I’m sure you’ve heard of Roger Bannister running the first sub-4-minute mile.

Have you heard of the aftermath that followed?

For years runners have tried to run the sub-4-minute mile, with no avail.

After a while many believed it to be impossible.

This belief was so popular it became common thought that a runner’s hearts would explode if they came close to that mark.

That was until Roger Bannister came along and did the humanly impossible, running the first sub-4-minute mile ever recorded.

Interestingly, in the 2 months following John Landy ran a sub-4-minute mile, and others soon followed suit.

After decades of no one being able to break the 4 minute barrier, multiple runners all within a couple of months were breaking that mark.

Fast forward to today and we have a 16 year old named Cameron Myers running a 3:55:44 mile.

Roger Bannister made the impossible possible.

How to do the Humanly Impossible

The story of Roger Bannister and the events following him have a message in them.

One that teaches you how to achieve the humanly impossible.

First, this story brings forth 2 questions:

1) How come so many people could-all of the sudden-run a sub-4-minute mile after Bannister did?

2) How did Bannister do it first?

To answer these questions and to understand how to become the Bannister of your dreams there are 2 things to look at:

1) The runners who came after Bannister.

2) What set Bannister apart.

After Bannister

Firstly, discard the idea that there was a physical skill gap between Bannister and other runners.

All the runners who began to run sub-4 minute-miles following Bannister were-like Bannister-at the pinnacle of the sport.

Something else set Roger Bannister apart from everyone else.

The difference was in:

What Roger Bannister believed in.

To understand, let’s go back to the story that opened:

As you recall the sub-4-minute mile was literally thought to be impossible-that one’s heart would explode.

How can you achieve something you believe to be objectively impossible?

Where do you find the strength to push through pain, if you believe death is on the other side?

Who would dare to find out if their heart is going to explode?

No one.

Not even Roger Bannister.

See, Bannister believed it was humanly possible to run a sub-4-minute mile.

He knew it could be done.

While all the other runners were coming from the mindset:

That they-or anyone-would never do such a feat.

He was coming from the mindset of:

“What do I need to do to run a sub-4-minute mile?”

He believed himself to be the deficiency, not the objectivities of life.

This can seem a gloom mindset on one hand, but with a shift of perspective you’ll see it’s empowering.

Now this brings up the question:

How did Bannister developed this belief?

Bannister Like Belief

Although we can’t know for certain how he came to believe his feat to be possible, there are things we can learn from him doing so.

It starts with ingraining 2 foundational beliefs into your mind.

The foundational beliefs are encapsulated well by this Marcus Aurelius quote:

Foundational Belief 1:

“Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible.”

This is something Bannister must have believed. Simply the sub-4-minute mile is hard…really hard, yet he believed it possible.

Foundational Belief 2:

“If it is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.” 

If your mind doesn’t consider something to be possible, it will find any way to stop you, then it will make up excuses as to why you can’t do it and convince you they’re true.

Take the time to understand and ingrain these 2 beliefs into your mind.

Upon doing so anything humanly possible is within your grasp.

How to Develop Bannister Like Belief

Developing Bannister like belief has 2 steps:

Step 1:

Believe that what ever you’re chasing is humanly possible-even if you don’t have proof.

Step 2: 

Believe it is possible for you for you to attain what you desire.

To satisfy step one, default to the mindset:

Everything logical-even if it has never been done before-is possible.

And make sure to ingrain the foundational beliefs above.

Step 2 has two parts:

1. Skill development

2. Believing in the goal

Skill development is outside the bounds of this today, it was the topic of last weeks letter.

Believing the Goal:

Remember this:

No matter how bad you want something, it will allude you as long as you don’t believe in it.

To believe in your goal, you must strip away any self and societal imposed limitations.

(Partially covered when you, ingrained the mindset of assuming everything is humanly possible.)

However a common thing you’ll receive when you strive beyond the norm ss either put downs from people who are hurt dreamers themselves, or looks of surprise and craziness-in a good way.

Keep note of the second type of people, they may be surprised, but they are good people and will help you if need be.

In either case just remind yourself you can do this even if it’s seems above your current level.

Their reactions are honest, they don’t know any better, they are just reacting in their normal way.

But you are not trying to be normal (whatever that means), you are trying to be you, you are striving to achieve your goals.

Forget any notion that what you want is not possible or that it’s not possible from your current level.

Next you must convince yourself of the goal.

Convince yourself it’s easy.

There is a weird phenomena where when you settle for less than you want, you get even less than you settle for.

But when you push and strive for what you truly want you receive even more than you originally hoped for.

To illustrate the point of shedding limitations and believing in a goal, I want to tell you guys a personal story of mine:

I worked as a Tree Planter for one summer.

If you don’t know what it entails do a quick search on YouTube, TikTok, or wherever to see what it’s like. It’s not like planting an apple tree in your backyard.

Anywho, my days would look something like this:

Wake before sunrise, shovel food down my mouth, hop in a van at 7:00 AM, plant thousands of trees until 5:30, get picked back up and head back to camp, eat dinner, hangout with the others, sleep in my tent, and repeat.

Now as a rookie planter hitting 2,000 trees a day was good, hitting 3,000 was great, and hitting the 4,000 mark was done by very very few, and if you did it was usually a once or twice a season feat.

For some reason I had the goal of 6,000.

Pretty early in the season I brought it up to planters who were on their second and third year of planting.

Some had looks of craziness and one said I should go for 4,000 before even considering 6,000. In his defence, I hadn’t even hit 3,000 in a day.

