Came across this on jamesclear.com
In 2010, Dave Brailsford faced a tough job.
No British cyclist had ever won the Tour de
France, but as the new General Manager and Performance Director for Team
Sky (Great Britain’s professional cycling team), Brailsford was asked
to change that.
His approach was simple.
Brailsford believed in a concept that he
referred to as the “aggregation of marginal gains.” He explained it as
“the 1 percent margin for improvement in everything you do.” His belief
was that if you improved every area related to cycling by just 1
percent, then those small gains would add up to remarkable improvement.
They started by optimizing the things you might
expect: the nutrition of riders, their weekly training program, the
ergonomics of the bike seat, and the weight of the tires.
But Brailsford and his team didn’t stop there.
They searched for 1 percent improvements in tiny areas that were
overlooked by almost everyone else: discovering the pillow that offered
the best sleep and taking it with them to hotels, testing for the most
effective type of massage gel, and teaching riders the best way to wash
their hands to avoid infection. They searched for 1 percent improvements
everywhere.
Brailsford believed that if they could
successfully execute this strategy, then Team Sky would be in a position
to win the Tour de France in five years time.
He was wrong. They won it in three years.
In 2012, Team Sky rider Sir Bradley Wiggins
became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France. That same
year, Brailsford coached the British cycling team at the 2012 Olympic
Games and dominated the competition by winning 70 percent of the gold
medals available.
In 2013, Team Sky repeated their feat by winning
the Tour de France again, this time with rider Chris Froome. Many have
referred to the British cycling feats in the Olympics and the Tour de
France over the past 10 years as the most successful run in modern
cycling history.
And now for the important question: what can we learn from Brailsford's approach?
The Aggregation of Marginal Gains
It’s so easy to overestimate the importance of
one defining moment and underestimate the value of making better
decisions on a daily basis.
Almost every habit that you have — good or bad — is the result of many small decisions over time.
And yet, how easily we forget this when we want to make a change.
So often we convince ourselves that change is
only meaningful if there is some large, visible outcome associated with
it. Whether it is losing weight, building a business, traveling the
world or any other goal, we often put pressure on ourselves to make some
earth-shattering improvement that everyone will talk about.
Meanwhile, improving by just 1 percent isn't notable (and sometimes it isn't even noticeable). But it can be just as meaningful, especially in the long run.
And from what I can tell, this pattern works the
same way in reverse. (An aggregation of marginal losses, in other
words.) If you find yourself stuck with bad habits or poor results, it's
usually not because something happened overnight. It's the sum of many
small choices — a 1 percent decline here and there — that eventually
leads to a problem.
Inspiration for this image came from a graphic in The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson.
Inspiration for this image came from a graphic in The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson.
In the beginning, there is basically no
difference between making a choice that is 1 percent better or 1 percent
worse. (In other words, it won't impact you very much today.) But as
time goes on, these small improvements or declines compound and you
suddenly find a very big gap between people who make slightly better
decisions on a daily basis and those who don't. This is why small
choices don't make much of a difference at the time, but add up over the
long-term.
On a related note, this is why I love setting a schedule for important things, planning for failure, and using the “never miss twice” rule.
I know that it's not a big deal if I make a mistake or slip up on a
habit every now and then. It's the compound effect of never getting back
on track that causes problems. By setting a schedule to never miss
twice, you can prevent simple errors from snowballing out of control.
The Bottom Line
Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
—Jim Rohn
You probably won’t find yourself in the Tour de
France anytime soon, but the concept of aggregating marginal gains can
be useful all the same.
Most people love to talk about success (and life
in general) as an event. We talk about losing 50 pounds or building a
successful business or winning the Tour de France as if they are events.
But the truth is that most of the significant things in life aren't
stand-alone events, but rather the sum of all the moments when we chose
to do things 1 percent better or 1 percent worse. Aggregating these
marginal gains makes a difference.
There is power in small wins and slow gains. This is why average speed yields above average results. This is why the system is greater than the goal. This is why mastering your habits is more important than achieving a certain outcome.
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