Vision

One of the most important things that has helped me through this process is vision. I started thinking about doing this a few years ago and by February of 2011, I knew I wanted to compete in 2012. I watched everyone train for it, watched how they dealt with things, watched them all leave and return from Kelowna last May and I vowed I would do it. I volunteered at the BC Championships and watched the girls who placed at Kelowna and the fall show go on stage. I kept it so close in my vision that when the time came to start training for it I just started. My heart was already in it.

As I get closer and closer, my vision gets so clear it feels real. When I picked my suit, my hair, my shoes, my makeup. I can see myself so clearly achieving this goal. When I am exhausted on the treadmill, I visualize myself on stage and I can push through.

I heard this story at a course I took and I think of it often.

"The Catalina Island is twenty-one miles away from the coast of California, and many people have taken the challenge to swim across it.
On July 4th 1952, Florence Chadwick stepped into the water off Catalina Island to swim across to the California coast. She started well and on course, but later fatigue set in, and the weather became cold.
She persisted, but fifteen hours later, numb and cold, she asked to be taken out of the water.
After she recovered, she was told that she had been pulled out only half a mile away from the coast. She commented that she could have made it, if the fog had not affected her vision and she would have just seen the land.
She promised that this would be the only time that she would ever quit.
She went back to her rigorous training. And two months later she swam that same channel. The same thing happened. The fatigue set in, and the fog obscured her view, but this time she swam with faith and vision of the land in her mind. She knew that somewhere behind the fog was land.
She succeeded and became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel. She even broke the men’s record by two hours."

So amazing. Think about what you can achieve. Start with a dream and begin to visualize it!

Xoxo,
Taren