You have to see it to achieve it...
When you're absolutely certain of something, something magical happens. Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile barrier using absolute certainty. You can also use absolute certainty to its advantage.
Happy New Week,
For a while, experts said that the human body was simply not capable of running a mile in four minutes. It was just impossible. They tried for over a thousand years to break the barrier, apparently, they even tried tying bulls behind runners to increase the incentive to do the impossible.
On May 6th, 1954, Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute barrier and ran a mile in 3:59.4. In order to do so, Roger relentlessly visualised himself breaking the record to create a sense of certainty in his mind and body. Just 46 days after Roger broke the barrier, John Landy, an Australian runner, not only broke the barrier again but with a time of 3 minutes 58 seconds. Then, just a year later, three runners broke the four-minute barrier in a single race. Now any strong runner can run a 4-minute mile.
What changed was the mental model. The past runners had been held back by a mindset that said they could not surpass the four-minute mile. When that limit was broken, the others saw that they could do something they had previously thought impossible. What we see is, in fact, not reality but mental models that we construct ourselves. It is crucial to test our mental models continuously and change them.
We all have mental barriers, naturally, we are all conditioned to think certain things are out of reach and simply impossible. For Roger Bannister to break the mental barrier placed on him and every athlete, he had to have extreme certainty in himself without seeing any proof that it could be done. When you become certain of something, when every part of you believes it, something “magical” happens. We have a system in our bodies called the reticular activating system (RAS) that helps our brains decide what information is important/unimportant and what information it should focus on.
Have you ever wanted something so bad and started noticing it everywhere? For example, you have a certain dream car, maybe a Range Rover and you start to see it everywhere. It’s not that more people are buying Range Rovers, it’s that your RAS is filtering out all the other cars that aren’t Range Rovers. When you have a clearly defined objective and live in a state of certainty that you’ll achieve it, you influence what your RAS filters out and what lights it up. Therefore, you start to pay attention to things that help you achieve what you’re after, things you otherwise would have never noticed. This is why I’m so big on setting goals and just starting.
“Take the first step in faith, you don’t have to see the whole staircase.”
Martin Luther King.
It is extremely important to have a plan but what’s more important is having an unwavering conviction that you’re going to achieve what you set your mind to and you take the first step. That is when your RAS is activated. As you start to work towards your achievement, things start to come together, opportunities find you, and people from nowhere start to help. Don’t let the fear of the unknown cripple you from starting.
When I started my entrepreneurial journey, I had a rough plan but no idea how I would actually achieve what I set my mind to. As I started out, things started to form together, I got into a programme that gave me a working space, a mentor, and different networking opportunities. Another programme gave me a work placement opportunity in Converse that skyrocketed my growth. I had friends and family refer my first customers to me. Don’t let how stop you from starting. As long as you have a strong enough why, the certainty that it will happen, and you do the work, things will fall into place.
Your RAS also seeks information that validates your beliefs. It filters your world through your beliefs. If you care about positivity, you will be more aware of and seek positivity and the same goes for negativity. Your RAS helps you see what you want to see and seeks it out. We are nearly halfway through the year and it’s easy to lose focus on the goals we set ourselves at the beginning of the year. If we set our intention and refocus, our RAS will be able to help us out. Keep visualising what you want out of this year, and let your subconscious and conscious work together to make it happen.
Have a great week!
Subomi