Break your own 4-minute mile. You cannot hope to do more but you cannot afford to do less.

On May 5 1954, conventional wisdom said that it was impossible for a person to run a mile in under 4 minutes. After all, it had never been done. The next day, Roger Bannister broke through at Oxford University by running it in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Six weeks later, an Australian, John Landy, ran one second faster. Since then, about 1400 people have run sub 4 minute miles. In the last year alone about 75 people have done it.

Scientist Trent Stellingwerff, the director of innovation and research at Canadian Sport Institute Pacific, says that the question of what’s possible may come down to intangibles. Seemingly crucial factors such as pain threshold, the will to win, dedication and passion cannot be measured in any precise way but they are incredibly important.

Bannister spoke about the same thing 60 years ago. He said he had exhausted all his energy at Oxford in his record-breaking attempt but pushed on. “The physical overdraft,” he wrote, “came only from greater willpower.”

I love this story because I believe we all have our own four minute mile. It is a highly ambitious personal goal that seems just beyond our reach. It demands that we cross our pain threshold and pursue it with passion, maybe even obsession. As the author Jeffrey Archer said, “you call it obsession, I call it discipline.” Or as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “You become what you think about all day long.”

So what dominates your thoughts? What compels you to test your limits? What’s your impossible goal that you know is really possible – if you are willing to go the extra mile?

Here’s what I’ve discovered as a result of talking to hundreds of record breakers every year: they have a “healthy obsession” with their work. They love it. They are great at it. They want to become better at it. They are playing a big game with big stakes. And they believe the price they’re paying is worth the reward they’re earning. Some of them are south of 20 and some are north of 70. As the great actor, Michael Caine, said, “Obsession is a young man’s game, and my only excuse is that I never grew old.”

The irony is that no matter how much life accelerates, there is no short cut to mastery. It takes years to become an overnight success. To break records, you’ve got to break a sweat.

I take on my 4 minute mile every time I create a message that inspires you to do something you would never otherwise have done. I take on my 4 minute mile every time I pitch for an engagement against fierce competition. I take on my 4 minute mile every time I write a new book or produce a new program. It’s always scary. It’s always hard. And I’m always relieved when it’s over.

I fumble, stumble, fall and fail all the time. That’s how I move forward. Even Roger Bannister was motivated by failure. He confessed that his failure to win a medal in the fifteen hundred metres at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics ignited his two-year quest to break the four-minute mark.

Here’s what I know:  the most you can do is run your own 4 minute mile but you can’t afford to do anything less. If you don’t raise the bar, someone else will. We all have the tools if we have the will.

So go break some records. Make some noise. Have some fun. Pay it forward

And here’s my final request: send me your personal 4 minute mile and what you’re doing to achieve it. I will post it on my site so it can inspire everyone else as well. This is Mike Lipkin and I really approve this message.

Send your message now to mike.lipkin@environics.ca.