Commitment is the Low Cost of High Living
There’s a group of 23 boys over at Benilde-St. Margaret’s who have blown me away over the past 3 months.
On November 24, 2025 they gathered for their first workout of the 2025-2026 swim season.
By my count, they have done 82 practices — swimming or lifting — since that date.
In hours, that’s 145 hours.
And none of this includes the intense efforts they’ve given at swim meets over the season.
They’ve swam tired.
They’ve swam sore.
They’ve swam hungry.
They’ve swam when they didn’t want to.
They’ve swam in bad moods.
And they’ve swam around many competing priorities.
Dedication to a commitment is such a cool thing to watch.
As Steve Hardison says, “the failure to commit is the high cost of low living.”
Well, if there’s an opposite to that, I’ve gotten to witness it: commitment is the low cost of high living.
These kids are soaring.
As I hit publish on this blog, these boys are just a few hours shy of boarding a bus to head over to St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN where they will compete in the prelims of the Section 2A Swimming & Diving Championships.
If they swim well, they’ll be back there again on Saturday.
And, if they swim well on Saturday — and only on Saturday — they’ll be back in action next week for the 2026 Minnesota Class A State Swimming & Diving Championships at the University of Minnesota.
Today marks the start of the culmination of everything these boys have done since November 24, 2025.
This season we’ve talked a lot about commitment.
Commitment is showing up.
Commitment is simply putting a penny in the piggy bank every day.
Some days, though, we do get to put in a nickel.
Every now and then we get to throw in a dime.
And, on the rare occasion, we deposit a quarter.
On the whole, though, when we think about commitment, a lot of it comes down to pennies.
And pennies add up!
Put another way, little steps on a daily and consistent basis over a long period of time is what leads to transformation.
These boys have transformed — as swimmers and, more importantly, as humans.
Tonight, they get to break open that piggy bank and see what they’ve created.
Commitment is the low cost of high living.
It’s low cost because it’s such a simple thing to do:
“Yes, I’m going to do that.”
Show up and do that thing — which, at times, may require you to do that thing day in and day out.
It’s high living because it creates such fabulous stories in our lives.
Selfishly, this season has been so rewarding for me because it has brought back so many memories of my time as a high school swimmer.
The people.
The workouts.
The races.
The lessons.
The stories.
And that’s why I wanted to write this — a bit of wisdom from a 46-year old to a bunch of high school swimmers:
In the end, the outcome of today, Saturday, and next week at the State Meet is irrelevant.
What does matter is what you created over the past 3 months and how that will shape who you are moving forward.
The people.
The workouts.
The races.
The lessons.
And, yes, the stories.
Each of you created your own stories that you get to carry with you the rest of your life.
And, if I may be so bold, maybe that’s the whole point of this thing called life: create an amazing story with the skills, resources, and talents that surround you.
Much respect and, yes…
Onward.