370 - The Mid-Year Shake-Up: The Power of a New Challenge
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Welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast!
On this episode, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon introduces the Purple Patch Marathon Special Program, offering personalized coaching for $99/month with a 25% discount for new subscribers. He also promotes the Win Cycle leadership program, designed to enhance team performance and adaptability. Dixon emphasizes the benefits of taking on challenges mid-year, whether in sports or professional life, to foster growth, resilience, and high performance. He encourages triathletes to diversify their training and busy professionals to adopt new, demanding goals. Dixon highlights the importance of stepping out of comfort zones to build capacity and improve overall performance.
If you have any questions about the Purple Patch program, feel free to reach out at info@purplepatchfitness.com.
Episode Timecodes:
00-2:09 Promo
2:38-4:43 Intro
4:50-9:07 Why this matters
9:10-12:20 What’s in it for you
12:22-17:05 Choosing the right challenge
17:10-22:23 Trathletes Segment
22:23-28:07 Why it works
28:07-end Leadership Connection
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Transcription
Matt Dixon 00:00
After listening to today's show, you might be thinking about taking on a half marathon or marathon, particularly this fall. Well, I've got exciting news for you, because we've just launched the purple patch marathon special program. It is a perfect upgrade for any runner who's chasing a smarter, faster and healthier marathon. You're going to get personalized coaching layered on top of the proven run squad training, you get plenty of live education, specific race strategy support, even some online or on site coaching at some events. All of this is just $99 a month, and your first month, we're going to give you 25% off if you want to fuel your marathon with the purple patch methodology that's been so successful over the years. Feel free to check out the link in the show notes. Of course, you can also reach out to us for a complimentary needs assessment. All you need to do is email info@purplepatchfitness.com Why don't we make this your best marathon yet? And while listening, if you are tuning into the show as a business leader, I want to highlight win cycle for you. You see, if you're looking to unlock more from your team without burning them out, why don't we talk win cycle is our leadership performance program. It is built from decades of coaching elite, world class athletes and applying to great success with a lot of corporate teams all over the world. We help organizations build stamina, adaptability and consistent, predictable, high performance, not just at the top, but throughout their teams. It's not theory, it's applied proven experiential work that is rooted in the same principles that powered our world class athletes for years. If you're a leader who wants to drive better results, who wants to invest in your team, not just for their personal wellbeing, but also for better results and strengthen and ignite a high performance culture, well, let's connect. Reach out for a complimentary needs assessment to the same address info@purplepatchfitness.com We ready. We'll understand your challenges, and our superpower is customization. We will build something just for you. All right. Enjoy the show. I'm Matt Dixon, and welcome to the purple patch podcast. The mission of purple patch is to empower and educate every human being to reach their athletic potential. Through the lens of athletic potential. You reach your human potential. The purpose of this podcast is to help time-starved people everywhere integrate sport into life.
Matt Dixon 02:38
And welcome to the purple patch podcast as ever. Your host, Matt Dixon, this is the show where we help high performers show up with consistency, perform under pressure and thrive through the inevitable change that they face. This could be athletes. This could be leaders in business. Could even be high performing teams in organization, and today's episode is a chance to broaden our perspective a little bit. We're going to go outside of just the pure triathlon talk that we so often do, and we're going to discuss performance at large while as well. Not forgetting my triathlon friends, it's all about a simple word, something that should make your heart sing, because it's around challenge and more specifically, why now in the middle of the year might be the perfect time to take on something new, perhaps a little scary, and certainly physically demanding. As we head into the back half of the year, if you're a triathlete, it's going to be a call to action to think about mixing things up. And if you're not a triathlete, well, I'm going to invite you to take on a challenge to get more out of yourself. So maybe you're an athlete, you're listening here, and you've got a little too comfortable in the same old routine. Maybe you've never touched gravel or Ultra Trail racing even higher rocks. Or you might be listening as a time-starved executive who's sitting there juggling family teams and high stake decisions, either way, this one today is for you. It's around the midpoint of the year, and for many people, it might be time for change, and that change is a shift into a big challenge mindset for the back half of the year. Don't worry, we're going to help you every step of the way. We are going to walk through why taking on such a challenge is an important decision that you're going to make in the midpoint of the year, what you're going to get out of it? Energy, control, growth, leadership, influence for your busy executives, and how you pick a challenge that's suitable for your life really mixes things up in a positive way. It is all in today's ladies and gentlemen, meat and potatoes.
