One of the most famous motivational stories is a myth

When motivational gurus say ‘believe in yourself,’ they mean delude yourself. But it works.

- MANU JOSEPH

When motivational gurus say ‘believe in yourself,’ they mean delude yourself. But it works. Belief can make things happen, often by overriding caution and common sense. But the sacred status of belief in the self-help genre is probably because it is often wrongly credited for poorly analysed triumphs. Much touted evidence of the glory of belief is pure nonsense. The most famous proof is in fact a poor assessment of a simple phenomenon.

In late April, Sabastian Sawe from Kenya ran a 42km marathon under two hours. It was the first time an observed human achieved the feat without the assistance of favourable wind or any banned running aid.

The sub-two-hour marathon was one of the most famous sports barriers that was, inevitably, considered not just a physiological barrier, but a ‘psychological’ one. But it is not the most famous ‘psychological barrier’ ever. That honour goes to the four-minute mile.

The story is that nobody could run a mile in under four minutes. Then an Englishman called Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3:59.4 seconds. It was considered one of the greatest feats in sports at the time. Then, something strange happened. Just weeks later, another man ran a sub-four-minute mile. Within two years there were apparently dozens. The moral of the story came to be that Bannister had shown that something could be done, and that made other athletes believe it could be done, as a result of which they did it. This is called the ‘Bannister Effect.’ What he had breached was ‘the psychological barrier.’