A Fundamental Secret to Success from Olympic and 5x World Champion
Jordan Burroughs is the greatest American freestyle wrestler of this generation. He is an Olympic wrestling champion, a 5x world champion, and just won his 9th world medal in total. Yesterday, in his post-match interview, Burroughs dropped several meaningful nuggets of wisdom, so I highly recommend you watch the full video.
However, one short quote from him stood out to me more than the others due to how important it is as a fundamental secret to success and how often people overlook its importance. Fundamentals like this are so important because without the fundamentals, nothing else matters.
Burroughs states right around the 9:40 minute mark in the interview the following:
Stay focused for as long a period of time as you can… [with] consistent effort over a long period of time anything is possible
What makes this quote so insightful is his perspective on time. Jordan won his first world gold medal 10 years ago, and his most recent gold medal yesterday. To be that consistent over 10 years in a sport as demanding as freestyle wrestling is remarkable. Moreover, this level of consistency would be impossible without a sustainable pace.
Extreme Hard Work Doesn’t Make “Anything Possible”
The takeaway is that Jordan Burroughs doesn’t credit his success to pushing himself to the limit every single day, month after month, year after year. Indeed, he could have one 1 or 2 gold medals with that pace, but then he would have burned out. 1 or 2 gold medals would have made him great, but not potentially the GOAT.
On the other hand, 6 world gold medals puts him in the GOAT conversation. You don’t get that far without using balance, rest, and recovery as the fuel for the extreme amount of hard work it takes to win year after year.
Therefore, pursuing lifelong success requires either one of two approaches. Either 1) you can look at it like a marathon or 2) you can look at it like a series of sprints.
Marathon or Sprint, But Not Both
The marathon approach is taking the slow and steady growth curve. It’s pacing progress and putting the most emphasis on maintaining motivation and energy for the long haul. The series of sprints approach is one that focuses on extreme effort, with ample rest and recovery. Each sprint requires extreme preparation, but this extreme preparation is part of an overall cyclical process of changing focus between growth and development to rest and recovery.
In a sport like freestyle wrestling, Burroughs maintains focus using the series of sprints approach. Every four years there is an Olympic cycle and in between, cycles of world championships. Most seasonal sports require this approach. In life outside of sports, such as in being a parent, entrepreneur or executive, the marathon approach is more appropriate.
Unquestionably, long term success requires one of these approaches, but long-term failure happens when you try to combine these approaches. With practice, you can prepare to sprint a mile, but no amount of practice can prepare you to sprint a marathon. Toeing the line trying to do both is unquestionably a critical mistake that will sabotage long-term success.