I am a cyclist.
I ride all year long. Rarely go fast. During the spring I always wonder if this is the year it “won’t happen.” You see every year, about now, I begin to question why I train so hard. I ride and I ride and the speed stays…the same. I expect a linear progression to my effort. It does not happen. I oftentimes start to lose hope. Then it happens. I go faster. I don’t get dropped like a bad habit. My performance bursts.
As I’ve become a student of high performance individuals, teams, and leaders, I’ve come to notice this as a recurring pattern. We do not progress in a linear fashion. We suddenly lose weight, gain speed, build confidence, grasp a concept, improve sales and on and on it goes. We need to trust the process, especially when on the plateau.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, in his book The Black Swan explains. “Nonlinear relationships are ubiquitous in life. Linear relationships are truly the exception; we only focus on them in classrooms and textbooks because they are easier to understand. You play tennis every day with no improvement, then suddenly you start beating the pro. Your child does not seem to have a learning impediment, but he does not seem to want to speak. The schoolmaster pressures you to start considering “other options,” namely therapy. You argue with her to no avail. Then, suddenly, the child starts composing elaborate sentence, perhaps a bit too elaborate for his age group. I will repeat that linear progression, a Platonic idea, is NOT the norm.”
We burst.
At BTL we build strong individuals, teams, and leaders. We practice hard using the 12 8 4 2 as our process. Our practices are nonlinear. Feels like “fits and starts” more than anything. We have a front row seat to many bursts. We watch people breakthrough. We watch people get it. We are often surprised by bursts from BTL practice participants. We never know who is really burst ready, you know.
Do not worry if your performance gains are nonlinear. Embrace this is simply the way. Keep working.
Trust the process.
Ride hard.
Speed will come.
Live hard. Love harder. Burst…
BUILT TO LEAD 