We could live several lifetimes and never exhaust the power of our minds. ~ A Mind to Mind Conversation: Change Your Mind, Change Your Life
I have touched on the power of the brain in other posts, but not on this aspect, I think. Do we limit ourselves by what we think we can’t do? Don’t misunderstand. Some physical limitations prevent me from being an accomplished athlete in any sport, even without the age factor. Also, given my brain’s wiring, I accept the irrefutable fact that I’ll never be a rocket scientist. However, sometimes we operate under self-imposed constraints. Let’s talk about that.
Let me tell you a story
Men have been running races for well over a millennium. If you recall, the Olympics began in Ancient Greece. Back then racing was more about superiority to other runners, and not necessarily about breaking records. They strived to finish first. However, a Timing Sense article relates that in the mid-19th century race directors began to time the runners, some 80 years after they started timing horse races. For humans, they used a version of the chronometer invented by Abraham Louis-Breguet. Yes, he was born in Switzerland. I hear clock-making is a thing there.
Since no one up to that time knew how fast they were running, the primary goal was to beat the other runners, as it was for the Greeks. Once timing was introduced,* however, there were dual goals: beating the competitors and beating the record. In the 1860s, the fastest time was somewhere north of 4:40 minutes. By 1938, Glenn Cunningham came close at 4:04.4 minutes. We’ll get back to Glenn shortly.
But it wasn’t until 1954 that Roger Bannister busted through the tape with a time of 3:59.4. He accomplished what no runner had achieved in over 100 years. And yet. Bill Taylor, with the Harvard Business Review, suggests that at least part of the obstacle was psychological, since just 46 days later John Landy broke Bannister’s record by more than a second. Within a year, three more runners broke it in the same race. In the last 50 years, more than 1000 runners have run even faster and the record now stands at 3:43.13. What’s up with that?
*Note that until 1850 the distances weren’t standardized, and perhaps the tracks weren’t, either. Both are necessary for speed data credibility purposes.
Glenn Cunningham, the rest of the story
When I began to gather my thoughts about runners and achievements, I thought of Glenn Cunningham, someone I first heard about in elementary school. To refresh my memory, I turned to Google, of course, and the Kansas Historical Society provided a wealth of information. Glenn was born in 1909 in Atlanta, Kansas. He was only seven years old when he suffered severe burns from a gas explosion at his school. His brother died of his injuries, and the doctor told Glenn’s parents that he would never walk again.
According to Encyclopedia.com, the doctor recommended amputation, advice the parents didn’t take. When the doctor removed the bandages, one leg was 3″ shorter than the other and he was missing some toes. Not promising. Fortunately, Glenn did not allow his diagnosis to curb his determination. Note that the two sources are not in full agreement on a few points. Read them both if you have time.
Glenn not only learned to walk again, but he was one of the “premiere runners” in the 1930s, and that’s a conservative description. He also earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Kansas, a master’s degree at the University of Iowa (in physical education), and a Ph.D. from New York University. The latter was the same year he set a running record at Dartmouth College. During World War II he developed physical training programs in both the Great Lakes and San Diego training stations.
What if?
I didn’t mention the background on Roger Bannister, but his progression to breaking the 4 minute mile record was somewhat unorthodox, as Bill Taylor relates it. Bannister was a full-time student and not a fan of listening to coaching advice about when, where, and how often to train. He went his own way. Fair enough, but there were additional factors at play.
Some prognosticators felt confident that when the 4-minute mile record fell, conditions would have to be perfect: a reasonably warm day, no wind, dry track, with a grand crowd cheering the runner on. On May 6, 1954, the day was wet (In England? Shocker, that.); it was cold, and the crowd numbered fewer than 1,000 souls. What if he hadn’t run on that day because conditions were not optimal? What if he had tried to train the coach’s way? Would he still have become a great runner?
What if Glenn Cunningham decided his obstacles were too great and he would simply accept a sedentary lifestyle? No one would have blamed him. The first time I heard his story, over five decades ago, I was amazed that he learned to walk at all. But running? Winning? Breaking records? What if he had allowed his admittedly difficult circumstances to define the balance of his life?
Probably none of my readers, and certainly not this writer, will break any speed records. But there are other goals you and I might seek to attain if only we let ourselves give it a shot. If we try it and fail, at least we will have tried. But what if we succeed? How gratifying would it be to reach a goal despite that inner voice? I can hear it whispering, “You’ll never be able to pull that off.”
Not sure what activities my brain thinks I can’t do. One might be in the communication area, and I’m confident there are other endeavors in which I could achieve proficiency if I only put 100% into it.
You?
Covey had a lot to say about people getting driven by abundance mentality or held back by scarcity mentality. My opinion is that will trumps the mind. I was raised in a scarcity mentality environment. That turned out to be to my advantage. Realizing I did not like living that way drove my will to trump my mind and to go about fixing that.
I’m glad I didn’t realize we were poor until decades later. 😉