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What do these things have in common? 1954 1964 and over 1400? Well, in 1954, May 6 to be exact. Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile. Now, before this, people were saying it was physiologically impossible to break the four-minute mile, but this didn't stop Roger Bannister. He actually attempted it a couple of times and failed, but continually practiced. Matter of fact, at one point he was going to quit, but he didn't. He continually changed the way he practiced. And then he went all out. And on May 6, he broke the four-minute mile. The funny thing is, on June 21, 1954, the second person broke the four-minute mile. Now, is that coincidence or is that because someone broke the four-minute mile? It gave others the opportunity to visualize that they can do it too. Then in 1964, the first high school student broke the four-minute mile. Think about it, the high school student. So, this was a student who saw that four-minute mile and said, you know what, I can do this too. Now over 1400 runners have broken the four-minute mile. It only took one person, one person to say, I'm not going to give up. I know I can do it. If we look at someone like Tom Brady, the last one picked in the draft. Everyone said he was too small. He got recruited. He was a fourth string quarterback by his senior year, he was the first string and then he was drafted to the NFL. He was drafted dead last. dead last. He was a third string quarterback. Then he moved up and look at him now. He didn't take the naysayers. Oh, he's too small. He's too slow. He's not athletic. What did he have? What the Roger Bannister have? What did all these athletes have? They had a passion. They had the will to win. They didn't take no for an answer. So, what's your four-minute mile? What are people telling you that you can't do? Better yet? What are YOU saying to yourself that you can do? Oh, it's too hard. I can't do it. It's too far-fetched. It's too painful, either physically painful, or mentally painful. We need to get these ideas out of our heads. If it was for people thinking that only certain things could be done, we wouldn't have gotten to the moon. Elon Musk wouldn't have started his company, Tesla making electric cars. An electric car can't go as fast. He didn't take any of those thoughts into consideration.
As a Coach, I can't say about others, but I know for myself, I never thought we couldn't beat another team. No matter how good they were, no matter what their stats were no matter how big their team was, I had confidence that I could outsmart the other team. I always thought that with the players that I had and with the practice that we put in and with my preparation before the game that I could beat any other team. Now that didn't always come out that I beat the other team. No, we got beat sometimes and sometimes bad. But that didn't stop me from thinking that I could succeed, that I could have an undefeated season.
So, what's stopping you from succeeding at your job? What's stopping you from going after that position that you want? What stopping you from asking to take over a project? What's stopping you from starting your own business? Is it the fear of failure? Have you ever noticed that business owners, even if their business fails, they open up another business? Or they try a different business. Why is that? Because their mental defeat is gone. They've tried it, they failed. They've made mistakes, they're going to learn from their mistakes, and they're going to move on. All it is, is a mindset. You need to have confidence in yourself. So how do we do this? How do we get this confidence within ourselves? I think the first thing we got to do is we got to stop the stinking thinking. You know, we need to delete. " I can't", " It's too hard", " It's impossible". " I don't know if I can do it"," People are saying, it's not a good time". It's almost never a good time. If you wait for the perfect time, it'll never show up. You might as well put that on your tombstone, "Here he lies Bob, He was waiting for the perfect time." We need to take these words, take them away from our vocabulary. When I was raising my kids, I always told them, don't tell me you can't, or you don't know if you could? It's because you don't want to. But don't tell me I can't. When they went to college. I said you know you guys can get a 4.0. No, I can't No, no they said. Yes, you can. You have to put in the work. And if you put in the work, you can do anything.
Also find people who can encourage you. Sometimes it's NOT your friends. They want to protect you and that sometimes that doesn't mean encouragement. Get an accountability coach or get someone that has done this type of thing before and ask them for advice and mentorship. You would be surprised at how many people would love to help others.
So again, what's your four-minute mile? What is it that's holding you back from starting that company, you have an idea for a business, you have an invention, There's a position open? What's stopping you? Go for it! Go for those, what you think are impossible dreams and move forward. Tom Brady, Roger Bannister, they didn't take no for an answer. They had faith within themselves. They knew themselves. They had those intangibles. They had the passion, the will to win. They had a high threshold of pain. They didn't take no for an answer. The first time I heard these words from Howard Thurman was from Chaz Jackson, one of my podcast's guests. And it's so fits what we're talking about today. The quote is, "The ideal situation for a man or woman to die is to have his family members standing with them as they cross over. But imagine if you will be on your deathbed. And standing around your bed are the ghost of ideas, abilities, talents, the gifts, the dreams given to you by life, that you for whatever reason, never pursued those dreams. You never did anything with those ideas. You never use those talents. You'd never use those gifts. You never took advantage of those opportunities. And there they are standing around your bed. Looking at you before you take your last dying breath. Looking at you with angry eyes saying we came to you and only you could have given us life. And now we must die with you forever." Listeners don't let these dreams die with you. Don't let these ideas these passions die with you. Go out there and find your passion. Take those words, those nasty, stinking thinking words out of your vocabulary and move forward. The world is waiting for you to break your four-minute mile!
