Theatre of the Mind: Your Automatic Success Mechanism

In 1950 Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim the English Channel and soon began to make a habit of attempting difficult sea crossings.  In 1952, she attempted to swim from Catalina Island to the California coastline – a 26-mile stretch.

A thick fog set in and Florence told her mother, who was in one of the boats, that she didn’t think she could make it. An hour later, just one mile from the shore, she gave up  - because it was too foggy to see. Afterwards, she said to the reporters, ‘I’m not offering excuses, but I think I would have been able to make it, if I had been able to see my goal’.

Two months later, she tried again. This time, despite a similar fog, Florence made it. She said her success was because she kept a vivid mental image of the shoreline in her mind while she swam.

Evidence suggests that this type of thinking is one of the most universal and relied-upon psychological tools of success. You hear about lots of top sportsmen, adventurers and entrepreneurs using it… but, do YOU?

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