lifeoutside the lines

I just experienced a 300% increase in output as a direct result of hanging with a unique group of people and I have a theory as to why.

For the most part, I don’t consider myself a runner. I jog somewhere between 3-5km a few times a week to maintain a base fitness level. Prior to today, 5km was my max, and by the end of that, I was toast. (Not particularly hardcore, I grant you).

Last night, on a whim I was invited to run Melbourne’s inaugural ‘City2Sea’ 14km run by a friend. Until then, my goal had been to spend the next few months working up to 10km. I hadn’t considered 14km as even a remote possibility. My friend assured me it would be fun, and I dig fun, so what the hell.

Because registrations had closed, it required some covert shenanigans to get me a starting number, but after some white lies and tall tales, I was in.

1hour 30minutes 16seconds and 14km later, my friend and I crossed the finish line in St Kilda. I was pretty stoked with myself (just quietly). I came damn close to tripling my previous personal best, which until then I had considered my max.

Plus, I only averaged 30 seconds slower per km than my normal jog speed (av. 6.16/km vs av. 5.30/km), so the distance boost wasn’t the result of a drastically reduced speed.

How was this possible? Had I just massively underestimated my current capability, or was there something more?

I am convinced it’s because I was with 13,000 other people who all had the exact same goal: Finish the damn race. Caught up in the flow of intention, it was like being in one big shared slipstream.

The notion that who you surround yourself with is who you become is not a new concept, but I feel like I got it at a deeper level today. Hanging with a group of people who were generally interested in fitness, but perhaps each pursuing different paths to get there probably wouldn’t have cut it. I think the fact that we all had the exact same objective contributed massively to the resulting boost in my personal performance. (My friend also cracked her PB by 30%).

I see similar productivity leaps within the groups of entrepreneurs I work with. I run a 30 week business incubator where it’s not just a fuzzy focus of ‘build a better business’, but rather we walk people through developing 5 very specific areas of their enterprise. Because the whole group is on the same path with the same clear objectives, my team and I witness leaps in productivity that we dont’ find anywhere else. I had never considered just how large a role the group ‘slipstream’ had contributed to their breakaway results until today.

What about you? Ever experienced something similar? Do you have a team of people running with you towards the exact same goal or are you kinda flying solo? Have you ever experienced a quantum leap in isolation, or has every time it’s happened been when you’re part of a group?

Thinking back, for me it’s always been a result of group momentum where everyone goes up a notch or two.

Food for thought.

Time for a nanna nap.