We owe a lot to Roger Bannister, who died last week at the age of 88. Not only did he lift the spirits of a beleaguered post-war nation with his sporting feat of running a mile in under four minutes, but he went on to have a long and distinguished career as a doctor.
An athlete of world renown, he could have rested on his laurels, yet instead he dedicated himself to his patients and medical students. What a wonderful legacy.
But there’s something else we should be grateful for: his story teaches us all a lesson about what we are capable of when we focus. It illustrates perfectly how the thing we need to overcome is the limitations we put on ourselves.
We owe a lot to Roger Bannister, who died last week at the age of 88. Not only did he lift the spirits of a beleaguered post-war nation with his sporting feat of running a mile in under four minutes, but he went on to have a long and distinguished career as a doctor
An athlete of world renown, he could have rested on his laurels, yet instead he dedicated himself to his patients and medical students. What a wonderful legacy
In the 1952 Olympics Bannister set a British record in the 1500 metres. However, he came fourth. Disappointed to have missed out on a medal, he set himself a goal: to be the first person to run a mile in under four minutes.
This had been tried many, many times and, in fact, was widely assumed to be physically impossible — the human body simply couldn’t run that fast, it was thought. Undeterred, on May 6, 1954, with very little training by today’s standards, Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds.
He was an instant celebrity with news of his achievement spreading round the globe. My mum was a little girl at the time and she, along with the rest of the country, was transfixed. She tells a story of how, enthralled by his achievement and encouraged to try it herself, she spent hours madly running. The only problem was that she didn’t have a watch and didn’t know how far a mile was, so instead, she counted to 60 four times while running hell for leather down the road and back with all the neighbours wondering what on earth was going on.
But while this made a fun family anecdote, it speaks of something much bigger — of how Bannister’s achievement captured the imagination of a nation.
Sir Roger Bannister after receiving his award as a Companion of Honour from the Duke of Cambridge
His story was really about how things that seemed impossible could, with a little determination, become possible. And what happened after his run does, I think, teach us something quite profound about the workings of our minds.
There is no doubt his was a great achievement but what’s really interesting is that his record lasted only 46 days.
And it continued to be broken — in fact one New Zealand runner, John Walker, ran 135 sub four minute miles in his career. Many male athletes (including some secondary schoool students) have run this time. So why was it that for years it seemed impossible, but is now quite commonplace?
Certainly this is partly down to the fact that we have better nutrition compared to Bannister’s era. But experts now think a large part of this is the fact that Bannister removed the mental barrier. Once we know something is achievable, it becomes easier to achieve it. We see this time and again in sport.
The results that were considered record breaking — that won gold, say, 20 or 30 years ago — are now considered standard. Yet at the time, they were viewed as the limits of human capabilities. This same phenomenon happens in our individual lives. How often do we convince ourselves that something simply can’t be done? But the limits of our lives are often the limits we place on them.
These limitations we put on ourselves come from the ‘stories’, the narratives or explanations about ourselves that give us a sense of self. They don’t have to be true — they are often based on selective or biased recollections of events that fit with the overall story about how we define ourselves.
His story was really about how things that seemed impossible could, with a little determination, become possible
Sir Roger Bannister, after he passed the Olympic Flame to a torchbearer on the running track at Iffley Road Stadium in Oxford
So, someone convinces themselves they’re a failure, and look for evidence of this, overlooking all the things they achieve.
And the seed for the story you will tell about yourself is planted when we are children. This is why we have to be very careful when we start putting labels on children as it can be so damaging. Often it’s our parents and teachers who subtly and without us really realising, start a story about us and who we are.
People can live down, as well as up to expectation. We become known as not being very good at maths, or sport, or being badly behaved or scatty. They roll their eyes and shrug their shoulders as they dismiss their child’s behaviour. ‘Oh, he’s always naughty’ or ‘oh, she’s not very good at so and so’. We internalise these statements and they become self-fulfilling.
