Streamline Your Life: Speed Shrinking

The Sport Mind: lessons from sports

I see the sporting world as a microcosm of our society, and that makes it an ideal place to learn how to function best in our society. If you read my blog, you will read personal anecdotes, whimsical thoughts, philosophical ponderings, observations, research, articles, ideas, and quotes - but all will, however loosely, deal with the mental side of sports and how lessons learned there can be used in life. (Note, as my header might suggest, that I am a swimmer, and many posts, though maybe applicable to all sports, will pertain to swimming.)

8.31.2009

Speed Shrinking

There is a misconception that going to counseling is going to get advice. In actuality, counselors are more of an educated sounding board, blank page, or way to discover what the client thinks. Counselor are not supposed to give advice. But now with the advent of "speed shrinking" advice is inevitable. You pose your question and get advice, almost fortune cookie type advice. The advice is necessarily shallow because the "relationship" is shallow.

Example of fortune cookie advice:

One middle-aged man told another therapist, Diana Kirschner, that he was worried about becoming unemployed. “I worry about losing my job, because I’m too young to get fired and too old to get hired,” said the man...[The counselor] asked the man if he had other interests. When he said he wanted to write a book, she responded: “Pursue this new venture. When you are in a situation like this, you must reinvent yourself.”

Does this help? Is this truly the best advice? Or just an easy answer to have something in 3 minutes.

Example of shallow advice:

...a 24-year-old product development manager at Ralph Lauren in New York, approached Ms. Kirschner to ask about the merits of online dating.
“Is it wrong?” she asked. “Is it a normal way to meet people?”
“It is very normal,” Ms. Kirschner answered. “As of 2007, the majority of people over 45 were meeting their lifelong loves online, and not through the traditional network of family, friends and business associates, and I believe this is now true for younger people.”

Why is she wondering? What is behind the question? And just because it is "normal" does not mean it is okay for her.

Even though we are an instant gratification society, there are just some things that take time. Counseling is one of them.

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Who am I?

I am student at Florida State University, pursuing my PhD in sports psychology. I have 20 years competitive experience in swimming during which I reached national and division one collegiate level (FSU). From 2000-2008 I was a coach for Maverick Aquatics, a swim team in the panhandle of Florida that caters to all ages and abilities. The elite group excelled at the regional level (Southeastern Championships) while I was there. From 2004-2008 I helped coach and taught sports psychology for the Niceville High School swim team. I have a masters in mental health counseling (and experience in community mental health agencies), a keen interest in writing (and a BA in it), and a passion for sports and how the lessons learned in sport can enrich our lives.

Streamlining...important to swimming, sports, and life

By learning mental lessons through sport, you learn skills that help streamline your life. Streamlining is one of the first and most basic skills taught in swimming, and yet it is one of the most important. As we progress through life, sometimes we lose sight of the basic things. Sports psychology can help bring awareness to things that have become so automated over time that we don’t pay attention to how askew they have become or how they can be improved. Swimmers are taught that each and every time they leave the wall, they streamline. Before you do anything, make sure you streamline! That means organizing material and mental processes so they are smooth and efficient. As a swimmer moves through the water, every part of the body is positioned in such as way as to reduce drag, promote lift, and increase the streamlining capacity of the body. As you move through life, every aspect can be positioned in such a way that you are not emotionally dragged down, but instead lifted up as you optimize your time and energy. Sports psychology teaches ways to enhance performance in sport, and the skills are immediately applicable to life. So streamline your life! Your life can be better streamlined through the lessons of sport.