Intention: “The Sub 4Minute Attempt Is On”

It's fairly well known in motivational circles and sporting circles… The story of Roger Bannister, the first person to break the four minute mile - or as they say it in the track and field arena, to run the sub-four minute mile.

What a lot of people don't know is what went on to make that happen. Let me just give you some insight—this guy did break a record that they had been trying to break for thousands of years. You know the Olympics, they come from ancient Greece…speaking of which, he missed the 1948 Olympics.

But you see, he was a runner, and he did have talent, apparently. He was in school, young. And in fact, he did the error to himself—he just didn't believe that he was up to the quality of it.

When he watched it on the black-and-white TV—I'm assuming that's how he heard about it, I don't know—he knew he had screwed up big time. So he set in his sights the '52 Olympics, which he made. And in his two running events—he did a mile and, I think, he did 880 yards—he placed fifth.

Now, it takes a lot to become an Olympic athlete, you've got to agree. We all know the stories and the practice—you think? Do you know most people don't know that the guy was a very busy student at the very prestigious Oxford University?

It's not easy there, when you're studying pre-med neurosurgery—you know, the brain. They don't know that he practiced 30 minutes a day on his lunch hour. He had some intention there. He had some focus there.

They don't know that after he placed fifth in the whole world in the Olympics in 1952, he was crushed. That's fifth in the entire world, which sounds like some major, major cool thing…and it is. But if you're going for the Olympic gold, that's as failure as failure can come.

They don't know he suffered on that, and they don't know that it was at that point that he put his intention out - he put in his sights the sub-four minute extra mile. They don't know he was preparing for that, training for that. Living that, eating that, breathing that. Laying to sleep and bouncing to feet… That was his goal. That it was his specific goal and crowning glory…

But the day that he did it he called it, he told his pacemaker, "The sub four minute attempt is on."

Now you know that. Now you know the importance of getting your game in order, and you know that it can be done in short, regular, focused training, with intention. Now you see the incredible value of intention. Put it to work for your activities.