Roger Bannister: The Power of Self-Belief

Introduction

The first man to break the 4-minute mark, Sir Roger Bannister is the first man who ran a mile in under four minutes. Until he proved it in 1954, people including doctors and scientists believed it to be impossible to run a mile in under 4 minutes as it was considered impractical because the human body will collapse under pressure if someone even attempts to do it.
But Bannister proved them all wrong by training himself in his own way. He did not practice for too many hours like his competitors did, rather he followed his own unique way and just had a firm belief that ‘He could do it!

Early Life of Roger Bannister

Bannister belonged to an ordinary working-class family. He was interested in studying the science of Medicine but his family was not so financially sound that it could afford his education in university. To get a university scholarship, he trained himself for his self-discovered talent of Running. In fact, he actually won a track scholarship to Oxford University. There in the university, the press got the information about his talent. He initially declined to compete in the 1948 Olympics, but he got inspired by watching it, and hence, he participated in the 1952 Olympics. There were very high expectations from him to win 1500 meters but he came in the fourth position. He was so gutted it took him the next two months to decide whether or not to quit running. But then he decided to use his pain and humiliation to push himself to break the limits and prove himself.

Power of SELF-BELIEF

It was believed that the bone structure of a human body was wrong, there was huge wind resistance, the lung power was inadequate and the human heart couldn’t take that much strain. And for these reasons, everyone considered it impossible for a man to run a mile in under 4 minutes and said that whoever will try such a thing will die in a foolish attempt. So many runners were trying to break this barrier for many years but couldn’t do it even though they came so close that the Record of 4:01.30 stood still for 9 years.
This record of Nine years, people’s beliefs, and all preconceived notions and barriers were all broken on May 6, 1954. The experts believed that the ideal conditions to break the record were; a day with no wind, 20 degrees Celsius temperature, a hard dry clay track, most probably in Scandinavia but May 6th, 1954 was no such day. It was a cold and wet day in Oxford, England and Bannister took a rest for five days because he reached his peak, both physically and psychologically. Then the glorious day came when, a man named Roger Bannister, at the age of 25, broke this 4-minute barrier by running the distance in 3:59.4. One man, with such a deep self-belief and firm decision, achieved the victory defeating the beliefs and barriers set by doctors, scientists, and many others. 

His belief was backed by a lot of hard work. Bannister wasn’t the only one going for this target of breaking 4 minutes barrier. Many runners, including his top rival, John Landy wanted to achieve it.
In fact, Bannister while training himself visualized himself achieving this target to create a sense of certainty in his mind, body, and emotions.
After his achievement, more and more runners started believing that it could be done, and by the end of 1957, almost 3 years after Bannister’s record-breaking run, as many as 16 runners broke the 4-minute barrier.

"The Bannister Effect" is the phenomenon of one personality showing other people that it can be done and, thus, prompting others to believe and achieve.

Summary

‘What you think is what you believe and what you believe is what you become.’
That’s the basic philosophy of life. That’s the real power of belief. All it takes is one person to believe in his/her dreams, challenge all the beliefs and do what seems to be impossible to prove that it is possible if you believe in yourself and your dreams.