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Purpose = Hope = Energy
Explained by Richter’ s swimming rats experiment
In the 1950s, Curt Paul Richter, a Harvard graduate, did a series of experiments that tested how long rats could swim in a high-sided bucket of circulating water before drowning.
He took a bunch of rats and put them into a high-sided bucket of circulating water that they couldn’ t escape from and timed how long it took for the rats to drown. It wasn’ t long – an average of 15 minutes for the rats to give up, stop swimming, and drown.
He then repeated the experiment with a new group of rats and a new twist – in the second instance, he“ rescued” the rats just after they had given up swimming, again, at around the 15 minute mark. He let them dry off; he fed them some food, allowed them to recuperate. And then he threw them back in the bucket of water. The amazing result was that these rats were then able to swim for up to 60 hours before giving up and drowning. Yes, 60 hours. If a rat was temporarily saved, it would survive 240 times longer than if it was not temporarily saved.
Now the question was how could these rats swim so much longer the second time, especially just after swimming as long as possible to stay alive? Dr. Richter concluded that the rats were able to swim longer because they were given energy through hope. The rats had a clear picture of what being saved looked like, so they kept swimming for it.
Similarly when we have defined goal or the purpose in our life, and we remain faithful to our vision, we become more energized and find hidden strength to persevere through hardships. The key is to positively visualize the end at the beginning. You don’ t have to actually see the end; you just have to envision it. Vision creates hope, or a feeling of expectancy. And hope creates energy.
WINSPIRE: Empowering youth | March, 2017