Hey!
This week I want to write about a concept I ran into the other day and it was very interesting.
It’s called the Bannister effect, and in this post I’ll explain what it is and share some of my thoughts about it.
The Bannister effect
I want to start by telling you the story that inspired this effect.
In the early 1950s, a seemingly insurmountable barrier stood in the world of athletics: the four-minute mile. It was widely believed that no human could run a mile in less than four minutes. The experts, athletes, and even doctors asserted this as an unbreakable limit.
Enter Roger Bannister, a British middle-distance runner with an audacious dream. Bannister possessed an unwavering belief that the four-minute mile was not an unassailable wall and he dedicated himself to this mission.
Until, on a fateful day in May 1954, at the Iffley Road track in Oxford, Bannister took on this formidable challenge. With determination etched into his every stride, he surged down the track. As the tape snapped at the finish line, the clock read 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds. Bannister had done the unthinkable; he had broken the four-minute mile barrier.
But this is not the end of the story, because in the following months and years other runners followed and accomplished the feat themselves.
With this story to illustrate the idea, I’ll give you a clearer definition of what this effect is.
A phenomenon that describes a person who manages to do something that was deemed to be impossible, breaking a psychological barrier and paving the way for others to achieve this impossible feat as well.
The implications of this
As I said before, this is a concept that I consider very intriguing, but I’m also quite skeptical of it.
The idea of achieving a challenge that is thought to be impossible is something that requires an unfathomable amount of belief and determination for this cause. I truly admire this, but stories like this one can lead us to think that anything is possible if you put your mind to it and dismiss the weight of factors that go beyond just our mindset.
I think your psychology and mindset have a lot of power, but they are not the only factors to consider.
Knowing this, we can ask the following questions:
How much of our shortcomings in life stem from psychological barriers?
How many of them are constraints that are beyond our control?
I can’t say that I know the answer to these, but I think there’s another question that might be more interesting.
If we are faced with an uncertain challenge, one we are not sure if it is possible to achieve, what kind of mindset would be better for us to have?
Again, this is not a question that I can give a definitive answer to, but I wanted to invite you to reflect on it and see where it takes you.
Some advice you might want to consider
Here I want to share some of my thoughts on these queries with the hope that they may help and guide you through your reflections.
Choosing to believe → At times when we face uncertainty, we can choose to believe in what we think is possible.
Avoid thinking in absolutes → I think that in matters like this, thinking in black and white can often end up with a limited perspective that misses the complexity of the problem.
Focus on what you can control → With the previous point in mind, in most situations there are multiple factors to account for, some of them are within your control (like your actions and decisions) and others are out of your control (like the actions of others); I think that it’s better to focus your efforts in those that you can control.
Ask what if → When wondering about uncertain futures you can ask yourself “What if it is possible to do X?” From there you can further explore the idea and ask “What would that look like?” or “Would it be worth it?”…
The purpose of this post was a little different than usual. There are few answers for me to give here, but with the questions I presented, I hope to help you think about your life and come up with your own answers.
-Alan