Peak Performance

On Monday, I wrote about The Middle, the long stretch between committing to and crossing the finish line. The middle is often the most challenging for leaders and runners but is often the least impressive. The Middle is mostly repetitive, and unglamorous.

I recently finished a book called Peak Performance by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness. And one of the things that stood out to me is how the book describes the challenge of The Middle and why so many leaders (and endurance athletes) struggle there.

And this point is reinforced with the simple but important point that

Excellence is not about constant intensity; it’s really about a balance between intensity and recovery.

That idea matters in The Middle because the middle tempts us to do one of two things, either to push harder than is sustainable because progress feels slow or to disengage because the results aren’t obvious. Of course, both are counterproductive.

In endurance training, The Middle looks like five or six mostly unremarkable training days per week. It’s comprised of monotonous long runs, seemingly unproductive recovery days and progress that’s difficult to measure.

In leadership, The Middle looks the same. The Middle is often filling with repetitive tasks, the need to stick to the plan and the challenge of not allowing seemingly slow progress to trick you into pushing too hard for too long.

It’s easy to misunderstand is the role of recovery.  But one simple way to think about it is that:

Stress and intensity drive growth, but recovery is required for it to show up as progress.

This is why balance isn’t just a “nice to have” but rather an important part of your performance strategy.

The middle is long, and it’s supposed to be.  Peak Performance reframes The Middle as the place where growth and progress happen.

That’s true on the trail and in leadership.