Embracing The Post-Workout Soreness

A highly respected technology leader once told me that I should always aim for a 70/30 split in what is comfortable and what is not at my job.? The 70% guarantees that I can be proficient in my current role and add meaningful value to the business. ? The remaining 30% serves as the catalyst for the experiential growth I get from having to take on new challenges and learn new skills. ? And over time, those new skills will form the bedrock for the 70%, allowing me to take on increasingly bigger challenges so this cycle of growth can continue.

However, that growth can only be realized if we are free to stretch ourselves even when there is risk of failure. ? In fact, the growth upside from that 30%? is correlated to how much risk there is because where there is a lot of unknown, there is far more to be learned.? But this also means we need to have a positive mindset towards failure and view it as an instrument of learning and growth.???

My favorite analogy for failure is the soreness we feel after a good workout. ? Lifting weights stretches and causes micro-tears in our muscles, which our body repairs in short order, especially supplied with the right amount of protein and amino acids.? ? The muscles tear because they are pushed to the limits of what they can handle until they eventually fail.? And the ensuing repair makes the muscles even more dense, leading to growth in both muscle mass and strength.? I’ve always found the post-workout soreness from this controlled muscle failure as a good barometer for how well I trained.? However, one thing that has always fascinated me is how we embrace that soreness as a herald for imminent growth but often struggle to do the same with other challenges and failures in life.

If you don’t get sore from lifting, you are probably not getting the gains you are seeking.? Not surprisingly, the same may also be true for other aspects of our lives, including our careers. ? Embracing risk and failure could be the difference between stagnation and transformation. ? So it is critical that we constantly keep pushing the envelope and look for ways to stretch and grow ourselves. ? And if you are a people leader like me, we also have a responsibility to create a culture where our teams feel empowered to set their sights on challenging goals that will give them the 30% and the post-workout soreness that will inevitably come with it.

To see my writings beyond "Stuff Engineers Say," ?visit my articles page?or?follow me. To hear more of my thoughts on technology leadership, tune into the next episode of the bi-weekly eng management AMA @Clubhouse on Thursdays at 6pm PST.