Florence Chadwick’s Story: Overcoming Fog and Finding Success

There is a true story about a swimmer Florence Chadwick that I came across many, many years ago and I want to relay this actual story to you here. Now, this story is courtesy of Don Meyer, as he puts it much more eloquently than I could ever do and it’s called The Fog. So let me tell you the story.

Florence Chadwick loved to swim. She was born in San Diego, California on November 9, 1918. She grew up on the beach and began competing as a swimmer at the age of six. After four years of defeats, her uncle entered her in a contest at the age of 10 in a two-and-a-half-mile rough water night swim where she came in fourth.

One year later at age 11, Chadwick won first place in a six-mile race across the choppy waters at the San Diego Bay Channel. For the next 19 years, she continued as a competitive swimmer. When she was 13 she came in second at the U.S. National Championships. She was the first woman to swim across the English Channel both ways. She even swam across the straits of Gibraltar. In 1962 after a career of swimming accomplishments, Chadwick was admitted to the San Diego Hall of Champions into the Breitbard Hall of Fame.

But it wasn’t easy you see. On July 4th, 1952, Chadwick was 34 years old when she attempted to become the first woman to swim the 21 miles across the Catalina Channel, from Catalina Island to Palos Verde on the California coast. The weather that day was challenging because the ocean was ice-cold and the fog was so thick she could barely see the support boats that followed her. The tides and the currents were against her, and to make matters worse, sharks were in the area. But at daybreak she decided to go forward anyway, expecting the fog to lift any time.

Hour after hour she swam, but the fog had never lifted. Her mother and trainer followed her in one of the support boats encouraging her to keep going. While Americans watched on television other members of her support crew fired rifles at the sharks to drive them away. She kept going and going. At about the 15-hour point she began to doubt her ability to finish the swim. She told her mother she didn’t think she could make it. Unfortunately, at 15 hours and 55 minutes, she had to stop, and with huge disappointment, she asked her support crew to take her out of the water.

Because of the fog, she could not see the coastline, so she had no idea where she was. She soon found out however that she was less than a mile from the coast. She could have definitely reached it if she had just stayed in the water a few minutes longer. Later she told a reporter, “Look, I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the land I know I could have made it.”

The fog had made her unable to see her goal and it felt to her like she was getting absolutely nowhere. Two months later, she tried again. And though the fog was just as dense, this time she kept going. Her time was 13 hours and 47 minutes, breaking a 27-year-old record by more than two hours and becoming the first woman ever to complete the swim.

You see, we all encounter moments of fog, not seeing where we’re heading, not seeing land, not seeing the coastline. We’re heading to land but we just can’t see it. We know a sense of direction of where we’re going to go but we just can’t see the coastline. Like Chadwick, we can be doing really well in our business or our career but then we encounter a challenge that can either break us or make us. It depends on how we deal with that challenge then as it arises. What can happen is that doubt can set in. Doubt in our ability, our expertise, our intentions, our credibility, or even our competence, our confidence, our courage, and being able to get and go after what it is that we’re trying to achieve.

We can be on the brink of success but because we can’t see the finish line from where we’re actually standing right now, we give up. Like what Chadwick said, if she could have seen the coastline she could have made it. As I mentioned in a previous blog, they called it The Snakes and Ladders Life. As we get closer to success, more snakes show up and more challenges arise.

The reason is that we’re getting to that point and getting closer and closer to what it is we’re about to achieve. We have to, while we are in that energy and in that space, we have to overcome more and more challenges. It strengthens us for what we’re supposed to do. It prepares us for what’s ahead. It’s how we face challenges that matter. Do we meet them head-on, or do we find ways around them to get through? That’s what makes the difference in actually reaching the success that you want to actually reach.

Now, there are times when we need to have trust and faith, we have to be able to stand firm in what it is that we want to create. If we can’t see the coastline, like Chadwick did while swimming across the channel, we may only envision it in our mind’s eye. We can’t always perceive it in tangible, real terms. The end destination remains unclear in a concrete sense. That’s when we need our highest level of trust and faith. We need to believe we will achieve our goal.

But there are times we need a supporter, somebody to guide us, a coach or a mentor, somebody that’s there on our side to encourage us, to guide us of where we need to get to. Now, I’ve always had a mentor in my life from the point of when I was building my career. In every single position that I held, I always had a mentor.

The mentor was always a few steps ahead of me. They had faced the same challenges I encountered but had reached a higher level of success that I had not yet achieved. I always had a mentor to guide me. They had already experienced what I was trying to achieve. I found this to be the fastest and easiest way to reach my goals.

When I set up my own business in 2001, I always employed a mentor because the reason is they’re there to encourage you, they’re there to stretch you, they’re there to challenge you. And it surprises me, we all have an accountant or we have a lawyer, or we have a physical trainer for our fitness or our physique. But for so many people they don’t have mentors in their life or in their business. They don’t have that guide or that support to challenge them, to support them, to encourage them, to push them, and to guide them as it regards where they’re supposed to go. There are times when we are faced with challenges and you need to find somebody in your circle of influence who can actually be there as your mentor, as your cheerleader to bring you forward.

