Most executives I know are constantly optimizing their businesses by refining processes, developing talent, and improving systems. But when it comes to their own development, they rely almost entirely on professional experience and the occasional book.
The most effective leaders I've encountered all have something in common: they're training for something outside of work. Not just casually interested in it: actually training with a goal, a timeline, and a plan.
It could be a race, a musical performance, a strength milestone, or fill-in-the-blank with your goal of choice. The specific challenge matters less than the structured pursuit of it.
4 Reasons CEOs Should Train for a Specific, Achievable Goal
Reason #1 – Training Creates Non-Negotiable Structure
When you're preparing for something specific, the training plan doesn't bend to your schedule. The practice session still needs to happen. The work doesn't reschedule itself because you had a late night with clients.
That rigid structure forces you to build your work around your priorities instead of the other way around. Most CEOs operate in a reactive mode far too often. Training for something specific gives you at least one area of life where you're proactive, where you're following a plan you set months ago.
Practical application: Block your training time on your calendar with the same priority as board meetings. Treat it as non-negotiable.
Reason #2 – Challenges Reveal Decision-Making Patterns
Training strips away complexity, leaving you with fundamental questions: Can I keep going? Should I keep going? What happens if I push through this discomfort?
These are the same questions you face when scaling a business or deciding whether to pivot your strategy. The difference is that in training, the feedback is immediate and honest. Whether you're attempting a difficult climb on your bike or working through a complex passage on an instrument, your performance doesn't negotiate. It either responds or it doesn't.
Training teaches you to recognize the difference between productive discomfort and destructive stubbornness. Productive discomfort means you're growing. Destructive stubbornness means you're ignoring clear signals that something isn't working.
Practical application: Pay attention to how you make decisions under stress during training. Do you quit too early or push too long? Those patterns likely mirror how you handle business pressure.
Reason #3 – Training Forces You to Prioritize Recovery
Whether you're training your body or developing a technical skill, the same principle applies: adaptation happens during recovery, not during the training itself. You break down during effort, but you rebuild stronger while you rest.
Business culture glorifies the grind, but neuroscience backs up what athletes and musicians have known for decades: your brain needs recovery to perform at its peak. Strategic thinking, creative problem-solving, and sound judgment all deteriorate without adequate rest.
Practical application: Build recovery into your training plan, then apply the same discipline to your work schedule. Protect one evening per week where you don't check email. Schedule buffer time between major meetings. Track whether your decision quality improves with better recovery habits!
Reason #4 – You Need Something That's Just Yours
Every leader needs a pursuit that exists entirely separate from their professional identity. Training gives you permission to be a beginner again, to struggle with something new, to fail without it affecting your team or your bottom line.
This separation is psychologically crucial. When your entire identity is wrapped up in your company's performance, you make worse decisions. You take criticism personally. You hold on to failing strategies because letting go feels like admitting personal failure.
Having a training goal outside of work creates healthy distance. It reminds you that your business is what you do, not who you are.
Practical application: Choose a training goal in an area where you're not naturally talented. The point isn't to excel—it's to experience the discomfort of being average at something. This reduces the ego attachment that clouds leadership judgment.
What Should I Train For?
Your training goal should be specific, have a deadline, and require consistent effort over time.
Some examples:
Complete a half-marathon or century bike ride
Perform at an open mic night
Complete a challenging hiking trail
Build a piece of furniture
Complete a painting on canvas
Reach conversational fluency in a language
Complete a technical certification
Pick something that scares you a little bit! Something you're not sure you can do. Then build the training plan and start showing up.
The discipline required to stick to a plan through fatigue and doubt is the same discipline that carries you through business uncertainty. Start small if you need to—a 5K race three months from now, a local charity bike ride, handmaking a birthday gift for next year.
What challenges are you training for? Share your goals in the comments below—I'd be interested to hear what other leaders are taking on.