When I was younger, I was often afraid of trying new things. My parents will tell you I hated when a schedule changed last minute. I wasn’t an adventurous eater. I still don’t enjoy learning a new card game in a social setting and I’m definitely not competitive by nature. I recently realized I’ve gone through a significant shift in how I approach new opportunities. And I believe I can trace that back to when I joined a CrossFit gym in 2013.
Rewind
I’d been doing the globo gym thing for several years but that routine had become stale. In that time, I made great progress with basic linear progression strength programs and vanquished the back pain that plagued me in my 20s, but felt I’d reached the limit of what I could do by myself. I decided to get a personal trainer.
It was a pure accident that I found CrossFit Fargo. I’d been aware of CrossFit for a while but was put off by the cult feel of it (the reputation is at least somewhat deserved). During that summer, my fitness goals were improving my strength and stamina for an Alaska drop hunt with my dad in the Arctic Circle. I became a bit obsessed with the idea of mental toughness, or ‘grit’ as it’s often called. I ran 5ks during the hottest parts of the day. I rucked until my feet bled. I started to read about Olympic weightlifting and decided I wanted to learn those movements. Through some SEO magic, I found myself on the CrossFit Fargo website signing up for an introductory class.
The thing I instantly loved about CrossFit was how accessible it was to everyone. My class had 20-somethings and 50-somethings. College students, teachers, trade workers, and lawyers. There were marathon runners and someone recovering from a heart attack. Everyone was nervous, but excited to be there doing something to make themselves better.
As the gym membership grew, they began offering specialty classes. Twice a week, there was an hour-long class dedicated to Olympic Weightlifting and I was the first to sign up. Thanks to a couple years of strength training on my own, I was strong; however, I quickly learned that didn’t matter at all without solid technique. The coaches told me unless I was willing to set my ego aside and focus on moving light weights well, I might actually slow my overall progress. I listened and spent the next few months lifting well below my strength but instead focused on virtuosity.
As my technique developed, I was able to confidently lift heavier and heavier weights and do so without sacrificing technique. And that’s when the essence of weightlifting clicked for me: it’s the failures–or rather the willingness to fail–that creates long-term success.
When I connected the dots between weightlifting and my personal growth, all kinds of themes releveant to my work as a leader emerged and I wanted to share a few of those here:
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Perseverence - Like many things in life, weightlifting is about perseverence. Both software engineering and weightlifting require a great deal of technical skill acquired through experience. Setbacks are inevitable: you will likely pull a muscle or run into an edge case you don’t know how to solve. Embracing those moments builds the resilience needed to succeed in the long term.
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The Power of Incremental Progress - it became a running joke on max-out days that at some point, I was going to walk to the front office and get the fractional (½ or even ¼ pound) plates so I could beat my previous personal best, even if only by a small amount. Newly formed teams need to get their reps in on smaller problems before they reach their potential, and sometimes that means accepting the small wins on the path to greatness
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Feedback - Weightlifters rely on feedback and cues from their coach to help them understand what they need to change or improve. Engineering leaders can similarly benefit by seeking out feedback from their manager, peers, and even their team. Also, the same cue may not work for two different people. When offering feedback, it’s important to try different approaches until you get the result you want.
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Support - Everyone has bad days where nothing seems to go right and routine weights are suddenly a struggle. Having training partners that are there to give you some words of affirmation or listen to you vent can make all the difference in salvaging an otherwise frustrating day. If you’re in senior leadership, this circle needs to expand outside your current company. I recommend Lara Hogan’s Manager Voltron article on this topic
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The Value of a Growth Mindset - Weightlifters might fail a weight hundreds of times before they finally succeed. It’s a long-term sport and the best athletes practice over much of their lifetime. Failing repeatedly and publicly eventually made me far less worried about how I was able to do on any particular day. Tomorrow is another opportunity to step onto the platform and give your best effort. Anyone willing to do that is leagues ahead of those that aren’t even willing to try.
I mentioned in the opening that I’m not competitive by nature. That’s still true, but this weird journey led to me doing something I never thought I’d do: I donned a spandex singlet and competed in the 2015 North Dakota USA Weightlifting open. I made 5 of my 6 lifts on the platform and totaled enough to place first in my weight category. You never know unless you try.