Endurance is the Key to Sustaining High Performance

I’ve always loved cycling.? About a year ago, I decided I wanted to get serious.? I set a goal to attain peak fitness, compete in races, and improve my overall health.? I bought a new bike and hired a coach to help me.? Ever since I’ve had a love/hate relationship with cycling.

Yes, my fitness is better than ever.? I recently completed a 100-mile ride and felt great after.? But the training is hard.? Really hard. The key metric in cycling is watts – or power you can put to the pedal.? Over the past year, I was able to produce 250 watts for 5-10 minutes at a time.? My coach said you need to be able to do that for a full hour plus.? I couldn’t even fathom such a thing.? To which my coach said simply, “it’s going to be very uncomfortable.”? While I hate every single second of training, I feel great after – not physically (I’m usually sore), but mentally – for pushing myself to a new level of performance.?

I’ve found the same to be true with professional growth. Those who push through to the next level have what I call “professional endurance.” The ability to sustain high performance for long periods of time.

Any of us can be great for short spurts.? However, elite performers at work sustain high performance for extended periods.? And trust me, that’s every bit as uncomfortable as trying to cycle at 250 watts for a full hour.

For example, I sometimes find myself in a conference room full of people who are pitching a new idea. The presentation is long and practiced. I can tell the team is excited and hopeful for me to provide praise and an approval on the approach. I look around at many smiling faces and nodding heads. But it’s not quite right. The idea isn’t where we need it to be.

I can do the easy thing – the 5 minutes at 250 watts – I can say good work, smile, and walk out of the room letting them move forward with the concept. Or I can sit in the temporary discomfort and give my real opinion: “This isn’t where we need it to be, it’s not different, it’s not new. Needs work.”

It doesn’t feel good in the moment. But I’ve found that time and time again that the teams comes back with a better idea, and I’m often thanked in the end for pushing people to go further than they planned to go, to be uncomfortable themselves.

It’s been said that all human performance will ultimately “regress to the mean” and return to average, almost as a law of physics.? If you truly want to be seen (and rewarded) as an “elite performer” at work, push against those gravitational forces that want you to return to average, comfortable performance.? Speak out.? Push back. Demand more.? Raise the bar.

It will be uncomfortable in the moment, but you will be rewarded with a feeling of accomplishment after. Even more important than gaining that feeling, you’ll likely see more tangible career progress.

I encourage you to think about which uncomfortable things you could be doing to get to the next level. Is there a tough conversation you’ve been avoiding? A status quo that you see a path to changing?

“It’s going to be very uncomfortable,” but in the end, worth it.