Breaking Barriers

Roger Bannister was an Olympic athlete at a time when track and field experts were convinced that no runner could break the four-minute-mile barrier. Ostensibly, scientists told us that human beings simply can’t run that fast, for that length of time. “Experts” conducted all sorts of studies to prove beyond a doubt that it was impossible to run a four-minute mile … but then young Roger came along.

Roger wasn’t so sure about that. Instead of believing that it was impossible, he began testing himself. He figured out new training techniques, deemed at the time to be crazy. He worked at it, and he believed in his own possibility.

Finally, race day came. The gun sounded. Roger started out staying just behind the pack. Then, in the last leg of the race, he shot forward, blowing past all of the other runners, crossing the finish line and breaking the unbreakable barrier.

The really amazing part is this: within 10 years of Roger breaking that barrier, 336 other runners did it as well. For hundreds of years, no one broke that barrier. Then all of the sudden, 336 people from around the world were able to do it. What happened? They believed that they could, and they took the steps to make it so.

What barriers might you break in 2014? Perhaps it isn’t the four-minute mile; perhaps it is something even bigger.

by Cameron Trimble
Center for Progressive Renewal