The Problem with Effort

For much of my life my response to any problem was to try harder. More times than not, more effort works.

At least when the stakes are lower and the games are smaller. When I was a high school distance runner, more effort seemed to always work. When I became a college distance runner. More effort didn't get me the places that it had in the past. Everyone at the college level worked extremely hard.

I retooled my approach to running and training so that I could do more with less vs. just doing more with more.

This would be a great time to tell you that this was the only lesson I needed to learn about this but it wasn't.

I was conditioned to think that the only way through any problem was to try harder.My approach was amazingly consistent.

In transformational work, it's important to look at and evaluate the way we approach things. When you do that, you see all the ways you duct tape issues and maneuver around issues just to avoid dealing with the real problem.

In running, I had bad habits around diet and sleep. I tried everything I could do avoid having better discipline in these areas. Discipline meant less fun and restrictions. Who wants less fun and less freedom? Not this guy.

If you are running into a challenge right now, less revenue, employee issues, or poor personal habits, there's a system you created to avoid dealing with certain things. If it's money, it's your relationship with money. For people, it may be your level of trust with other human beings.

Unless you make a determined shift in a different direction and confront the underlying issues, the same challenges will remain.

For me, I had to re-frame discipline and instead of looking at it as a punishment, I started to recognize the freedom that came from taking care of my body and how much better I felt when I did it. The shift didn't magically occur overnight but over time, my habits got better.

By changing my habits, runs felt easier and faster and recovery was better as well. I also had more success.

What's an area where you are trying harder to solve a problem? How could you approach this problem differently to create a more productive shift for yourself?