally improve my overall performance in the pool, I began to see a number of parallels between swimming and the journey we call 'life' - hence the blog title.


So, 'life is a swimathon and you have to keep moving': being in the pool is pretty non-eventful if you just sit there like a buoy*, floating on the surface and not experiencing the thrill of a jump, a dive, a faster length. You need to propel your body through the water - no one else is likely to do that. You make the moves in your life: you decide how fast, how far, how long, how deep. However, the similarity between the pool and 'life' ends at the pool-edge: whilst I can hop out of the pool at any time, life goes on - like a swimathon - and it really is what you make it.


Someone once said, 'Life is not a dress rehearsal - it's the real thing.' (Google wouldn't tell me who...) and Robert Frost said, 'In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.'


Many have reflected on 2011 in their own blogs, summing it up as a tough year and looking forward to better times in 2012. That may or may not be the case but, in any event, life goes on and, as you would in a swimathon, you just have to keep moving...


How's your swimathon going? What keeps you moving?


If you care to comment on the swimming analogy and offer your own perspectives, please do.






*There are times when you need to assume a stationary, floating position but that's another blog...