Swimming the English Channel
“Nothing great is easy” – lessons in motivation from an English Channel swimmer
Motivation
What motivates us to take on a large physical challenge? It probably starts with personal desire, that little voice inside that tells us to try something new, something difficult. Your challenge could be climbing K2, it could be climbing the stairs. It doesn’t matter. The thoughts processes are the same. For me it was to swim the English Channel. I had already swam it twice as part of a relay team, so I had an understanding of what it took to train for this event, but knew it would be completely different as a solo swimmer.
It took me a year to train for this swim. All the training, other than in the pool during December, January and February was done in open water. Only in March and in a couple of open water training races did I wear a wetsuit. You can’t wear a wetsuit for the Channel swim so train for reality. The Channel swimming season is roughly from the middle of June until the middle of October. From the first weekend in May onwards, everyone trying to swim the Channel each year starts to train in the sea, usually in Dover Harbour (Dover is the nearest point in the UK to France and the nearest port to the start point of most Channel attempts).
What got me up each morning?
Simply, if I didn’t train, I wouldn’t get across. By the time I swam, I had drawn the interest of TV channels, my local politician, I had been interviewed on the radio, my two charities were marketing the swim as hard as they could, and all my family and friends knew I was swimming. The thought of failing in front of all these people, due to something I could control was simply unacceptable.
The two small, local, charities I raised money for, support children with life limiting issues and their families. As I got more involved with both charities, the swim became less about my desire and more about raising as much money as possible for these amazing people. My 14 hours of pain and discomfort, were never going to be as difficult as some of the issues these brave children and their families face each day, so just get on with it.
Even on the darkest, coldest morning, when frost was on the ground and my bed felt its warmest, I still got up to train. Knowing that you are the only one up and training and lowering yourself into six degree (C) water when others less motivated have succumbed to the call of the duvet, reinforces and galvanises your total belief that you will succeed where others will fall by the wayside.
During the swim, my team communicated with me using a ‘motivation board’, a dry wipe board to pass me messages and information. On this board were two quotes and a picture of one of the little boys I was raising money for. At about the nine hour mark (of my 14 hour swim) I started to suffer with extreme pain in my shoulder. My Dad wrote a message on the board: “Your pain is raising money for children that will NEVER be able do this”. This acted like an injection of heat, pride and adrenaline that meant I could have swum to New York.
Finally, “start with the end in mind”. From the minute I decided to swim, I wrote a strict training plan, and imagined what it would be like to take those last few strokes and walk up the beach in France. I imagined the feeling of pride in completing such a challenge. I had trained hard, got a great team around me, got my head around the task and by the time I got to the start I had been through the swim so many times in my head, I felt I had already got across.
I am an ordinary guy. I have a full time job, I’m not rich and I have three young children. What I do have though, is a massive inner desire to achieve great things. Just because you’re ordinary, doesn’t mean you can’t achieve something extraordinary.
Once you decide to do something great, there is nothing stopping you achieving it.
Nick is a company executive, performance coach and motivational speaker based in London. Nick can be contacted at nick@nickalford.com or through his website www.nickalford.com and on Twitter @nickspeaker.
