THE ILLUSION OF STUCKNESS

THE ILLUSION OF STUCKNESS

Paddy Cloete (Psychologist and Ironman) 

In the movie League of Their Own, that portrays a fictionalised account of the real life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, one of the players complains, “It just got too hard” to which the manager replies “It’s supposed to be hard.  If it wasn’t hard, everybody would do it.  The hard is what makes it great”.  With Ironman South Africa only six weeks out, many of you may be able to identify with the player’s complaint that it is just too hard.

Ironman training is hard.  During the last six weeks there might be times when you find that the going is slow, when you are discouraged and frustrated by your apparent lack of progress.  You might feel stuck, and wonder if you will ever get unstuck.

It is important to remember that as we take the journey through life there is no such thing as being stuck.  It is an optical illusion.  This also true of Ironman training.  There is no more stuck in your training than there is stuck in the growth of a tree, which one can never see growing all the time that it is growing.  There is no more stuck in your training than there is stuck in the dry, grey field in winter, from which a lush carpet of grass and wildflowers will grow in spring.  There is no more stuck in your training than there is stuck in the growth of your child, whom you cannot see growing, yet s/he continues to outgrow their clothes.  Nothing is stuck in nature.  It is all motion, though sometimes very slow motion.

When you feel stuck and you feel like giving up and committing no more effort, know that it is a normal feeling when you have been working hard towards realising your goal.  The excitement of starting to work towards a new goal will eventually disappear and then the reality of the hard work required to reach your goal will appear.  Remember stuckness it is just your perception, an illusion, a feeling not reality.  You are feeling stuck because you are not seeing any evidence of movement and progress, but just like in nature, the absence of evidence of movement and progress does not equate to being stuck, there is movement, you just need to believe and keep going.  Athletes often need remind of this fact when doing a sea swim in tough conditions.  Those unfamiliar to sea swims will often remark that they are going nowhere, to which I usually reply just look behind you and your see how far you have travelled, so just keep going.

I frequently draw inspiration from children’s stories because they communicate valuable life lessons which we as adults tend to forget.  The children’s story of the two frogs in a pail of cream communicates the life lesson regarding the illusion of stuckness beautifully.

Once there were two frogs, a big frog and a little frog, who were hopping across a field on their way to a pond.  In the middle of the field, they came to a big pail and, being curious frogs, they jumped in to see what was inside.  There was cream inside!  The two frogs happened to love cream, so they stayed in the pail and drank their fill.  When they were done, they tried to jump out of the pail, but couldn’t because there was nothing solid in the pail for their back legs to jump from.

The big frog was one of those negative and depressive types, and immediately said, “Forget it!  We’ll never get out of here!  This is hopeless!  We’re stuck!”  But the little frog, who was more of the upbeat, positive, optimistic type, said “Well, it certainly looks like we are stuck, but while we are trying to think of something to do, why don’t we just swim around?  After all, we are frogs!  What else can we do but swim?”

So they started swimming around and around the pail of cream, trying to think of what to do, all the while the big frog complained that they’d never get out of there and they might as well quit.  “I’m so tired,” he said every few minutes.  “I can’t go on”.  “No, no, let’s keep swimming” said the little frog, who though tired himself, was not discouraged.  “I mean, what else is there to do?”

So they kept swimming.  They swam and swam, around and around, for hours, the big frog moaning and groaning about their plight every kick of the way.  Eventually he got so discouraged that he stopped kicking, took one last breath, and sank wearily to the bottom of the pail and died.  The little frog glanced down, felt sad for his friend, but just kept swimming, for many more hours, all through the night, he just kept going, until around dawn he noticed that something was happening … it was getting harder to swim through the cream … it was getting thicker and thicker!  All that swimming had churned the cream into butter!  After another few minutes, the little frog was able to get his back legs on top of the butter and with a great leap sprang out and was free!

The moral of the story is that when you think you are stuck, you never are; some important, though invisible, process is happening within you.  Next time you feel stuck, remember the two frogs and just keep swimming, cycling and running and you will make it to the start and the finish of Ironman South Africa.

Happy training, see you out there!

Recognition to Alter & Alter (2000)