It’s much easier to make slight adjustments in your thinking and behaviors than it is to work on fixing the root cause of the problem or issue you are facing. In fact, small corrections are short term and just the lazy way out.

I saw an example of this during a recent round of golf. When someone started to slice the ball causing it to wildly curve into the trees, it was suggested they line up differently when hitting the ball to compensate for the direction of the ball flight. This advice could not be more wrong. The answer to the problem is to fix the swing to stop slicing the ball. Adjusting your stance means the problem is still there.

It’s much harder work to first identify what’s really wrong and then put the effort in to make it right for the long term. Don’t mask the real problem, just care enough to get rid of it.