Matt Dixon 04:51
Yes, folks, the meat and potatoes, let's be honest, things are really busy. I'm sure that you've got plenty of competing demands. I'm sure that sometimes that life can maybe feel a little bit too much, in a way, with all of the responsibilities, all of the change that most of us face. And you're likely tuning into this show, at least in part, because you're hoping to find a recipe that unlocks your performance, greater energy, better focus, develop a sense of momentum, whether you're in the sport of triathlon or you're in the yet to be a triathlete camp, no matter what you're listening because you want more out of life. High performance. The common approach for so many people to try and unlock better energy or to gain capacity is to ultimately reduce demands. What can I remove from my life so that I just have more time back? Certainly, it's a big reason why so many people are afraid to take on a big challenge. I'm already busy enough. I can't imagine dumping XYZ on top of this life already. And so people find ways to try and do less, to avoid too much discomfort, to find that what's that thing called? That's right, the mythical balance that so many people preach about, surely, if you reduce load in your life, you're going to get more back. You're going to get capacity. But here's a paradox here growth and improving, increasing your capacity doesn't actually come from seeking ease or lower stress. It actually emerges when you intentionally, with focus, step into discomfort, to commit, get out of your comfort zone and take on a big challenge. Sometimes this is doing something new. Sometimes it's shifting from what you're currently doing and going in a different, perhaps parallel, direction. Or it might be having the courage to lean into a real personal challenge, despite all those existing demands, they're not going away, ladies and gentlemen. And I think there's something that's important for us to remember, as we talk about this today, the unique experience that I had of a parallel journey, one in which I was wholly dedicated to try and create world champions and elite Iron Man champions at the professional end of the triathlon sport, while in parallel, helping C suite executives improve their performance under pressure, build strategies for long term performance. You see in this parallel journey was really the source of one of my greatest coaching epiphanies. I saw how the challenges that these high performers faced in business, in sport, were strikingly similar. They had to both show up their best every single day. They both had to manage huge competing demands. They operated in a high pressure environment, and yet they needed to step up when the occasion called for it on demand, and over the course of their journey, everybody, all these high performers, had to navigate change challenges. In other words, they need to be really resilient, have a certain amount of grit, be highly adaptable to a changing environment. And most important, there's no shortcut to success. Both of these required groups require stamina for their journey. Now the same traits play out in both of these groups. The pressure was constant, time was scarce, performance non negotiable, and the very best performers that I got to coach the ones that really unlocked effectiveness, they train themselves to adapt, to stay calm under pressure, to evolve constantly. It didn't come from a manual. It came from a single word challenge. So as you sit here today, I ask you, what's in it for you? Why should you listen to the call? Why should you consider stepping out of your comfort zone, adding more into your life, taking on a huge challenge? What do you get out of that? Think like an investor. What do you actually get as your ROI from doing something so crazy that you may be shy to tell even your best friends about it. Well, here's what you get, number one, and this is a promise. You get growth. You get to expand your capacity, both mentally and physically, that emerges from Very simply put, doing hard things you get to invest in your energy and your health, consistently training at the appropriate level and adopting really simple habits is going to magnify your sleep quality. It's going to make you a more effective. Stress Management machine. It's going to bolster and build up a stronger immune system. It's going to keep you in the game with enhanced cognitive function. What that leads to better focus, better decision making, faster information processing. All of these traits that we understand is very important across any aspect of life. You're also going to be training your brain by taking on a church. It actually rewires it. It ignites traits that are already in you, but you develop them, you hone them. As a gardener, you continue to nurture and build it up, things like resilience, clarity, focus, adaptability. All of these words that you hear are important, but you only get to actually develop them through experience when you are out of your comfort zone,
Matt Dixon 10:50
