A small change every day…
Leads to marginal gains across the board…
And creates a world-beater!
There’s a huge misconception that you need to take massive action to create massive success in your life.
People go on strict diets to try and lose weight.
Or work crazy hours and neglect other aspects of their life to grow their business.
Shut themselves away in rooms for days on end to write a book.
And more often than not, they fail in what they’re attempting to achieve.
But the GB Cycling Team took a different approach.
Between 1908 to 2003 the British cycling team had won only one gold medal at the Olympic Games.
They fared even worse in the Tour de France, not winning once in 110 years!
They were worse than the football team I played for.. and believe me, we were bad!
One of the top cycle manufacturers in the world even refused to supply them with bikes, because they thought it would affect their sales if people saw the British team perform so badly on their equipment!
When Dave Brailsford took charge in 2003, his plan was to make small improvements in everything. He was looking to improve every aspect of cycling by only 1%.
His strategy was based on the principle of aggregated marginal gains. In other words, lots of small changes will create massive impact.
And he was right!
By making small adjustments in every piece of equipment, the kit the cyclist wore, training methods, sleep, massage gels used to recover after training, personal hygiene… and much more, the GB Cycling Team made unprecedented progress much faster than anyone could have expected.
In the 2008 Olympics, they won 60% of the gold medals available.
Four years later in London, they did even better breaking 9 Olympic and 7 World records. And Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France, followed by Chris Froome winning it 4 out of the next 5 years.
Their achievements were staggering.
From rock-bottom to world-beaters and record-breakers.
And all achieved by making small changes in every aspect of what they were doing as opposed to looking for major changes in just a few things.
So what does that have to do with you and me?
Is it possible for us to emulate their methods?
The simple answer to that, of course, is, “Yes”.
But we have to get our mindset right.
We have to change our way of thinking from the conventional way of approaching things.
We have to be prepared to stand our ground when people look at us and don’t see big changes or massive success.
We have to stop looking for gains every day because some gains will take much longer.
The thing is, we’re conditioned to think that we have to be taking big steps to be successful.
We’re conditioned to think that unless we’re setting the world on fire with our business, we’re failing.
So stop for a second or two and think about this…
Improving by 1% every day for a whole year would create a return of 37 times what you started with. You’ll be 37 times better than when you started!
By the way, if you decline by 1% every day for a year, you’ll end up at almost zero worth!
You can check out the maths online… come on, I was a maths teacher, so give me some slack here! 
This works like compound interest in your savings account. You get interest on interest, so the longer you save, the faster your money grows.
The same applies to you and your life.
The longer you work at this, the better your life will get.
You don’t have to worry about the maths.
You don’t have to measure whether your changes are 1% or not.
Just start by looking at each aspect of your life and think about how you could make a small change to make things better… today.
Can you save time, money or energy in your work?
What can you do when you meet people to make the experience better for them?
How can you improve the relationships you have at home and work?
How can you improve your health?
What can you do to relax more?
What can you do to release any stress or anxiety in your life?
Can you change your diet to eat healthier?
The list of questions is endless…
So get writing!
Until next time…
Let Growth Be Your Mission.
#worklifebalance #lifecoaching #personaldevelopment #personalgrowth
Picture courtesy of JamesClear.com