Seeing that kind of focus takes me back to the time when I was a competitive swimmer myself. I never made it near the Olympics, but those years in the pool left a mark on how I think about growth. Of course, hard work is essential, and athletes dedicate endless hours to their sport. But pure effort is not the only thing that matters.
Working as a full-time employee already takes up a lot of time, so you are likely already putting in the hours. The reality is that no athlete would be where they are today without following a specific set of strategies, and you can use these in your corporate career as well.
In the corporate world, (ex-)athletes are often seen as desirable candidates. They have the discipline, the drive, and they know how to do hard things even when the morning coffee has not kicked in yet. But athletes also understand something many tech pros forget: improvement rarely happens alone.
Even in individual sports, you are always part of a team. At swim meets, I was alone in my lane, but I knew my coach and my training mates were at the pool, watching and rooting for me. We spent countless hours together in the water and the gym. I would not call it trauma bonding exactly, but that kind of shared effort (or suffering) creates a feeling that a win for one is a win for all.
In professional life, however, the scoreboard is much less clear than in sports. Targets are vague, feedback is inconsistent, and the traditional career ladder has been replaced by a non-linear jungle gym, especially with AI reshaping our roles every six months.
If you want to take your growth seriously without burning out, here are five lessons I spent years learning the hard way. (Over the upcoming weeks, I will be posting a deep dive for each of these points).
1. Assemble Your Training Squad
Athletes do not improve in isolation, and neither should you. As mentioned, there is always a group of people training alongside you. In your career, you should build your own version of this: a group of peers who are working on similar challenges. These people act as your support system and your accountability partners and you are expected to do the same for them. Think of it as a personal board of directors where you can be honest about your hurdles and push each other to stay on track. Including people from other organizations can be particularly helpful for maintaining an outside perspective.
2. Find a Trainer (A Mentor, Coach, or Advocate)
In sports, having a coach is normal. In careers, people often wait for mentorship to "just happen." A good trainer helps you see the patterns you are too close to notice. Whether it is a senior peer or a former manager, you need someone who cares about your progress and helps you stay objective about where your technique needs work.
3. Track Progress Like an Athlete
In swimming, everything was documented, even when we were "just training": split times, heart rates, lactate levels (IYKYK),... In professional life, we often assume our work "speaks for itself." Spoiler alert… It does not. Managers are busy. They are usually not ignoring your wins maliciously, they are simply human. Tracking your own impact is a massive career advantage that makes performance reviews or salary negotiations much easier.
4. Set Goals
Athletes always train for a specific date or milestone. If you know what your professional journey should look like for the next 20 years, great! Break it down into smaller steps so that the road ahead doesn't feel too overwhelming. If for you, like most people, this isn't crystal clear yet, focus on short term (90-day) goals and view them as experiments. These create momentum and give you real data on what you actually enjoy doing. If an experiment fails, you have not lost years, you have just gained a data point.
5. Build Resilience
Failure is not an exception in sports, it is part of the process. Losing races, getting injured, or just having a bad day when it counts. It happens all the time! As the saying goes, "until death, all defeat is psychological." It is a strong statement, but the mindset is useful. Setbacks hurt, but they do not define you. If you can stay curious and keep moving, you will get much further than if you get stuck in analysis paralysis.
The Deep Dive Series
As mentioned, this is just the starting point. Over the next few weeks, detailed, practical deep-dives for each of the lessons mentioned above will be published.
If you would like to get notified when these are posted, or if you want to be the first to know about the platform we are building:
About Orintis
We touched on the importance of tracking your progress like an athlete in lesson three. While you can certainly manage this in a spreadsheet or a notes app, we are building Orintis to take the friction out of the process. Our platform is designed to help you capture your daily wins and automatically transform them into persuasive assets for your next performance review or salary negotiation. If you want to spend less time on career admin and more time on growth, join the waitlist to get early access to what we are building!