counterintuitively, taking on challenge also forces structure, a structure and a framework that drives prioritization. You don't have time for it all, so you have to filter out distractions. You're going to start to learn to control the things that you can control, ignore the things that prove to just be distractions. And it also imprints your ability for leadership, influence you see, ultimately, as a leader, if you're listening to this, as a leader, as an organization or a leader of a team. Let me give you the headline news. You set the tone here, and when you start to show up differently, your team starts to shift too. You are a role model. Your actions and behaviors rub off on other people. Now I'm not sitting here today as a triathlon coach telling you you need to become a triathlete, you need to enter an Ironman or anything like that, but I would encourage you at the midway point to do something that requires you to buy in as I might say, something with teeth, yep, and I say that as a British person with the old wonky teeth that we all have, so let's choose options. What's the right challenge for you? Well, we have listeners today that are dedicated triathletes, and you might have some late season races, but right in that run. Now, I want to start to stir the pot a little bit. I want you to think outside of the box, because it might be this year at some point, perhaps after your key race, or maybe you're looking for something a little bit on the back end of the year that's a touch different. It's a great opportunity, if you are listening as a triathlete, to maybe step into a different sport. I would encourage you right now try a high rocks event, or maybe a trail running race, or maybe adopt a mountain bike or a gravel ride race, something that disrupts your routine. Now I'm going to come back to you guys in a moment, but realize that there is real power in stepping off the dedicated triathlon only track and trying something different. We'll come back to you in a few moments, but I do want to add, if you think about this, as a triathlete, I just threw the bomb in your regular recipe of triathlon training. It's important that, as a triathlete, if you have long term goals in the sport, that you mix it up by doing something that still equips you to leverage your multi sport approach. So it's a parallel shift where the power is while retaining a lot of the backbone of your training. But I'm going to come back to you in a few moments. What about for busy professionals? What's the right challenge if you don't identify as a triathlete? Well, I would encourage you to think about right now, developing a challenge that might feel slightly ridiculous for where your starting line is right now, and that's different for every person. If you're relatively consistent with exercise right now, maybe you go to the gym a couple of times a week. You perhaps play tennis or basketball, or you go for a walk most evenings after work, that's great, but maybe it's time to do something more structured, signing up for something crazy that's a little scary, like a half marathon or even a short course triathlon. There I said it. Or you do something outside that has a reward in the actual destination itself. You decide to go and climb a huge mountain, Kilimanjaro, or something more local or regional to you, or you'd commit with a buddy to a multi day hike where it really stretches your limits. Can I actually do that back to back days? Or perhaps you double down your focus on strength training, a 90 day strength project, driving the wagons, focusing on getting strong like bull or, as I might say to my son, daddy, puff. Puff, build the platform, maybe even have that culminate in some form of event, whether it's high rocks, whether it's a CrossFit, whatever it. Might be do something that's out of the box, that's a little bit of a challenge, or something more understandable, accessible and less structured, is perhaps you're going to lay down a goal for the next 100 Days. You're going to accumulate more than 10,000 steps a day. You track it, you get support, you develop a baseline that might open up in 2026 next year, to do something a little bit more challenging. The key is, whatever it is, it can be very personable, but it needs to ensure that it takes you out of your comfort zone, so much so that you even hesitate to tell people that you're doing it. That's the sweet spot. That's when you know that it's got the teeth. We're back to my British teeth again, aren't we, but that's it. It wants to grip you, it wants to elicit a little bit of fear. You want to look in the mirror and think, Am I crazy? Can I really do this? And so for me, with a robust background in endurance sports, it wouldn't be a 5k because I know I can go and do that tomorrow, it'll be painful because I probably push too hard and I be sore the next day, but it doesn't represent any sort of challenge. But if I said with my background and resilience, I'm going to go and do a 50k if I want to be successful there, I know that I need to be committed. I know that I need to learn something about a new sport. I know that I'm taking a step into a little bit of the unknown, and that's where the power