A few years ago, I went scuba diving for the first time. After monitoring your air supply, the second most important thing to manage is buoyancy. It can invisibly control you, so awareness of it is crucial.
It struck me that buoyancy is a great metaphor for context. The context we choose to train and perform in has the same dynamics.
Three Types of Buoyancy
Buoyancy can be positive, negative, or neutral.
Positive buoyancy is what everyone thinks of when they hear the word. Something less dense than the surrounding medium will rise. A balloon filled with helium will climb toward the clouds. In racing, everyone gets a boost from sideline cheering.
Negative buoyancy is the opposite. Something more dense than its medium will sink. A stone dropped in water will end up on the bottom. In training, criticism and conflict increase the load.
Neutral buoyancy is neither. The object's density matches the medium, so it hangs suspended. A neutrally buoyant diver will hover at depth.
Buoyancy is dynamic.
The interesting thing is that buoyant objects accelerate. Their velocity increases until it's balanced by drag.
Positively buoyant objects rise faster and faster, shooting toward the sky. But like falling objects, negatively buoyant objects descend faster and faster toward the ground.
Without intervention, a scuba diver will rise and sink faster and faster. Like a diver, winning and succeeding often leads to more of the same, as do their opposites.
The Two Hazards of Buoyancy
"Behaviors don’t always reflect personality; they’re more often a function of the situation."
—Daniel Kahneman
The dangers of buoyancy are two-fold.
The first hazard is not recognizing that buoyancy is at work. A lot of effort is wasted if changes in context would create similar, but more sustainable, change.
A common mistake in training is to sacrifice sleep to increase training time. This limits recovery, making the additional training less effective. In contrast, increasing sleep—sleeping longer at night and/or adding naps during the day—supports adaptation and makes additional training possible and more effective.
The second hazard of buoyancy is taking credit for its effects. A certain context may not be the person’s doing—born on Park Avenue vs. born in a war zone—and thinking so can lead to undeserved effects on self-perception and confidence.
In a positive environment, taking credit for context leads to overconfidence and eventual correction. In a negative environment, taking blame for context leads underconfidence and missed opportunities.
Be aware of buoyancy.
"...success is not the result of strong willpower and the ability to overcome resistance, but rather the result of smart working environments that avoid resistance in the first place."
—Soenke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes
If situations shape behavior, shaping them can create an advantage. In training and racing, engineer a supportive environment: Sleep as much as possible, prioritize nutrition, kill your commute, connect with cheerleaders, avoid critics. Accept that inputs are controllable, but outcomes are not.
