Three important lessons from Roger Bannister

Roger Bannister passed away this week. He was the first to break the four-minute mile.

Here are three important lessons to take away from his life and example:

1. He didn’t break the four-minute mile by running as far and fast as he could each day. In fact, he usually ran no more than 30 minutes per day. He did it by studying neurology. You are not going to do something that has never been done before by doing the things that everyone has done before.

2. Many thought that breaking the four-minute mile would be “impossible”. People are too quick to label something really hard as impossible. When in fact, “improbable” or “unlikely” are more appropriate words to use.

3. In 1855, Charles Westhall set the first official mile-run world record at four minutes and twenty-eight seconds. It took nearly 100 years for the first person to break the sub four-minute mile afterwards. The second person to do it? It only took a month. Because it is far easier to do things that we can imagine.

Thank you Sir Bannister for showing us how to enable a world of possibility.