lies. You get out of your comfort zone. So let's come back to our triathletes. Though, I suggested that maybe if you're a triathlete where you're training for half Ironman races, Ironman races that you consider either right now, if you don't have any dedicated events coming up or after the end of your key race of the year. You might decide to do something different. I want to speak directly to you for a moment here. If you're committed, you've built the fitness you've built the routines, you've built all your race calendars. You might even have Kona aspirations. You might want to qualify a podium. So you might ask, as I say, Hey, do something different. Turn your back on triathlon, not completely, but turn your back. Do a little parallel. Shift into this. You might think, Well, hang on. Next year, I want to do an Iron Man. I want to try and qualify. Why would I shift gears now? Why would I take on something completely different? Here's why it might be valuable for you. It's a long, long journey developing as an endurance athlete. And this does several things that can really kick start an athlete jump in progression. The first is it's very simple. It mixes up the stimulus. It's really good. Your body and your mind has to adapt. It adapts to repetitive patterns, same sport, same zones, same mindset. But if you mix it up, it creates a different stimulus, introducing new movement patterns, new demands, new environments. It wakes up the system. Think trail running in this gravel racing, strength challenges, even High Rocks. You're going to engage neglected muscles. You're going to sharpen focus. You can even improve your durability. Also, if you change the input, you might unlock a different kind of adaptation. It opens up learning and perspective. When you're new at something, you tend to listen better. You tend to learn. You observe. You get curious. Curious again. You reconnect of what that feeling is like to be a beginner, and that humility sharpens your awareness in your main sport now. It deepens your appreciation as well. You might actually take a step back and think, goodness me, I got well out of my comfort zone here, but I'm actually pretty good at this main sport that I really love, which is triathlon
Matt Dixon 19:08
and curiosity and humility. These are great accelerators of performance. They're really good for people to do. So if you have the opportunity mix it up, it's okay. The third element for doing it. What you get out of it is a little bit of fear. A little bit of fear is good. That feeling of nervousness. It's gold. It means you care. We talked about getting off the hamster wheel. This how you do it, break the autopilot loop. It's powerful. The fear of being slow, clumsy, out of your depth, that's where the juice is. That's where the growth lifts. It's not a stop sign, it's a signal that you're just about to evolve. So mixing it up can empower you, and you bring it up again. And then, of course, something that many of you guys have read in a very popular book, it's going to increase your range, your mental and physical range. They brought. Broaden your physical resilience. They they ignite different energy systems, different stresses, and they expand how you think about stuff, how you stay composed when things don't go to plan. Because I tell you, in something new, it never goes to plan. And ultimately, for some of us, it's a great catalyst to reignite joy and passion. Let's face it, sometimes training becomes a little transactional, predictable, and that can lead to joylessness, and so mix it up. Bring the play back into it. But here's a key thing here. What I'm not suggesting here is that you're going to abandon triathlon. You're not even going to take a detour on your triathlon journey. You're investing in long term performance freshness. I want you to become a better triathlete than before, and so if you're a triathlete ready to level up, that's great, but if you want to mix it up in the long term, sometimes deciding to do a marathon with a multi sport approach, integrating High Rocks while retaining some multi sport training, deciding to do gravel racing or mountain bike racing mixes it up and brings a challenge, but you don't give up on your running and swimming. And so this is a parallel mix up in the journey that broadens your perspective of what it brings. And every single time we've had people do this, they come back to triathlon refreshed, invigorated, passionate, and ultimately better. And so a little pause 15 seconds here. If you're investing in long term performance, you're a triathlete that wants to mix it up, and you need help. Reach out to us. We are here to help you and be your guide on this, whether it's a part of the triathlon squad program or, of course, one to one coaching. Just set up a complimentary needs assessment with us. Info@purplepatchfitness.com we'll have a chat. We'll understand your situation, we'll give you some complimentary guidance. And if we're a fit, well, we'll even welcome you to the team. Alrighty, back on the show, there's my little segment for the triathletes here. Now I want to dig