Make 5% your 100%

Hi friend,

last Saturday was the I. Inner Belief. Believing you can before you have a shred of proof. I told you about a young man in a cold room in Innsbruck, calculus in front of him, no evidence anything would work, who opened the book one more time.

Today, the last letter in SWIM. The M. Momentum.

And this is the one people get wrong. They think momentum is willpower. Something you generate alone, by gritting harder. It is not. The momentum that carries you when motivation is gone, and even belief is running thin, comes from somewhere else. It comes from the people in your boat.

A few years ago I said out loud that I was going to swim the Alpine Seven. Seven of the most iconic lakes in the Alps. 339 kilometers of open water, over years. It would start with the length of Lake Constance. 65 kilometers in a single crossing.

At the time, the longest I had ever swum in open water was 2.5 kilometers.

Not 25. Two and a half. You read that correct.

So I told people. And people are honest. "Impossible." "You can't do that." "Nobody swims that far." Again and again, the same wall.

Until I told Samuel Griell. My coach.

Sammy did not say "are you sure." He did not say "that's insane." He said three words. "Let's do it."

That was the last piece of confidence I was missing. Not because he handed me proof. He couldn't. Nobody could. But he believed it out loud, and he believed it before I fully did, and that was enough to take the step.

Then we needed an endurance coach. I asked my old coach, Bernhard Schimpl, if he knew anyone he could recommend. Bernie said he would do it himself. Even better!

So there they were. Both of them. In the boat. Bernie and Sammy. Two people with full confidence in a guy whose longest open-water swim was 2.5 kilometers, talking about 65. Even 339.

I did not carry that alone. I couldn't have. Belief gets you to the water. But 65 kilometers when you have only ever done two and a half? Someone has to be in the boat. The momentum that moves your arm hours in, when your own has run out, is partly theirs. Loaned to you, until yours catches up.

That is the M. Momentum is not the strength in your own arms. It is the people who get in the boat.

You cannot control who doubts you. The wall of "impossible" will always be there. That is the 95%. You can control who you let in the boat. The one or two who say "let's do it." That is the 5%. Find them. Keep them close.

Let´s get real. The 22nd of August. That is momentum together, made visible. You will not be swimming alone. A crowd of us, worldwide, in the water on the same day, each one carried by the rest. Any distance. For NF Kinder.

This week's experiment: name your boat.

Who is your Sammy? The person who said "let's do it" when everyone else said you couldn't. Tell them what it meant. And if you are staring down something big right now, ask one person to get in the boat with you. Out loud. This week.

Then come get in ours. The 22nd. We swim together.

Next Saturday, we stop reading and start swimming.

You can't always choose the water. You can always choose who is in the boat with you.

All the best

Bernhard

P.S. Swim with us on the 22nd. Any distance, from ten meters to ten kilometers. Join here. 15 euros, every cent to NF Kinder.

P.P.S. Hit reply and tell me one name. The person in your boat. I read every one.

Was this forwarded to you? Get your own copy here: newsletter​