A man that I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from, Roger Bannister, died yesterday at the age of 88.
Back in 1954, Bannister was the first man who ran a mile in under four minutes. The story around his achievement has motivated me over the years, and I’ve talked with a lot of my clients about it.
Here’s the CliffsNotes version of Bannister’s story:
Runners tried to run a sub-four minute mile for many years before Bannister finally accomplished it, but they had no luck.
Word was that the milestone was “impossible”. You might as well have tried to lift 10,000 pounds or leap tall buildings in a single bound.
But after Bannister did it in 1954, a bunch of other runners also did it in the years immediately after that (16 others ran the four minute mile by the end of 1957).
So what happened to allow all of those runners to suddenly achieve something that so many couldn’t do pre-Bannister?
It was the power of belief.
Once other runners saw that Bannister could do it, they knew that they could as well. They no longer had a limiting belief that it was unachievable.
When others break a milestone, they pave the way for others.
Here’s another example, from the world of baseball:
Before the Houston Astros paid Nolan Ryan $1 million per year to pitch for them in 1980, nobody thought that a pitcher would ever earn that much (since starting pitchers only play about 35 out of the 162 games in a season, compared to position players who can play every game).
But nowadays $1 million is peanuts for a pitcher to make. Crappy ones can make several million a year, and the top-earning ball thrower, Clayton Kershaw, makes $33 million!
In the coaching world, a lot of coaches are being held back by limiting beliefs at the moment.
They think it’s too hard to find clients who will pay them what they’re worth.
I say “baloney”, because I’m watching the coaches that I work with get some awesome results. I’ve seen them go from having zero clients to a full roster in a short amount of time working together.
If you’d like to experience the same, I’m opening up my next 10 Clients In 90 Days group program soon, and I’ve got space for a few more coaches (I’m capping it at six).
I’ll work directly with you for 12 weeks to smash any limiting beliefs that you have, and get you the clients that you want.
Tie up your running shoes and race over here:
