Baby Shampoo and Goggles

If you’ve ever spent any time swimming with goggles, you’ll know that it can be quite frustrating when they lenses fog up and you can’t see through the water clearly. I’d been having this same issue a few months ago and I was soliciting advice from a friend of mine who competes at the professional level in Ironman. She suggested I rub a tiny drop of baby shampoo inside the lenses, completely rinse them out, and let them dry. I gave it a shot. To my surprise, it worked like a charm! The coating of the shampoo prevents fogging on the inside of the lenses. Of course, it’s most effective if you reapply every 8-10 swims as the effect gradually wears off over time, but hey, I was happy to have a reliable remedy for my foggy goggles.

As I was swimming down the frigid James River with this same friend over the weekend, I was wearing my newly de-fogged goggles, stroking as hard as I could in order to stay on her heels during our SwimRun race. Throughout the course of this race, I had some significant time in my own head to think deep thoughts, as I am apt to do. When I wasn’t thinking about how long it would take to regain sensation in my lower extremities after climbing out of the 59 degree water, I started thinking about how the goggles and the baby shampoo could serve as a metaphor for how we can make small adjustments to our perspective about a situation that can completely flip the scenario on its head.

Sometimes when we feel hopeless, that nothing good is happening in our lives, and that we have no control over our circumstances, all we need is a little shift in perspective in order to see a small light to work towards. My mom used to have a poster in her classroom where she taught Family and Consumer Science that read, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change,” – Wayne Dryer. The more I have contemplated this quote over the years, the more often I have seen its veracity and wisdom across a variety of situations.

If the power goes out unexpectedly at home one night, it could be a huge disappointment as it cuts off your favorite TV show, or it could be an opportunity to light some candles and dust off your favorite old board games. Getting stuck in a traffic jam on the way home from work (something I am becoming all too familiar with) could result in an explosion of road rage, or it could become an opportunity to call a dear friend to catch up, with nothing else to distract you. A season-ending injury could turn you into an angry, isolated couch potato, or it could turn into an opportunity to shore up weaknesses in your core and upper body, or try out a new non-impact sport and make a few new friends.

Although in the midst of hardship, shifting our perspective to find something positive is often the last thing we want to do, it’s often the most helpful if we hope to make it through that rough patch, and perhaps even learn a lesson in the process.

What areas of your life might need a little baby shampoo? And how often might you need to reapply it?