A woman swimming in the English Channel in heavy fog guided by boats
FOCUSING IN THE FOG
Florence Chadwick was an accomplished swimmer, having won many long
distance competitions at an early age. At the age of 32 she became the first woman
to successfully swim the English Channel in both directions, winning her world
acclaim.
In 1952 Chadwick decided she would attempt the 26 mile swim from from Catalina
Island to the California coastline. Flanked by small boats looking out for sharks,
Florence swam for 15 hours before encountering a dense fog. She swam another
hour but the fog remained thick, making it impossible to see ahead.
Exhausted and disoriented, Florence was pulled out of the water. Later it was
discovered that she had quit swimming less than one mile from her destination!
She didn't know how close she was! It was a devastating failure to her.
Two months later, Chadwick decided to attempt the swim the Catalina channel
again. Once again, a thick, impenetrable fog set in. But this time she was
prepared. This time she kept a mental image of the shoreline in her mind as she
pushed forward. Focusing on her imagined destination, Florence Chadwick found
success and reached her destination! In fact, she later made the same swim
successfully on two other occasions.
A year later (1953) Florence returned to the English Channel and shattered the
world record! Then she did it again and broke her own record. She went on to swim
in other locations around the world, breaking more records and earning her place as
one of the world's greatest swimmers.
REFLECTION:
Can you recall a time you had to conquer a misconception in order to finish a
task or goal? OR Can you share a time when perseverance paid off?