"Your opponent, in the end, is never really the player on the other side of the net, or the swimmer in the next lane, or the team on the other side of the field, or even th bar you must high-jump. Your opponent is yourself, your negative internal voices, your level of determination." ~ Grace Lichtenstein
At St. Francis High School I needed to survival float for seven minutes in the pool to pass P.E. I have always had this aversion to getting my face wet, so obviously swimming is not my favorite past time.
Yes, I was born and raised on an island. I love the water. But I'm more of a back floater and dreamer. Let me look up at the clouds instead of getting water in my nose.
But I digress. Back to the St. Francis pool...
To get through the survival float, after doubt and trepidation and vicious debates with my Negative Internal Voices, I finally told myself I could do it. How? Sheer determination. I removed my contact lenses, took a deep breath, and silently sang Don McLean's American Pie in its entirety-- all eight minutes of it.
"Bye, bye Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the levy, but the levy was dry..."
It worked. Fear vanished and I got lost in the music in my head. I passed. And was really pleased with myself for doing something I was afraid that I could never do.
As the eloquent philosopher Henry David Thoreau once said, "The secret of achievement is to hold a picture of a successful outcome in mind."
Hold your picture of success. You can do it. It's up to you.
Really, you can do anything you make up your mind to do.