Are you banging into the walls enough?
Habit update: while I've been writing almost every day this year between journaling, morning pages, and snippets for this newsletter, most of my creative energy has been spent iterating on the next version of my website — coming soon. I've felt a little distracted by it, but both of these plates feel worth spinning in parallel right now. I'm still committed to publishing every week and getting my reps in.
Back when we were improving our flying skills by training in the "indoor skydiving" vertical wind tunnel, my team used to have a cheeky saying:
If you're not banging into the walls, you're not learning anything.
And I mean, literally banging into the walls so hard it would sometimes end our flying sessions for the night lol.
Here’s me (in green) slamming my heels against the wall as I botch a front flip to my head
Before long, we purchased elbow pads and knee pads, which we wore under our jumpsuits, so that we could take even more punishment.
Leaving sore, sweaty, and moderately dehydrated were good signs that we had pushed ourselves enough to take risks with new moves and sequences.
This is how we learned so quickly. It's how we made up moves that looked ridiculous but were absolutely a blast to fly. It's how we felt satisfied at the end of the night. And honestly, it’s why we had so much fun :)
Finding the stretch zone
Ute Liamacher writes about peak performance occurring with the right amount of pressure, which puts us in the stretch zone, conducive to not only max performance but also to optimal growth.
She goes on to say that when we continue to build this habit of stretching ourselves in a healthy way, we:
Recover more quickly
Increase our comfort zone (since we're able to do more challenging things)
Increase our stretch zone (since we have more self-awareness of our boundaries)
Increase our overall confidence and competence
Increase the rate at which we learn to learn
How to apply this
Cultivate a sandbox environment where you can experiment generously while minimizing permanent injury.
Consistently push yourself beyond what feels comfortable in small increments.
Pay attention to yourself to identify when you're feeling overwhelmed so you can rest & recover and avoid slipping into the panic zone.
Strive to be consistent in stretching yourself and don’t worry so much about the outcome. Progress over perfection.
When optimizing for growth, ask yourself: are you banging into the walls enough?