Today is August 7 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often do you remind yourself to drive past the pain?”
Successful people who navigate the chaos drive past the pain in order to translate their vision into reality.
Roger Bannister and the sub 4-minute mile is a perfect case study. Prior to 1954, many people believed that 4 minutes was a physical barrier that no runner could break.
On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister had convinced himself that he could break that barrier and his effort proved successful.
On that day, not succumbing to the idea that it was impossible, he ran the mile in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds. It is also fascinating to examine what happened after Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile.
Fifty-six days later, John Landy ran the 4-minute mile in 3 minutes and 57.9 seconds in Finland.
Bannister and Landy would race each other in the Mile of the Century where Bannister won in 3 minutes and 58.8 seconds.
Within three years, by the end of 1957, 16 other runners also cracked the 4-minute mile.
The breaking of the 4-minute mile was so significant that Forbes names it as one of the greatest athletic achievements of all time. Bannister had the courage to do something that no other person was able to do physically.
Doing so proved to others that the impossible was indeed possible. Hicham El Guerrouj (Morocco) is the current men’s record holder with his time of 3:43.13, while Svetlana Masterkova (Russia) has the women’s record of 4:12.56.
Bannister noted “The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.”
Bannister drove himself further once his effort got painful. Do you?