The world is full of surprises, and the seemingly impossible often proves to be very possible. On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister, the British athlete, ran the mile in under 4 minutes, his time was 3m:59.4s seconds. It was believed that the human body was not able to accomplish such a feat. The record for the mile had stood for nine years, it being 4m:01.4s. The record had stood for nine years, but the idea of humans running a mile in under 4 minutes existed from as far as 1886 when Walter George set a record of 4m:12s which stood for nearly 30 years. In the 1950s, experts in both sports and the medical field claimed that running a mile in under four minutes was not only dangerous but impossible. Now, 46 days after Bannister set the record for a mile it was broken by John Landy, on June 21, 1954. Both Bannister and Landy ran the distance of a mile in under four minutes on August 7, 1954, just another 47 days later. Since Roger Bannister broke the four-minute barrier for the mile 68 years ago, over 1600 athletes have accomplished the same. The difference between 4m:01.4s and 3m:59.99s, which is a hundredth of a second below 4 minutes the time it requires to go below four minutes. It was believed that the body could not move 1.41s faster than previously attained until Roger Bannister accomplished it. Within three months it was done another three times. What was thought of as impossible was accomplished four times in three months. Did Bannister or Lang suddenly get improved technology or a stronger body? No! Bannister had set his mind to accomplish the feat after his 1500m defeat in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and strived to achieve it regardless of the obstacles. As Bannister went under 4 minutes, the impossible became reality, and 46 days later it was done by someone else. In fact, by May of 1959, 20 more sub 4-minute miles were run. Once interviewed about the physiological underpinnings of his accomplishment, Bannister said, It’s the ability to take more out of yourself than you’ve got.” This is a bit of a paradox, yet it highlights the fact that we usually have more than we think we have. It means we often have to reach deep in our minds to unearth what lies way below the surface of our perceived reality. Many after Roger Bannister’s run was reaching for what was now possible because it was already accomplished. The task was not easier on the body (new technology aside) in the physical sense, but a change in mindset led to an easier path to the accomplishment of what was deemed impossible. The theme had shifted from “Can it be done?” to “It was done.” What a difference two words can make. It vastly shifts a person’s mentality from “Is it really possible” to “Will I make it a reality for me,” Once it has been achieved, other human minds start to believe it will be done again. Since it will be done again, the thinking becomes “it can be done by me”.
Victory lies in the mind. So many insurmountable feats were not achieved because of the physical prowess but because of a mind that believes it can be done. For example, in 2016 a 19-year-old, 120-pound teen, Charlotte Heffelmire of Vienna, Virginia, was able to lift a truck (van in some countries) fender several times her body weight that had trapped her father under the truck that was about to catch fire. Now this might be due to adrenaline, or it could be a miracle, but in either case, the mind had planted the message in the brain, which communicated to the body that it must be done. It was widely believed that George Foreman would destroy Muhammad Ali in the ring in their 1974 boxing match, “Rumble in the Jungle.” It was said that quite a few cried tears that Ali would be killed. Well, Ali believed that he could win and found a strategy (thou as risky as one could imagine) and won the fight. Some may now believe it to be a pyrrhic victory, but nobody can argue that against the odds he used the power of his mind to overcome such a great force (both literally and figuratively) in George Foreman. Robert Kiyosaki, in his book “Rich Dad Poor Dad—What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money that Poor and Middle Class Do Not,” said that his rich dad forbade them to use the words “I can’t afford it” but rather to say, “How can I afford it? It may seem like a simple change in semantics, but it is much more than that, “How can I? Set your mind to work in the hope of a solution, “I can’t,” but your mind to rest. It doesn’t mean you will afford everything, but it challenges you to pursue that which you desire. The same is true for the other aspects of our life when challenge our minds, the results will often be far better than when we give in. When we succeed, we are not endowed by any new power it is the power that lies in us is awakened to carry out what it is capable of. We need to win in the mind in order to win in reality continuously. It must always start with the understanding that victory comes from within. There are cases where we win and did not believe we would win, but that’s not the norm. We are on our way to victory when our minds accept that we are winners. As Marcus Garvey puts it, “If you don’t have confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.” Confidence is the mind claiming victory before the body acts it out. Declare your victory in your mind and then work hard to fulfill it in the outer world.