Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. At age 34, her goal was to become the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast.
It was July 1952 and the conditions were terrible. The sea was cold as ice, the fog was so thick she could hardly see her support boats, while her support crew were armed with rifles to ward off sharks and words of encouragement to inspire her.
For hour upon hour she swam on, until she did something she'd never done before. She quit.
Interviewed later, she told a reporter, "Look, I'm not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I might have made it." It was the fog that defeated Florence. The fog meant she was unable to see her goal.
Two months later, she tried again. This time, despite the same dense fog, she made it. Not only did Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, she beat the men's record by two hours! This time Florence knew that her goal lay somewhere behind that fog, even if she couldn't see it.
Source unknown. Rewritten by Scott Higgins. Story reported in "A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul" Editor: Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen and at Cyberquotations
Applications: goals, vision, success, failure, discouragement, motivation, appearance versus reality