Reignite Your Passion for Work
By Adam Kreek
Adam Kreek is a two-time
Olympian with 60 international
medals in the sport of rowing,
including Olympic gold, and
multiple hall of fame inductions. As
the founder of KreekSpeak
Business Solutions in Victoria,
Adam works as a management
consultant, executive coach, and
presenter, drawing on his
experiences as an elite athlete to
share strategies for leadership and
peak performance. In this article,
he explains how adopting an
Olympic mindset can help you
discover (or rediscover) your
purpose. To learn more, be sure to
catch Adam’s keynote speech at
CPABC’s 2018 Fall Pacific Summit
in Victoria.
30 CPABC in Focus • July/August 2018
D
oes your job sometimes feel meaningless? Have you ever wondered why you’re doing
it? I’ve faced the same challenge, both as an Olympic rower and as a management
consultant and keynote presenter. In each case, early success led to a crisis of purpose
fuelled by the realization that bigger success would take exponentially more work and commitment.
As I anticipated the mountains of effort required and the uncertain outcomes, my drive evaporated.
What brought back my mojo? Reframing my focus on the perfection of a practice. In essence,
I learned to fall in love with practice. I relearned to love the small gains—the process of making
tweaks, inching forward, and seeing marginal results. I became fascinated by the mystery of
the mind, and how it could react differently to the same experience depending on the day. And
eventually, this practice-based focus reignited my passion for work.
For an Olympic rower practice entails a lot of repetition. You put your blade in the water as
gently and quickly as possible. You lock onto a mound of water at the water’s surface and you
accelerate the blade as smoothly, quickly, and powerfully as possible. You cleanly and firmly
extract the blade from the water to glide up the slide, efficiently maintaining the momentum
on the hull of the boat without check. And then you repeat this sequence over and over and
over. And over.
For my first 13 years in the sport, I constantly thought about quitting. It was too hard. It was
too boring. Was this really what I wanted to do? Wasn’t there something more important I
should be doing with my life? I felt I was so much more than an athlete. I was a musician, a
mathematician, a teacher, a builder, a mechanic, a carpenter, an outdoorsman, a geologist, a
reader, an author…. I had a hard time accepting that rowing was my life’s purpose.
We often hear that purpose comes from following our passion, but how can we follow our
passion if we’re not even sure what it is? Many think passion is akin to euphoria, but its closest
relative is actually patience. It’s not about feeling good—it’s about persistence. Your life’s work
is to discover your work and then give your whole heart to it.