Growth Hurts

A few years ago, I picked up a new sport called paddle surfing —?surfing but on a stand-up paddleboard. It quickly became a morning ritual and the perfect antidote to a day’s worth of Zoom calls. And as some of you know, picking up a new sport when you’re approaching 50 comes with different expectations in terms of how good you’re ever going to be at it. Nevertheless, I’m steadily improving to the point where I can proudly claim the rank of Intermediate. But, of course, I wasn’t satisfied with that, so I decided to push to the next level. What could go wrong?

To get to the next level, the specific skill I wanted to work on is paddle switching. Rather than keep the paddle on one side while riding a wave, which works fine, paddle switching involves taking the paddle to the other side of your body so you can make a more dynamic set of turns. It’s a way to be in more control and better balance. After watching a few hours of tutorials on YouTube, I felt confident and ready to give it a shot.

So a few days ago, I went out to the lineup on my favorite break. It wasn’t crowded. The waves were small. And the sun was out. Conditions were ideal for practice.

Not thirty seconds after I got out in the water, I saw a wave coming that I was going to go for. I visualized getting into the wave, switching my paddle, and that would be that. And then ...

Splat.?

In my first attempt, I swung my paddle over the board, lost my balance, slipped, fell, face-planted, and banged my knee on the board. Bobbing in the water, collecting my strewn belongings, I thought to myself:?

“I can’t f-in believe it - the first time, and I injure myself?” (I’d sprained my knee on a similar fall a year before and was out of the water for a few months, so that was my worry, but luckily this time, it was just a little bruise.). Anyway, my next thought made me laugh because I thought of all the times people have told me one of their favorite lines from Good Authority where I wrote:?

	“You don’t get to grow and look good at the same time.”?        

Despite my annoyance at the moment, I got back up, went back out to the lineup, and tried again. And again. And again. I tried to do a paddle switch and turn about 15 times over the next 45 minutes. And I failed on every single attempt, each one in a comically different way. And then it was time to head in and get to the office. Rock star status would have to wait for another day.?

Why am I telling you this? Just a reminder that learning anything worth learning — like being a good people leader —?follows the same principles:

1. It’s much more difficult than it looks.?
2. Most new skills and behaviors are harder to learn as you get older.?
3. And, when you’re trying something new, it feels like it’s happening so fast that even if you know the technique in your head, you can’t apply it in real life.

After a hundred or a thousand attempts trying to learn that new thing, time starts to slow down. It stops feeling like a blur, and you start to see that there are a series of steps, a sequence that follows; one thing builds on the thing before. And then it happens; you just get it. It’s such a good feeling that it feels almost like magic. What it is is practice.

My knee is a bit sore.?

My ego is a bit bruised.

And I’ll be back out there tomorrow.