Belief Is A Powerful Thing

I am reading a book at the moment called ‘Flow’ by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and in it he makes mention of the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico. I have heard of these people before but even so every time I hear about them again I am in awe. They can run like no other people on earth often doing so for 100 miles at a time with ease.

I once heard a story and it may be apocryphal where one member of their tribe was persuaded to run in a marathon race in the US. The sponsor of the Indian was convinced that he would win easily as this was only a sprint to him. Alas, he came in well down the field and when challenged about his poor performance explained that he thought he was still on the warm up!

So are these people genetically different to us in the West? Well no not really. They may well have slightly improved lung capacity and a higher red blood cell count to help oxygenate their blood but nothing that would come even close to explain their abilities..…except maybe one thing.

They grow up to believe that they can run prodigious distances, that it is normal and  well within their abilities, whereas we grow up to believe that people that run marathons in under 3 hours are almost super-human. Seems reasonable to expect then that both sets of people prove themselves right, right?

So on reflection maybe they do have an unfair advantage because their society didn’t tell them they should be more realistic and that they can’t do that because it simply isn’t possible.

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