When to stick with what works vs trying something new
Elite sports performers know when to explore vs exploit. It matters for your career too.
Elite marathon runners face a choice every race. Stick with the proven pacing strategy that got them here, or risk everything testing a new approach that might unlock a breakthrough.
Most choose safety. They exploit what works.
But the champions? They keep exploring, even when the stakes are highest.
Alex Hutchinson, who's spent years studying the science of human performance, explains why this matters far beyond athletics. Elite athletes understand something most professionals miss: your biggest limitation isn't physical - it's psychological.
And this protective instinct starts early in life.
The brain that protects you
Alex's research reveals something counterintuitive about human limits. When athletes "hit the wall," their bodies aren't actually failing.
"The wall isn't your body quitting. It's your brain pulling the plug early, acting as a protective governor."
Your brain constantly monitors threats and pulls you back from the edge long before you reach your actual limits. This central governor keeps you alive - but it also keeps you safe.
The same thing happens in careers.
Most of us hit our own central governor around 35-40. Mortgage, kids, proven expertise. The brain says: "Stop exploring."
For decades, this made sense. Master a skill, climb the ladder, retire with a pension. The central governor was protecting a reliable path.
Not anymore.
When the rules change mid-race
I've had hundreds of conversations with leaders over the past few years, and I keep hearing the same frustration. Smart, accomplished people feeling stuck between what got them here and what might get them there.
They switched to exploitation mode at exactly the wrong time.
AI promises to rewrite the rules faster than most can adapt. The expertise they've spent years building? Increasingly automated. The career paths they were following? Many no longer leading anywhere.
Meanwhile, companies are making the same mistake.
Instead of exploring new business models, new ways of working, they're optimising the old ones. More productivity tools, more efficiency metrics, more ways to squeeze ‘performance’.
When the rules keep changing, exploration becomes more valuable than exploitation.
Researchers call this "restless bandits".
Imagine you're in a casino where each slot machine pays out differently, but you don't know which ones are best. Normally, once you find a good machine, you'd stick with it. But imagine if the payout rates kept changing throughout the night. The machine that was hot an hour ago might now be terrible.
In that environment, you need to keep testing different machines rather than exploiting the one that used to work.
What athletes know about uncertainty
Same holds for sport. The best performers don't just tolerate uncertainty - they train for it.
And pain tolerance isn't fixed. Athletes can expand their limits through systematic exposure to discomfort. They test the edges of what's possible, then capitalise on those discoveries.
"Optimism in the face of uncertainty" is how mathematicians describe the optimal strategy. Don't pick the safe choice. Pick the choice with the highest realistic upside, even if the probability is lower.
Take Jackson Pollock.
In the early 1940s, his paintings looked like they were done by five different people. Total exploration - trying everything, mastering nothing. Then in 1946, he discovered drip painting. Suddenly, pure exploitation. Every painting used the same technique, refined and perfected.
The breakthrough came from exploration. The success came from exploitation.
Most professionals never give themselves permission for this testing phase. They jump straight to optimisation and wonder why they plateau.
The exploration paradox
The problem with exploration is that it feels like failure while you're doing it.
When I first started my podcast in 2020, I called it Take My Advice (I'm Not Using It). I was fascinated by this paradox - we give brilliant advice to others but struggle to follow our own. I could help a friend see their career clearly while being completely blind to my own next steps.
Years later, I literally spend my time helping leaders create clarity and momentum. And guess what I struggle with most in my own work?
Clarity and momentum.
It's the central governor in action - the same psychological barrier that stops athletes from pushing their limits also stops us from seeing what's obvious from the outside.
The irony?
Most leaders understand this intellectually but struggle to apply it. They'll fund R&D for products but not for careers. They'll experiment with new technologies but not new ways of working.
Building systematic exploration
Exploration isn't chaos. It's systematic experimentation with a clear framework.
Treat it like athletic training.
For individuals, start with small experiments - 20% of your time testing something outside your expertise. Build tolerance for uncertainty gradually.
For teams, create space for one genuine experiment per week. Not busywork disguised as innovation, but real tests of new approaches. Share learnings, not just successes.
For organisations, treat market changes like those "restless bandits" - when the environment shifts rapidly, increase exploration investment.
The switching strategy matters too.
Early career? Test widely. Find what energises you, what you're naturally good at, what the world values.
Mid-career? Go deep on those discoveries. Build expertise, extract value.
Later career? Test again. The world has changed, and your interests may have too.
The mistake is staying in one mode too long.
Pure exploration becomes exhausting.
Pure optimisation risks irrelevance.
Especially right now, AI is forcing most professionals back into testing mode whether they like it or not.
The choice
Elite marathon runners understand something most professionals miss: your biggest limitation isn't what you know - it's what your brain won't let you risk.
That voice whispering that exploration is too risky, that you should stick with what works, that other people are better positioned to take chances? That's your protective governor talking.
But Alex’s research suggests the wall you think you've hit probably isn't your actual limit.
Champions keep experimenting with new approaches at their peak because they understand that what got you here probably won't get you there.
The breakthrough is usually just past where your brain wants you to stop.
And the bonus? Well, as Alex explains:
“There's some really interesting evidence on something called the ‘effort paradox’, which is that there are some things we value, not in spite of the fact that they're hard, but because they're hard. Like, running a marathon, climbing a mountain, buying furniture from Ikea. People find uncertain challenges like that the most meaningful in their lives.”
So, what experiment could you start this week that your inner governor definitely wouldn't approve of?