Reflect, Accept, Adapt, Respond: The 4 Tools of Contemplative Action
I'll admit that when I first heard the Royal Way theme for the 2026-27 academic and athletic seasons, "Reflect, Accept, Adapt, Respond," I immediately thought it sounded too corporate. But the more I sat with it, the more I began to think about what those four words would actually mean to an athlete at a Jesuit university. Then it hit me: this theme is far from corporate or inapplicable to Royal athletics. Reflecting, accepting, adapting, and responding are integral to what it means to be Jesuit-educated and a University of Scranton athlete.
What made me realize this was the Jesuit charism of the "contemplative in action," a term that calls us to become individuals who blend contemplation with action. That idea and "Reflect, Accept, Adapt, Respond" overlap in a key way: reflection and acceptance are fruits of contemplation, whether at the team level or the individual level, while adapting and responding are the actions that follow, taken by a team or a single athlete. As athletes, we need to understand that our performance in the pool, on the court, on the field, or around the track requires contemplation first, in the form of reflection and acceptance. Only once that's done can we ask the essential next question: "How am I going to act now?" And that question can only be answered through adaptation and response.
To say I had a slump my sophomore season would be an understatement. I came into the year out of shape after swimming inconsistently over the offseason, and my in-season performance was nothing to be proud of. That led to a fiery frustration with myself and a real sense of embarrassment about not being what I could have been for my team. But then I took the time to reflect, and I realized I swam the way I did because I hadn't put in the right work when it mattered. I accepted that my sophomore season was behind me and that it wouldn't define my career as a Royal. Then I acted on that contemplation, adapting my mentality over the offseason and pushing myself to build a consistent lifting and swimming schedule. When junior season rolled around, I responded by putting together my best season yet, contributing to the team's success in a number of ways. I went from one end of the athletic spectrum to the other, and all it took was becoming a contemplative actor through reflection, acceptance, adaptation, and growth.
Sam Peters, Senior, Men's Swimming and Diving
