Human behaviour often leads us to think that the grass is greener somewhere else. We are always as another favourite author of mine, Nicholas Nassim Taleb writes, suffering from the “treadmill” effect. We always want more, we always think that we can get a better deal. As Ariely’s experiment proved, our in built human behaviour means we often decide irrationally that there must be something better and so we hop, from one thing to the next, looking for that pot of gold, when in fact often that pot of gold could be right where we currently are.
I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t strive for better. What I believe the above examples show is for us to be conscious of our, at times, irrational behaviour and to stay focused on what we have currently that is generating a return. Let me give an example for the IronExec. You are currently running a lifting program, could be anything, 5 3 1, Smolov, 5 x 5, whatever……. And you are advancing and getting stronger. The worst thing you can do is to think that another program will deliver more for you right when you are in the midst of improving on the program you are on currently.
Another example for the IronExec. Your strategy you have rolled out to the business is returning growth for your business. You recently attended a seminar and someone was spruiking the value of this “latest and greatest” strategy which led to “exponential growth for company XYZ”. The 3 door effect often means that you get back to work and the next day you hail this new greatest strategy and spend the rest of your time trying to convince the business that whilst the existing strategy is returning strong growth for the company that it should all be changed for this new strategy.
Let’s be very clear. You should always be looking to improve what you have and keep a close eye on latest trends and results. However do not let the “noise” of daily updates on this lifter’s progress or that companies latest sales figures mean you are constantly chasing something new to the detriment of what is currently working. All the greatest strength athletes have built their world class strength from being consistent. They lift in a periodised fashion. They use the overload principle. They have built up the volume they can handle over time, consistently and methodically. They haven’t continuously program hopped or tried the latest fad every time one came past their door.
The IronExec is smart. They stay focused on what they have. They are content to do their thing and not be distracted by the noise. If it is in the boardroom or the squat rack, they believe in what they do and they attack what they have with all their energy to eek every last ounce of growth and improvement from it.