into the science on this a little bit, because I'm suggesting in the show two things, number one, if you're a triathlete, mix it up a little bit, try something different in the back half of the year or after your key race of the year. The second thing I'm suggesting is, if you're not a triathlete, take on a challenge. Get out of the comfort zone. Let's talk about the science behind that part. This is really important because it's very, very difficult for, let's say, general population folks that are already busy with family, potentially, obviously, all of the demands of work for me to say, dump it on top of life, and it's going to unlock things for you that's hard to wrap your head around until you've experienced it. But it's not just my opinions. This isn't theory. And when we're talking about here, let's think about performance science a little bit stress. It's a word that most people associate with something being harmful, and we do understand that stress can accumulate from all different factors in life, whether it's self stress, travel, stress, lack of sleep, demands that come from your family, from your friends, from of course, work, etc, you can even even amplify stress From a lack of sleep or poor nutrition, training is a stress and it is accumulative. Demands are high. We are living in a world where demands and stress is high, but if you want agency to manage it, where you can convert stress into pressure, where you've got agency to actually meet the pressure and leverage it. You need capacity. You need capacity, or it's going to break you. Stress will become accumulative, and you will become maladaptive, and you will be performing at a lower level. If you want sustained high performance, if you want to be a high performer, the best route for you to develop capacity is taking on big challenges. It helps you drive productivity, effectiveness and tools you up for stamina for the journey. It isn't about adding more into a busy play. It is a system to drive capacity and better performance predictability when you train in a high pressure environment, when you step into those challenges that we've talked about, you develop something that psychologists label stress inoculation. In other words, you are training your body and mind to be better served to manage high demands, your challenge is your training to perform under pressure, and that's both physical capacity and mindset. Who doesn't benefit from that, who doesn't want to perform better under pressure, and research supports the. It's not just my perspective. Dr Alia Crum, Stanford University, a massive body of work on relationship of high stress, how we think about it actually determines how our body responds to these pressures. Challenge, reframed as growth becomes the fuel it equips you to be battle ready for whatever is important to you. In fact, I would say the additive component of you taking on whatever the challenge is appropriate for you. In the back half of this year, 10,000 steps, over 100 days, 90 days, strength challenge, a 5k a half marathon, a marathon, a big, multi day hike, climbing up a mountain, whatever it might be is the crucible. It is the lowest risk simulator where you practice, you train resilience, physical and mental. You derive habits that enhance capacity. You stretch your identity in many ways. You rediscover what you're made of. And guess what you're made of? Pretty, pretty thick fabric. You're strong like a bull, and that builds confidence, readiness, better daily performance. Science backs this, but we see it every single day. It doesn't and it cannot occur by listening to podcasts, reading books. It doesn't matter what books you read on resilience, adaptability. You need to live it. You need to experience it. You need to go on the journey. Your only route is to actually embrace challenge. That's the dull truth of it. You've got to step out of your comfort zone. That's what high performers do. They've worked it out. In fact. Jamie Dimon, have you heard of him? Yeah. He's a pretty famous business leader. He was just interviewed in Forbes magazine, and he got asked the question, what is your greatest piece of advice that you can give to a young CEO, and he said, think and act like an Olympic athlete. That's what we're talking about here. That's what the message is. You don't need to have aspirations to compete in the Olympics, to draw from those practices, to get structured, to build a platform of health, to go through training, to develop all of those traits that are in you that make you battle ready, that fuel your performance readiness. This is the world we live in now. High Performance is not something that's reserved for elite athletes. It is something that fuels great performers in any endeavor in life. And so triathletes, you had your turn. I spoke directly to you. Now it's my opportunity to speak directly to leaders. Look, if you're a leader of a team, I want to highlight you don't inspire your team by you being perfect. That's not how great leadership works. You inspire them by committing to your own growth. That's what people can connect to
