Growth At The Intersection Of Challenge And Capacity

I was at an event last week and I got to hear Dr. Gabrielle Lyon speak, which is a treat because we’ve been connected for years but never met in person. Plus we’ve got some exciting collaborations in the works.

During her speech she taught an exceptional framework, and I want to forward the lesson along to you. It’s specifically for people like us who desire massive growth in our lives. And it explains why we need to take a strategic approach to it or else we’ll give up, get bored, or overextend ourselves.

In this framework, Dr. Gabrielle focuses on two interwoven elements: Challenge and capacity. ‘Challenge’ is about how difficult something is, and ‘capacity’ corresponds with our energetic ability to meet the challenge.

From those elements, we’ll create a quadrant with ‘Challenge’ and ‘Capacity’ as the axes:

When you have low challenge and low capacity, that’s ‘stagnation’. You aren’t really doing anything that disrupts your current flow, and you don’t really have the energy to do anything about it. It’s a feeling of being stuck.

Next, when you have low challenge but high capacity, that’s ‘recovery’. It’s when you have more to offer than you’re currently giving, and sitting in that state serves to rejuvenate and reignite desire.

Then flip the factors, when you have high challenge but low capacity, that’s ‘breakdown’. It’s when you can’t keep up with the demands of life. This is a main cause for stress, burnout, and just trying to survive the day because life is asking a lot from you, and you have to muster up everything you can inside you to address it. 

And last, when you have high challenge and high capacity, that’s ‘growth’. When you need to step up beyond what’s casually comfortable and you do, because you can. It’s an opportunity for you to establish a new baseline for yourself, one that’s slightly more productive, intentional, and results-generating than it used to be.

Personally, this is really validating because for the last 6 months I’ve been in the Growth zone. I’ve committed to playing a bigger game and being more aggressive with my business development, implementation, and movement building. 

The way I’ve been describing it is “I’ve sped up my pace. Not for a short sprint, but to see if I’m actually capable of holding it. To see if this is how fast I can actually go for the long-term.”

And to that point, I’ve learned a lot about myself. And I feel I’ve unlocked my next level!

‍