However, I still in the back of mind, wanted that 6,000 number.

I spent most of the season not really caring about that number, not striving too much, eventually I hit the accolade of 3,500 trees in a day. Which took another 2-3 weeks before I hit it again.

Fast forward to the last 2 weeks of the season.

One day I felt the urge to push hard, that day I hit 3,500.

Then the next day the same thing happened, and then it happened again next.

Three days in a row I hit 3,500 after hitting it 2 times in the previous 6 weeks.

I wanted to keep the momentum, I wanted to hit that 4,000 mark, and I got the opportunity with a shorter drive to the piece of land I was planting. My goal was 4,200,

But remember that thing about being rewarded for striving?

I hit 4,900…almost 5,000.

The next day I had a good pace, but I was burnt out from the week.

I calculated I could hit 4,200 quite comfortable.

Until my bosses came and I told them how I was feeling. They convinced me that I should push for the 4,900 again, as I had the momentum, and it was a Friday.

So I did it, my last two bag ups of 750ish trees were done in 53 minutes and 46 minutes, respectively.

I had just had the best week of my season 3,500 thrice and 4,900 twice.

I knew it was my time to push to go for that 6,000 mark. I had the momentum, I had the skill, and I knew time was running out in the season. My boss had told me on that Friday they had an extra big piece I could plant in on Monday, so I had no worries about running out of land.

That night I was talking with one of the best planters on the crew. I made the realization to hit the 6,000 mark I would have to plant 9 boxes (each box being 700 trees-we claim by box not individual trees so I would be planting 6,300).

I remember that part of the conversation.

I said, “holy crap 63’ is 9 boxes!”

“Yeahhhhh, it’s a lot,” he replied with his eyes opened like he just saw something scary-he had the best facial expressions.

Based off that reaction and the fact that he himself had previously planted 6,100 trees in a day, I knew I was in for more than I thought.

So I had to convince myself it was not big deal.

Starting that night and all through the weekend.

I started repeating the goal in my head over and over again…

6,300…

6,300…

6,300…

But, it still seemed so daunting.

I started to repeat even bigger numbers in the hopes of making 6,300 seem small:

7,700…

8,400…

9,100…

9,100…

Over and over until, 6,300 sounded like a walk in the park.

Then came the day.

I was locked in and ready.

I decided to bag up roughly 900 trees each time. It felt heavy the first time around, but I just put my head down and planted.

The first bag up was done in 50 minutes, then the next, then the next…

Until about my 5th.

I was beginning to lose some focus. I remember saying to my friend I was planting with, “I don’t know if I can do this.”

She replied, “Nah dude you got this, just keep going, it’s ‘only’ 6,300, and you’re already more than halfway there.”

That was the little reminder I needed to regain my focus.

(That’s the power of collaboration, good people, and good friends).

With one hour left in the day I hit 6,300.

Remember being rewarded when you strive?

Well I now had an extra hour to breakthrough my original goal.

On the side, I had this mini-goal of doing an 1,000 tree bag up. And it happened that my friend and I both finished our bag ups at the same time. So we decided to split a box.

This allowed me to bag up the normal 700 plus the extra 350, giving me an 1,050 tree bag up.

I remember walking into land, my legs starting to feel numb, putting my face down and planting.

One hour later I came out as my boss pulled around.

7,350 trees was my final count of the day.

I had, had limitations given to me and had given myself limitations, prior in the season.

But, in the back of my mind I knew it was a possible feat.

In this case I had proof others had done it.

The trouble was making myself believe I could do it.

I had to shed my limiting beliefs.

I had to stop fearing the goal:

The 3 Part Solution

Part 1:

If possible find proof of your goal.

Find others who have done it.

You don’t have to know how they did it, just that they did.

We are visual creatures, we tend to believe what we see.

Part 2:

The second part is convincing yourself you can reach beyond your goals.

Use opposition thinking in conjunction with mantras, to replace limiting thoughts with nurturing ones.

(Opposition thinking is replacing what you’re thinking with another thought, as your mind can only hold one thought at a time.)

As a note:

As you repeat mantras to yourself that make your goals seem less dauting, don’t lose sight of your goals and don’t think your goals to be small.

It’s not about making your goals seem lesser, it’s about making your goals less scary.

Think, “This is my goal, I know I can achieve it, because I can achieve this harder thing (mantra).”

Part 3:

The third part is to welcome positive support.

This is only possible if you are willing to put yourself out there and face demoralizing responses as well.

As you saw in my story, a simple sentence from someone who I respect, was able to keep me going.

Find a tribe.

It can be your friends and family, and it can also be related to the specific goal.

I personally recommend both, but bias to friends and family.

Here’s an important thing though:

Bias towards telling them what you’re currently doing and going through.

Don’t be afraid to tell people you trust, your plan.

But, make note that when you tell people what you’re going to do and get a positive response, you get a dopamine spike. The dopamine spike acts as false progress in the brain, causing you to be less likely to take action.

That’s all for the letter.

I hope I didn’t bore you with my story.

If this brought you value, the previous Epistle pairs well..

Also click the social buttons at the top to share the value with others.

Until next time.

The previous letter, along with this one, and the up coming ones are apart of my skill acquisition series.

The eternal skill is learning.

You were never taught how to learn in school.

Learning is more than memorization.

What is memorizable is replaceable.

As the world moves faster and faster you need to learn to adapt.

Learning and skill stacking is how.

Learn how to learn.

For more, check out The Eternal Learner.