Florence May Chadwick (November 9, 1918 – March 15, 1995)
Florence May Chadwick had already swam the English Channel and was primed to be the first woman to swim Catalina Island to the California Coastline. For those of you who have never swam that little stretch she was preparing to swim 26 miles in shark infested water.
This 26 mile stretch was particularly difficult because it happened to be foggy and cold as well--a recipe for misery. Miles into her trip the fog, as expected set in. She couldn’t see the shoreline anymore and she began to lose focus. Florence stopped mid-swim and began to tread water as she spoke with her mother who coasted along side her in a support boat.
“I don’t think I can do this,” She said. Her mother urged Florence to continue and for another hour Florence persisted and ignored the thoughts of failure in her head--but only for a time until her negative thoughts beat her. The problem was simple, Florence, couldn’t see the shore line any more. She couldn't see it physically and the shoreline wasn't focused in her head anymore either.
Without the end goal in sight or her mind, her thoughts turned to belief and convinced her the swim was impossible. In the end she swam 16 hours that day before quitting. As she boarded the support boat and as the boat made it’s way towards the coast they realized Florence had stopped only 1 mile short of her goal. She stopped with just minutes left to go.
How many of us have worked our tails off and stopped just short because we couldn’t see our goals in sight? How many of us were on the verge of a breakthrough just as we turned the motor off? I’m wondering for myself too. I became a quitter some time ago. It was something that was foreign to me at one time, but I became a quitter all the same.
As a child I learned to fight, persist and believe in my abilities as I fought a learning disability that many teachers said would leave me asking others for help my whole life. I overcame it, but I forgot the lessons. It’s easy to do. Somewhere along the way I forgot the lessons of persistence. I forgot that just because I physically couldn’t see my goal didn’t mean I couldn’t hold it in my mind. That’s how I accomplished everything of substance in my life before. But as I failed and quit on my goals, I realized I stopped dreaming too. That’s when things get really dangerous.
When you stop dreaming, when you stop setting goals life begins to fade away. That is not me being dramatic it's a reality many of us never fully understand. Life begins to escape your grasp when you stop moving forward. We’re like sharks, as soon as we stop swimming we die.
Florence stopped swimming that day, but never in her mind. She came back two months later to accomplish her original goal. As the fog set in again she realized she was faced with the exact same conditions as two months before. However, this time Florence did it armed with the only thing she needed to move forward and accomplish her goal, a focused mind.
Florence answered simply when asked how she was able to do it when faced with the same conditions as before.
“I just visually keep the image of that shoreline in my head this time. That’s how I made it through.”
No matter what happens in your life. It doesn’t matter how much you get kicked and knocked down, don’t ever those sight of your goals and NEVER stop dreaming. I know you’ve heard that before, but now you know what it means.
Published originally HERE, by me in 2012