Great article this morning in WSJ about the US running program vs. the African approach.

Basically the African runners, who have been winning bucket-loads more events than anyone else, not just over the US runners, enjoy the race and don’t get caught up in the endless pursuit of trying to find what works and what doesn’t. They know the objective of any race is to win, and they seem to be doing that pretty effectively.

While they learn from the process, they don’t let the search for the ideal training conditions rob them of their passion to run, nor hinder them from doing what they set out to do. They especially don’t let the quest to run faster prevent them from doing the one thing that will probably guarantee them of greater results – tough, focused, training and racing.

It made me think of the financial services industry and building a business. Advisers can spend more time trying to find the allusive ‘magic bullet’ in order to minimize the amount of work needed to be done to ensure success, instead of learning how to enjoy doing the work, and doing it! There’s a fine line between wise problem-solving and simple work avoidance under the guise of continual efficiency-hunting.

True, you want to ensure you’re doing the right stuff, but you also actually need to do the stuff and try and perfect it first. Only then will you really know what works best for you and what doesn’t.

People are too much about work minimization than practice, practice, practice. While you don’t want to practice mistakes, you do need to spend time repeating over and over and over again, the activities that will ultimately lead you to achieving great results.

Happy Hunting.