Drag Slows a Body Down

In my previous post about learning to swim, I noted that I learned how to flow through the water straighter by looking at the stripe on the bottom of the pool instead of trying to look forward. It occurs to me that this is a great metaphor for reaching one's life goals.

When swimming, trying to look forward to the end of the pool instead of looking down has two consequences. First, the act of raising your head to look forward causes your legs to drop down in the water, making you slightly more vertical than horizontal. Second, the new leg position creates drag, which slows you down. (This gives whole new meaning to another phrase I heard as a kid . . . "stop dragging your feet.")

Apply this to life. Looking forward, instead of focusing on the tasks at hand changes our focus from the present to the future. The act of changing that focus has a dual effect. First, we stop paying attention to what we're doing. Then, our change of focus makes us slow down in the race to reach our goals.

What if we just put our heads in the game, and stay focused on that "line on the bottom of the pool?" What would happen? I mean, those lines on the bottom of the pool ARE there for a reason, right? Yes! I think what would happen is three-fold.
1. We would stay on the right path - not straying from our goals.
2. In spite of not seeing the end of that line (since we aren't looking up) we would still know when we get to the end of the lane. We know because our line ends, bringing us to the end of our goal.
3. We would ultimately get there quicker.

Identification is the first step toward change. So are we slowing ourselves down? How are we sabotaging our own goals by creating "drag" in our lives?