if someone else has done it, so can you
“Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; and if it is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.”
-Marcus Aurelius
We often put more limits on our Selves than others do.
There is a good chance that something you want to pursue has already been done by someone else, which means it’s possible for you, too. You may not believe you can do it, but the fact that it has been done by someone else means that it is possible for you, too.
One of my favorite examples of this is the four-minute mile:
In 1863, William Lang ran a 4:02 mile, and despite it being on a downhill course, which would prevent it from being an official record today, it stood as the fastest recorded mile until Roger Bannister broke the four-minute barrier in 1954.
For 91 years, not a single runner was able to break the four-minute barrier in running a mile – it became a feat believed to be physically impossible.
That was until Roger Bannister, assisted by a couple of pacesetters, ran a 3:59.4 mile.
What was believed to be impossible had become possible–it just took one person to show the world what could be done for others to believe and follow.
Within six weeks, another runner ran a sub-four-minute mile, and in the following year, three more runners all ran sub-four minutes in the same race.
Once other runners saw that the impossible was actually possible, they believed that they too could do it, and today high school runners are running sub-four-minute miles.
Now, just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it will be easy or that you won’t have to work hard–it just means that if it’s accessible to one person, it’s accessible to you.
I plan on testing this in the next year, and without giving too much away, I’ll share WHO has done something that shows me I can do it too: Joe Budden.
If you have something you are pursuing that no one else has done, that doesn’t mean you can’t be the first–after all, Roger Bannister did something that no one else had done to allow more to follow.
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
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