Rather than nuanced, fluid and changeable, things get caste as absolutes —immoveable characteristics we can do nothing about. It’s just who we are.
But this isn’t true. It holds us back in life. It’s not until we challenge this that we can lift the mental limitations we place on ourselves.
Don’t be afraid of the word ‘suicide’
From the outside, everything seemed to be going well for Edward Mallen. The 18-year-old, a gifted musician, had a place to read Geography at Cam- bridge University.
But he’d been suffering from depression and in February, 2015, he took his own life.
Standing beside the coffin at his funeral, his father Steve made a promise that he would do something to tackle the appalling, tragic rates of suicide. And so he has.
As he told Good Health earlier this week, he is now leading efforts to help suicidal people with a campaign called Zero Suicide. The scheme involves providing suicide prevention training in schools, workplaces and hospitals, as well as raft of recommendations for policy changes that would mean suicidal people receiving better mental health support.
The campaign has also produced a training video that explains what to say to someone — a relative, friend, colleague for example — if you’re worried about them. It encourages people to ask the question: Are you thinking about suicide?
I would question whether zero suicides is really achievable — not everyone who kills themselves has a mental illness, for example. Some have a terminal or incurable illness or are severe disabled and decide they no longer want to live. But over all, the message from the campaign is a vitally important one: It’s good to talk about suicide.
There is a dangerous myth that perpetuates about suicide that, if you talk about it to someone who is desperate or depressed, then they’re more likely to kill themselves. This is categorically untrue.
Countless pieces of research have shown the exact opposite — asking about suicide and talking about it actually reduces the risk of someone doing it. It’s such an important message and one that can save lives.
Stress doesn’t cause cancer
There’s no doubt that stress can make us feel miserable and depressed. It’s also been linked to all sorts of health complications such as high blood pressure and insomnia. But can it give you cancer?
According to research published this week by the World Cancer Research Fund, half of us wrongly believe that it can.
There’s no doubt that stress can make us feel miserable and depressed. It’s also been linked to all sorts of health complications such as high blood pressure and insomnia
For many years, doctors would talk of ‘type C personalities’ to describe unassertive, stressed, nervous people who repressed their feelings. It was thought that their buried anger and negative feelings somehow made them prone to cancer.
In fact, there’s no evidence to support this and it’s been widely criticised by both psychologists and oncologists.
Yet it remains a popular idea. I think part of the reason it endures, despite all the evidence to the contrary, is that it suggests there’s a neat, clear explanation for why people get cancer.
In a strange way, it’s far more reassuring to think it’s caused by someone’s negative energy or stress levels than to accept the truth — that life is random and unfair and sometimes people just get the short straw.
But when you think about it, the idea that it’s someone’s negative energy or struggle to cope that’s responsible for illness is hateful. It implies it’s their fault for allowing themselves to get stressed and not dealing with life better, and that’s simply not true.
Imagine you’ve just been diagnosed with cancer — this sort of claptrap is the last thing you want to hear. ‘Well, if only you’d relaxed a bit more often you’d be right as rain now.’
It resonates with the idea that the world is fair, that bad things happen to bad people. But some of the happiest, most relaxed people I’ve ever known have been mowed down by cancer.
Being stressed isn’t going to give you cancer, however there’s no doubt that someone’s psychological state can impact on how they experience being unwell. Studies show a positive mental outlook helps patients, whatever their illness: they report less pain, less discomfort and need less medication.
However, this is not saying a positive attitude actually affects the eventual outcome. People with cancer have enough to contend with without also having to deal with the idea that their personalities might be responsible for their illness.
Having a birthday in the office soon? Well, according to Public Health England rather than bringing in cake, we should be offering around a cucumber or carrot.
Are they serious? The problem with public health doctors is that while their heart is in the right place, they seem so out of touch.
And can you imagine wandering around the office waving a cucumber and asking who wants to celebrate your birthday with you? That’s a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen!