"I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it."

In the Summer of 1952, Florence May Chadwick set off to swim the 26 miles of ocean that stretches from the coast of California to Catalina Island. After about 15 hours, a thick fog rolled in. She swam for another hour before, unable to see the shore, she gave up and asked to be pulled into one of the support boats that flanked her.

She later learned that she quit just one mile from her goal.

Florence tried again two months later, and, again, a thick fog set in.

But this time she kept going and made it, she later said, by keeping a mental image of the shore in her mind.

"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision."

- Helen Keller

Thanks to friend and partner Ric McNally for pointing me to this lesson.