This past weekend I completed my second duathalon, a sequence of 2.2 mile run, 10 mile ride, and 3.3 mile run (and finished first in women 30 - 39, despite being at the upper limit of the range!). While on the ride I thought about how my cycling approach has changed over the last four years when I got more serious about the sport and upgraded from my mom’s ~40 year old bike. I loved riding that bike in Prospect Park, grinding away past others clipped in to more sleek operations: “Look at me working really hard on a decidedly non-fancy bike and getting a little bit further than you.” I didn’t understand how to really use the gears properly and even once I bought new equipment, I felt it was a point of pride that I was pushing up the hills on high gears while riders next to me were spinning faster. I thought they were taking the easy way out.
Fast forward a few years and I am constantly changing gears throughout my entire ride, adjusting to meet the road grade, wind conditions, and energy levels. In making things “easier” I have also made cycling more enjoyable. And I’m finishing faster laps! But it took me YEARS to really let this become my default mode of cycling. Trying to prove that I could ride on harder gears was not only not using my bike fully, it was pointless because no one else could see how hard I was working and I was getting too tired to ride longer distances, so it only appeared that I was a weaker rider.
I could probably now write about how I’m applying this in my day to day (”work smarter, not harder” etc etc), but really I think about the implications for career paths more broadly. There’s a deep seated Midwestern Protestant work ethic combined with years in management consulting where the feedback was to focus on constantly filling skill and resume gaps. And I do think that should be always be a part of growing and expanding your skillset, because hopefully you want to keep learning and improving. But there should also be more support for leaning into what comes easy to you. Where’s the flow, what do people come to you for, what are you curious about and would happily stay up until 2am reading research reports? That can drive success. Why go through your career always pushing on the hardest gears when you’re competing against people who have chosen or learned to lighten the resistance?
Two career books that touch on this include Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (along with their practical exercises) and Directional Living by Megan Hellerer (though it could be a 1 hour podcast). I won’t pretend I’ve figured this out for myself just yet, but to start I’m creating a list of those who I think have found or created success by leaning into their strengths and curiosity. More to come.