Loyalty Truth

It’s not often that I write on personal subjects, but an icebreaker exercise at a client offsite meeting this week triggered some thoughts worth sharing.

The question underlying the exercise was this: How do you fuel your personal growth? What drives your passion for excellence and how do you keep the fires stoked to meet the demands of an always-on business world?

In the exercise, each person was asked to provide a picture that told something about him/herself. The one in this post was my choice. It’s important to make clear what this picture is NOT about. I am surely not the most interesting man in the world, and it is definitely not an advertisement for my favorite beer.

I do have a passion for endurance sports and while I considered sharing a photo of an iconic finish line, I decided that it was not a particular race that motivated me, but the process through which we prepare to arrive at the start line itself.

You see, participating in endurance sports (triathlons, ultra swim, run and bike events and adventure races) is as much about the training as it is the race. The challenge is to engage in an adventure, to stretch your limits, and face your fears. In doing so, a significant level of self discovery becomes available to the individual.

Setting and achieving goals has become core to my being. We are competitive in business and the meetings I was attending this week were centered on outlining goals for the coming year.  I’ve learned that grinding away as an information worker and focusing only on cognitive goals can leave one out of balance. I’ve always taken great relief in saddling up for a long bike ride and some of my best thinking has taken place in the midst of a long run or any other activity that leads me to visit my lactate threshold.

You might be surprised to know that taking part in extreme sport engenders extreme humility and gratitude in most people I’ve met with this shared passion. This is in contrast to an otherwise anticipated arrogance that could be packaged up in hearing that “you are an Ironman”. Humility is derived from a recognition of our vulnerability as human beings, as we are required to acknowledge our dependence for performance on outside factors beyond our control. There is a fundamental life lesson available to those who realize that after the hard work is done and we come to end of ourselves physically, that it is a strong mental spirit that will carry us to the finish line. Gratitude comes from the appreciation that life comes to us one day at a time, and that wise men focus on the goodness of each day rather than carping about yesterday or worrying for tomorrow.

There is also reminder of the undeniable fact that we each have the same amount of time to burn per day. The subject of time and how we spend it is a recurring point of curiosity for people who become aware of my chosen hobby. When people ask “how do you do it?”, there is an implied accusation that I am either bleeding sleep, ignoring my family, or otherwise paying an unspoken price for my activity.

My response is that we are people of free will, and the choices we make with our time are within our control. I could spend an extra hour each night on Facebook or YouTube, watch my “favorite” TV shows each week for several hours, or spend 4 hours on a round of golf one or two days a week. In my case, I choose to dedicate this time to training. It’s not right or wrong, just my choice.

For me, nothing delivers a sense of satisfaction like standing on the starting line. While some folks nervously check their GPS watches and cloak themselves in full-on performance anxiety, I like to reflect on the fact that the work is done and the fun is at hand. Competing against the clock is always a “race of truth” and, as you’ve probably heard, once you know the truth, the truth will set you free.

The point of sharing this personal story with you is to challenge you to find your own passion. Instead of working to make time one day for a hobby, why not engage a passion outside of work now that will fuel your personal and business success? It’s not important what I do, but critically important what you will do.

What’s your passion outside of work and how does it fuel your personal growth?