It is undisputed that I have evolved massively as a trail runner over the past few years and keep reaching new levels – you can see it clearly from my finish times (and the resulting placings) at the UTMB. I believe my love of moving outdoors and my desire to get better are the two main driving forces behind this development. When I recently started thinking about how many hours of my life I have invested in trail running, I arrived at an impressive number: 7,000 hours over the last nine years.
2013 UTMB (167 km, 9,600 m elevation gain) 26:37 vs. 2018 UTMB (170 km, 10,000 m elevation gain) 23:12 – as you can tell from the header image, quite a lot has changed for me in five years, not just the gear and the beard.
There is a thesis by Swedish psychologist K. Anders Ericsson from the 1990s stating that you need to spend 10,000 hours with a subject to reach expert status. Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell popularised the 10,000-hour rule, and I keep wondering whether “only” 3,000 hours separate me from Kilian Jornet, Xavier Thévenard and other mega stars in trail running.
First I want to take a closer look at Ericsson’s statement. He talks about “deliberate practice”, which is perhaps the crucial hint. It is not about dabbling with a topic and simply putting in the time – if that were the case, everyone would automatically be an expert in their job after a few years. Nor does a switch flip at exactly 10,000 hours that suddenly turns you into an expert. Improvement happens continuously, in small increments.
We have not even touched on talent, dedication, motivation and the like, and we also ignored the possibility that you might reach expert status but the parameters change – for example requirements, responsibilities or the environment. I experienced this personally at my company Smarter Business Solutions over the past few years. In 2016 and 2017 the business entered a new level and grew from four to eight employees, we were considered SharePoint experts par excellence (and last week I even learned that someone dubbed me an Austrian legend in the SharePoint field). And yet things were no longer running smoothly.
Things were not running smoothly for me in 2011 either during the Transalpine Run – a little stone in my shoe right at the start of the 250 km stage race across the Alps had fatal consequences… but you grow with your challenges!
What happened? The demands placed on me had changed, but I was not aware of it. I still saw myself as self-employed rather than an entrepreneur, and from the moment we grew and I still focused on specialist tasks there was no one left to set the direction. No one – including myself – truly deserved the job title “managing director”. So for me it was back to school. At first it felt unusual to attend courses, seminars and talks that covered not only personal development but also communication, team leadership and more. But I rediscovered my joy of learning, and I am doing it for the sake of our customers and our employees. I want to become an excellent entrepreneur.
Whether it is a mindfulness course or the Microsoft Service Adoption Specialist certification – it is simply fun to learn something new every day!
I believe that getting from my current 7,000-hour status as a runner to expert level again represents a turning point in the challenges ahead. It is no longer just about logging as many kilometres as possible in training – other factors now play a role, such as active recovery, nutrition, training science or sponsor acquisition. Being an expert is a multifaceted endeavour.
On 30 August the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc 2019 will start, and I want to tackle it with an “8,500-hour status”. Whether I can make that happen within the spirit of my #lifeworktrailbalance I honestly do not know – but I am very much looking forward to finding out!
If I want to get even better at the UTMB, brand new challenges await me in 2019… but just like in my company and my private life, these challenges are what make life worth living. #lifeworktrailbalance
Yes, I like the 10,000-hour rule, but I interpret it for myself: I want to learn every day, and I want to get better at everything I do, every single day. Excellence will come sooner or later.
Working on yourself is simply smarter!