Sharks by nature are loners, huge fish, have thousands of teeth. What we don’t often hear about is their intelligence, their thoughtful strategies in catching prey, and their patience in doing so; along with their highly developed senses allow it to detect prey from miles away.
One of the most important shark facts is that they have to keep moving forward to stay alive. Sharks must swim constantly in order to keep oxygen-rich water flowing over their gills, but others are able to pass water through their respiratory system by a pumping motion of their pharynx. This allows them to rest on the sea floor and still breathe. However, sharks do have to swim to avoid sinking to the bottom of the water column. The ability to move up and down freely in the water column is, in fact, one of the extraordinary adaptations of sharks.Think about that. Think about how important it is to keep moving forward. For a shark it literally means life or death.
And, I can’t think of better advice for a new or veteran, old or young runner, triathlete, cyclist, crossfitter, or any athlete. Hell, anyone for that matter. Go Shark Mentality. Keep going forward.
For you and me, it might not mean the difference between living or dying. But it might make the difference of our dream or goal living or dying. Whatever that dream is…to start a couch to 5k plan, run a marathon, or finish an Ironman. It’s a mentality that you have to adopt and it can be the difference between being a better swimmer, a faster runner, or getting stronger in order to make that final push to the finish line.
For sharks, it’s about life or death. It should almost feel that same way for us. That we need to keep learning, keep improving, keep persevering. To keep moving forward to stay alive. To feel alive. Go backward and it’s over.
Let’s never lose sight of our goals. Like a shark uses all of its sense to locate food, let’s focus everything on achieving them. We have to be able to taste the success. Like blood in the water. We have to be able to taste our next training session. Our next PR. Our next sale. Our next success. No matter how small it may be.
Every day is composed of constant movement. No stopping is ever allowed. It is like people fear their movement is equivalent to their life. There are cars roaring at all hours of the day, even in the dead of night. The sound simply never stops, never falters. If one decides that they wish to stop and breathe for a minute, they are immediately deemed a failure and are cast out from society. They say that it is the survival of the fittest, even among a crowd of sharks.
There is an old saying, ‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got’. And by all standard it’s true.If you aren’t proactive you will stagnate. And if you do that the crocodiles will eat you up.You have to keep paddling, keep moving forward in the water. Sharks have to keep moving forwards all their life to keep water passing through or over their gills. They never stop.
And don’t pay attention to Debbie Downers, hanging on and trying to suck the life out of you. Let’s keep moving forward. It doesn’t have to be at top speed. We can move slow. Evaluating. Learning. Progressing. Even the proper sleep and recovery is movement in the right direction.
Age? Age doesn’t matter. No excuses! No matter how old you are. Don’t let yourself get stuck. Don’t let yourself stop. And never under any circumstances go backwards. There are so many opportunities. There are so many tools. There’s access to information. There’s access to experts that have done it before. You just have to keep moving forward while you can, because you never know.
Be a shark. Keep moving forward. Because if you don’t there will be plenty of others, including my humble self willing to do so.
Koffee with Joe 