I’ve always viewed myself as a swimmer, but after about 3ish years of neglecting the pastime I most associated with myself, it was past time to get back in the pool and start working on it again.
Just one problem: I forgot how hard it is.
Getting back in the pool felt like riding a bike, the form coming back like I had never stopped swimming…for about 4 laps. Then the time I spent not working out came back to bite me. I felt my hips dropping, creating more drag and straining my shoulders. My kick went from consistent to nearly non-existent. My strokes shortened, going in the water sooner rather than reaching, creating more resistance with every rotation.
I knew what I was supposed to be doing, and what was going wrong, but I was out of form because of a lack of practice and repetition.
In a lot of ways, I think swimming is like writing. Knowing something is off is step one to taking the corrective action needed to get it right, but it takes practice, repetition, and consistent pushing of the envelope to grow and get it right.
Whether it’s finding creative ways to tell a compelling story, building a more comprehensive vocabulary to say exactly what you mean, or making the seemingly mundane into a must cover piece of news, we in the public relations field need to keep honing our craft, building the muscles to support the form we know is correct, and pushing the envelope to get stronger.
-Justin