It was September 2022. Eliud Kipchoge set a new all-time world record for the marathon in Berlin.
“What many people do not know about one of the fastest marathoners in history is his habit of keeping a detailed diary,” Anne-Laure Le Cunff writes in Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World.
“This diary is not just a log of his physical training,” Anne-Laure notes, “it also includes notes on his mental state, observations about his environment, and reflections on his performance.”
“I document the time, the kilometers, the massage, the exercises, the shoes I’m using, the feeling about those shoes. Everything.” Eliud told Outside magazine.
To be the best in the world requires constant trial and error.
“The trial part of the loop involves taking action with limited information,” Anne-Laure writes. “It requires a willingness to step into the unknown and explore possibilities.
“The error part involves observing the results and making adjustments based on that data,” she explains.
“If we don’t do both, we don’t grow.”
Nassim Taleb observes, “in complex systems—’ones in which we have little visibility of the chains of cause-consequences’—trial and error beats a linear approach designed for a specific target.”
“This iterative model is inspired by nature itself,” Anne-Laure notes. “Nature adapts in response to environmental feedback and evolves through cycles of experimentation.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: Where in my own life am I hesitating to experiment or record my progress, and how might a cycle of trial and error move me forward?
Action: Start a simple diary this week to document not just actions, but also thoughts, moods, and lessons learned from experiments or setbacks.
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