Matt Dixon 28:13
and allowing them to see you do it, you see whether you like it or not, your habits, your actions, your commitments. They inform your mindset, your spirit, your actions, of your broader team. It doesn't matter whether you like it or not, you are a role model. I've coached executives who took on massive personal challenges, whether it's marathons, Iron Man races, hikes, whatever it might be, not because they had a whole bunch of time to spare, but they realized that they needed more control, more clarity, and they were hoping to ignite a high performance culture in their organization. And you know what happened with these individuals? Yeah, they were typically successful, but their leadership improved. Their teams got better. Finally, they felt like they were playing offense, not just reacting to everything. And that's no accident, because sustained high performance is no accident. If you want your team to be resilient, to be adaptable, to be coachable, you've got to model it, and then you've got to establish the conditions for the rest of your team to leverage that same power that you've unlocked, and so if you're leading a team, a side note here, our winsight program helps leaders like you and organizations thrive under pressure. Be ready for change. If you want to explore more on our winsight program, it's a lot of fun, it's experiential, it's simple, and most importantly, it's actionable. Just reach out to us info@purplepatchfitness.com or set up a needs assessment. And so to finish the show, whether you're a triathlete looking to mix it up, whether you're a person that doesn't identify as being a triathlete, you. Yeah, but you're ready to step into a challenge. Pick something at the mid point in the year. Don't wait until the end of the year. Calendar it and then tell someone, tell your team. It doesn't need to be flashy, but it does need to stretch you. It does need to require some commitment. It needs to make you uncomfortable. You'll be amazed at how people rally around you, and you know who ignite the best inspiration, not the people that are great at this, the people that are getting out of their comfort zone and taking on a real challenge, who most people would least expect it. You're going to gain so much more than fitness. You're going to build momentum, agency and capacity, and so I'll leave you with this. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. It's the most generous thing you can do for your future self. I always say the nicest thing I can say to you is I wish you great suffering. And if this resonates, I invite you share it with someone else. Maybe share it with your team. Better yet, invite them to go on a journey with you, do something as a team, but let's make sure that we make the back half of our year count. If today's message resonates with you. I invite you to further the conversation. Reach out to us as a leader, as a triathlete, as a runner, if you're just simply someone looking to take on a challenge, we'll set up a complimentary consultation info@purplepatchfitness.com folks, thank you very much. Take on a big challenge. I want to hear all about it, and when we share this on our socials, please, please, please, let us know what is the challenge that you're taking on, because the weight that that does just sharing your challenge can influence others to take on their own personal challenge, and before you know it, we're all just kind of getting a little bit better. Have a great week, guys. Thanks so much for joining and thank you for listening. I hope that you enjoyed the new format. You can never miss an episode by simply subscribing. Head to the purple patch channel of YouTube, and you will find it there and you could subscribe. Of course, I'd like to ask you if you will subscribe. Also Share It With Your Friends, and it's really helpful if you leave a nice, positive review in the comments. Now, any questions that you have let me know, feel free to add a comment, and I will try my best to respond and support you on your performance journey. And in fact, as we commence this video podcast experience, if you have any feedback at all, as mentioned earlier in the show, we would love your help in helping us to improve. Simply email us at info@purplepatchfitness.com, or leave it in the comments of the show at the purple patch page, and we will get you dialed in. We'd love constructive feedback. We are in a growth mindset, as we like to call it and so feel free to share with your friends. But as I said, Let's build this together. Let's make it something special. It's really fun. We're really trying hard to make it a special experience, and we want to welcome you into the purple patch community with that. I hope you have a great week. Stay healthy, have fun, keep smiling, doing whatever you do, take care.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Purple Patch Marathon, personalized coaching, race strategy, leadership performance, high performance culture, athletic potential, triathlon training, challenge mindset, stress management, resilience, adaptability, stamina, growth, high performers.