The sting of the heavily chlorinated water filling his goggles was becoming unbearable, and he knew that very soon… it would blind him. The year was 2008, and it was the final 100 meters (one end to the other and back) of the 200 meter butterfly race in the Beijing Olympics when Michael Phelps realized, he was in serious trouble.
“They started filling up more and more and more. And about 75 meters left in the race, I could see nothing. I couldn’t see the black line, I couldn’t see the T, I couldn’t see anything… And I couldn’t take my goggles off because they were underneath two swim caps.”
Michael Phelps interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes
An aspiring Olympic swimmer may swim 10 to 20 miles per day for years on end to train for an Olympic event that will last all of 20 seconds. But Michael takes it a step further… he’s a big believer in visualization and manifestation. When he’s not in the water physically, he places himself there in mind and spirit. Visualizing each stroke, feeling the water on his skin, seeing himself smashing another record, winning yet another gold medal. Can you imagine? All that work… years of physical punishment… several hours every, single, day, of mental preparation… for this one moment… and suddenly it’s all at risk!
“Manifestation” has gone through a series of several re-inventions or even re-branding if you will over the years, but as far as I can tell one of the original sources was a book titled “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale. The book provides anecdotal “case histories” of positive thinking, and practical instructions which were designed to help the reader achieve a permanent and optimistic attitude. These techniques usually involved affirmations and visualizations. Peale claimed that such techniques would give the reader a higher satisfaction and quality of life.
While I personally believe whole heartedly in manifestation, if you’ve read some of my writings, I have a propensity to seek out answers with a balance of mind and spirit. I tend to add a little dash of critical thinking to my spirituality to find what Aristotle would call a golden mean. A little less “woo woo”, and a bit more science, to find a happy middle ground.
Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time. He holds the record for the most Olympic Gold Medals (23) and number of Olympic Gold Medals at a single Olympic game (8). And on this particular day… in this particular race… blinded the last 75 meters of the race… he broke the world record with a time of 1:52.03, defeating silver medalist László Cseh by almost seven-tenths of a second.
Given that much practice lends itself to a phenomenon called “muscle memory” that we could claim is what kept Michael more or less swimming in a straight line or at a minimum kept him in his lane while swimming blind. Or maybe he’s just physically built for swimming in a way that no other human being has been built thus far and won because he was just so much more powerful. According to his coach, his very early years were just pure physical drive with no technique that was winning him high school trophies. But Michael didn’t just beat everyone in the pool that day… he beat everyone who had ever been in a pool on any day thus far. What kept him “in the game” mentally in the face of such an obstacle?
Is positive thinking, manifestation and visualization really the thing that put Michael over the top and made him the best swimmer in the world for all time? His coach certainly thought so. Bob Bowman had drilled the importance of visualization into Michael as much, if not more, than the techniques he taught in his physical practices. He even had him write it all out and put it on the refrigerator. His reasoning? He knew Michael was constantly in the refrigerator eating to refuel and he expected that is where Michael would see it the most and remind him to visualize himself winning. You can probably imagine Bob’s surprise when one day recalling the events of that race with Michael, he revealed it wasn’t positive thinking that got him through difficulty at all.
It turns out young Michael had so frequently and so vividly visualized himself winning, and breaking records, and all out dominating the sport, that he had grown tired of it and began to find it a bit boring. So what did he do? He started to imaging things going wrong. Yes, that’s right… he visualized the races negatively. Michal was imagining everything that could go wrong. Now if you ask any modern guru, putting out negative thoughts like that into the universe is a recipe for disaster. I would tend to agree, if what you did was stop at the negative thought and cede defeat to it.
So to be fair… I’m twisting The Power of Negative Thinking a bit in an effort to make a point. In these “nightmare” scenarios, Michael still won the Gold in his mind… he still crushed world records in his imagination. He was still manifesting a positive outcome. The key to what Michael was doing was recognizing obstacles that are very real possibilities, and visualizing overcoming them. What does that do? It provides you with the ability to draw upon experience to solve a problem and push through knowing exactly how to keep moving toward that finish line. His first thought in the real world scenario was to pull off his goggles, but as you’ll recall he realized he couldn’t do that because they were under two swim caps. So what did he do? How did he swim blind?
Michael fell back on his visualization. When he practiced in his mind he imagined every detail… he knew it took him 19 strokes to get from one end of the pool to the other. So Michael closed his eyes, centered himself, and began counting. Four, five, six, he counted in his mind… eleven, twelve, thirteen… soon he knew he would make contact and have to turn himself around… seventeen, eighteen, nineteen… Michael felt the wall and knew right then, this could work! He executed his turn upside down and back around down the lane flawlessly, like he had in his mind so many times before. Still counting and now completely blind, he had no idea how far ahead he was. He remembers thinking to himself that he was behind and that he needed to push a bit harder if he wanted to win. Finally reaching 19 strokes Michael reached the wall and rips his goggles off his head in frustration. He was certain he could have done so much better had he been able to see and was understandably upset. It was Bob who had to calm him down and inform him that he had won the Gold.
Obviously I’m not advocating negative thinking as a replacement for positive thinking in any way. That said, as I typically discover in my musings, when it comes down to what will actually work… putting things in balance seems to be the answer more times than not. I feel like it is extremely valuable to visualize getting the things that you want and living your life to it’s fullest potential. However, you can’t just meditate everyday about a brand new Porsche in your driveway and like magic it will suddenly appear out of nowhere. You’re instead saying yes to the possibility that you can have and will have a Porsche, and you’re going to actively pursue that goal even if you have no idea how it will come about. You’ve put it out there in mind and spirit, and as opportunities that come along your path demonstrate a possible step in the right direction, being top of mind, you’ll recognize them as such and take that one step closer to your goal. Along the way it is very likely things may show up as obstacles in your path, and instead of giving up and thinking it is a sign that you’re not meant to have your Porsche… you’ll have already visualized yourself getting around, over, or through those obstacles without having ever deviated from your goal. You’ll be able to pull from those experiences and maintain that positive attitude when things go wrong… all because you were thinking negatively (for a very short time).