Push Boundaries AND Honor Them

"If you care mostly about optimal performance, you would nap after lunch." 
"If you push hard nonstop, you will not become superhuman. You will burn out." 

Catherine Clifford used those quotes in a recent article she wrote for Entrepreneur Magazine about my talk at the 36/86 conference for entrepreneurs and investors in Nashville Tennessee. She captured succinctly a key message of my executive workshops: 
"The physical necessity of the human body to rest is largely understood and honored in the elite athletics world, but it's categorically undermined in the American corporate world."

I delivered this message at 36/86 in a talk entitled, "The Secret to Optimal Performance." 

Launch Tennessee Executive Director Charlie Brock speaking at the 36/86 conference - an excellent event for entrepreneurs and investors

I got to hang out with Megan Barry, the Mayor of Nashville, TN

In just the past few weeks, I've given presentations on this topic to several groups of CEOs in Canada and the U.S., to employees at Uber, and to the executive team at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). The ensuing discussions were always lively, as people wrestled with the tension between meeting ambitious goals and honoring the importance of resting. 

Selfie with Kevin Cunnigham (CPPIB Managing Director, left) and Mark Wiseman (CPPIB CEO, center)

It's all about pushing boundaries while simultaneously honoring them.

I approached this theme from a different point of view in my short film, "Perceived Limits," which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the recent Cyclismo Classico Film Festival in Boston. While cycling over 7,000 miles with my young children, I found that one of the most beautiful ways to connect with and teach my children is to struggle together. In keeping with this spirit, next month, my 9-year-old daughter and I are going to cycle over 700 miles (and a few steep mountains) from Tokyo to Kyoto and back. Should be hard... and fun.