I’m going to show you 5 lessons on how you can run a 4 minute mile like Roger Bannister, and reach any goal you desire. I know…you are already saying, “that’s not possible! I can barely run a 10-minute mile.” No one believed in Roger either. No one believes in your goal, whatever it may be. But that doesn’t matter. The only person that needs to believe it is YOU.
One of my goals in 2018 is to qualify for the Boston Marathon. That’s something very few people do in their first year of running (and I’ve never run more than 5 miles at a time before Thanksgiving 2017). What’s one your goals for this year?
In 1954 Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile record. He accomplished something that shattered what people thought was physically and psychologically impossible. Medical personnel and other theorists said that breaking this barrier may be deadly for human beings. Obviously, they were wrong.
What is crazy is that his record only lasted 46 days until John Landry broke it. Once Roger Bannister showed it was possible others then followed.
The 4-minute mile and it being an impossible barrier was a story people made-up and others believed. Limits are self-created not reality.
Roger Bannister shattered that story and myth like you can with any goal.
First of all, just like you, he didn’t have unlimited time or resources. He worked a day job and sometimes could only get in 30-40 minutes of training in each day. He had to run during his lunch breaks, and then go back to work again.
What’s the first lesson? Progress, not perfection.
Second lesson: He broke down the goal into manageable steps (literally!). He broke down every step of the race and figured out how fast/long each stride had to be. He didn’t try to run “as fast as he could run.”
He had a calculated plan to work towards. But even with his plan, sometimes the only thing he could do was run hard because he had limited time. This goes right back to lesson one.
Third lesson: If you get support, any goal becomes much easier. Bannister recruited friends Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway to pace him during the race.
Fourth lesson: It comes down to self-belief. No one thought this was possible except for Roger Bannister (and John Landry) at the time. He had to block out the noise and follow his own path.
Fifth lesson: It comes down to “drive,” not “motivation.” Motivation is fleeting. It’s there and then gone.
Drive comes down to answering two critical questions “why am I doing this?” and “what am I lacking that makes me want this so bad?”
Use these 5 lessons to help you achieve any goal you want. Look, you’ll most likely never be to do all five steps 100% every single day, and that’s not the point. 70-80% will be plenty to achieve it. Remember, lesson one…progress, not perfection.
So what’s one goal you can set today? It doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be something you haven’t done yet.
PS – Bonus 6th lesson: Even after Roger got the record he was criticized. John Landry said he “got help” from others to run the race. Landry broke his record. But that wasn’t the end. They raced each other in the race of the century. Landry lead and Roger won right at the end. Your critics won’t ever go away. Stop listening to the noise.