But what I’ve also learned is that success breeds success. And you’ve probably heard this term as well yourself before whereby success breeds success. Our successes give us those springboards for higher levels. Now, one of the things you can do is to make a list of your successes. Acknowledge your successes and recognize the successes that you have actually achieved. The more successes you document and recognize in your life, the more confident you’ll feel. Listing them out helps you see what you’ve already achieved. This builds belief in what you can accomplish moving forward. The more you acknowledge the successes that you’ve actually achieved, the more that’s going to bring you forward in your own business life or your personal life.

Now think of it this way. Roger Bannister in 1954 broke the four-minute mile. Before Roger Bannister, no one had run a mile in under four minutes. After he broke the record, thousands of athletes followed suit. Today, they’ve even reduced the time by 17 seconds. Now people can run the mile in less than four minutes.

The more we see something happening in real terms, the stronger our belief in what can be achieved becomes. This increases our confidence in the possibility of success. Until 1954, no one had managed to run a mile in under four minutes. Then, Roger Bannister broke the barrier, completing the mile in less than four minutes. Since his achievement, thousands of athletes have accomplished the same feat. The more you’re able to develop and grow your belief around what it is that you want to actually achieve, the more you will actually succeed.

The next lesson from Chadwick’s story is that persistence and endurance are key in life and business. With them, everything falls into place. I encourage people in business development and sales to stay persistent and consistent. Persistence and consistency are key to success in their work. But let me put it this way. Many people give up after the first ask in sales. They approach potential clients and ask for business, but then stop. This often leads to missed opportunities. And if the client says no, they feel rejected and they walk away. They don’t come back and ask again, “Are you ready for the sale?”

And they may not be ready at that point in time but they may be ready at some point in the future. If they’ve moved away without following up, they haven’t shown persistence or consistency in their efforts. Lacking self-endurance for their goal, they let the opportunity slip away. As a result, the sale is completely lost.

The more you have consistency and you’re persistent in what it is that you’re going after, well then the more you’re going to reach that success that you want to achieve. You need endurance to stay in the water, just like Chadwick. Keep swimming, stay consistent, and push forward. Focus on reaching your goal.

What brings that up is what are your habits? And what are your routines? What I mean by routines is, what are your right routines? What are the right things to do when it comes to your routines? Because a couple of questions you want to ask yourself is, well, what are the habits and the routines that you currently have? And out of all of those habits and routines that you currently have, what are the ones that you need to stop? Which are the ones that aren’t bringing you forward that are actually holding you back? And out of those habits and routines, which are the ones that you need to stop?

But then equally there’s also habits and routines that we need to do more of because we find that we do get a level of success from the ones that we’re doing. From a health, mindset, business, or personal life perspective, what habits and routines do you need to focus on? Consider what areas need more attention and improvement. Then, what are the habits and routines you need to do less of? But also there are the ones that we need to create, meaning that we’re not doing them so therefore we need to bring those habits and routines into our lives. These are absolutely new habits and new formats, new routines that we need to bring into our lives in order to bring us forward.

These are some questions you may want to ask yourself. Which habits do you need to stop? Which ones should you do more or less of? What new routines do you want to adopt? You have a destination to reach—that’s your purpose and your goal. Like Chadwick, it can be difficult when you can’t see the coastline. It’s hard to envision the land you’re striving toward.

When the path ahead is unclear, you must rely on absolute faith. Believe in your goals and stay focused on what you want to achieve. That belief will guide you forward. But you got to keep going, that’s where the endurance piece comes into play. So many people just give up, they just let go and they don’t go after what it is they’re supposed to be going after. They don’t follow that train because they’ve faced a challenge and they just give up. But those challenges are there to be overcome. They’re there to strengthen you, they’re there for you to learn from. The more you overcome challenges and move toward your dream, the more likely you are to succeed. Keep pushing forward, and success will follow.

You see there are things we know deep down within ourselves that we need to do and there are things that you need to do yourself. You know deep within yourself what you need to do. There are actions, routines, and habits that you need to follow. But what’s stopping you? What’s holding you back? Also, what’s keeping you from achieving the things that you want to achieve? What’s holding you back from doing the things that you know you need to do? Where are you holding yourself back?

These are just so many questions you want to contemplate. And ultimately the fundamental question is, do you want to stay where you are or do you want to actually achieve a much, much higher level? It’s by achieving a much, much higher level that you get closer and closer to your dream, closer and closer to your purpose. It’s taking those stepping stones, and the more stepping stones you take the closer you get to your dream. Well, that’s it for this blog and I look forward to connecting with you on the next blog. Until then, I wish you every success.