The Unspoken Skill: Recovering Fast

Everyone talks about resilience. It’s become one of those buzzwords you hear in leadership,

sport, and life. But resilience is only half the story.

What really separates the good from the great isn’t just how much you can endure - it’s how

quickly you can recover. I’ve seen this everywhere:

• On the track when an athlete has a shocker of a race but lines up the next day with no baggage.

• At work when a leader makes the wrong call in a project, owns it, and shifts gears

  without losing momentum.

• Even at home when things feel heavy, but you reset and show up for your family

  anyway.
  

Recovery speed is underrated because it looks quiet from the outside. But it’s the ultimate

performance multiplier. The faster you bounce back, the more chances you give yourself to

win.

When I ran the 800m at my peak, I learned this the hard way. A bad race can wreck you if

you let it - you replay every mistake, second-guess your training, and tighten up in the next

one. The athletes who moved on quickly, who backed themselves regardless, were the ones

standing on podiums.

It’s the same in the office. You don’t get to control every decision, project, or stakeholder.

Sometimes things fall flat. The difference is whether you let that failure live rent-free in your

head, or you recover, adjust, and get back to delivering.

So how do you actually speed up recovery?

Name it fast. Call the mistake, the miss, or the fatigue for what it is. Don’t waste energy

pretending it’s not there.

Extract the learning. Ask yourself: What’s the one thing I can take from this? That’s it. Don’t

overcomplicate.

Reset your state. For me, that’s running or training. For you it might be journaling, a walk, or

a quick call with someone who grounds you.

Step back in. The faster you re-engage, the less weight the setback holds.

Resilience gets you through the storm. But recovery speed gets you back in the fight —

sharper, lighter, and ready to perform again.

The leaders, athletes, and parents who master this? They don’t just endure. They grow, and they win more often.