Why sometimes, small changes can have the most significant impact.
When we think of making changes to how we approach something we often think of the big things. The big steps forward we can make, and we focus on the end goal.
While having the end goal in mind is super important, the next step is finding the smallest step possible that you can make that will have an impact and have the ability to be consistent with.
You see, it's easy to come out of meetings, work conferences, and away days raring to go and ready to take significant actionable steps. Still, we often forget to consider all the other things we are committed to daily. When we factor those elements in with our ideas of considerable change and steps forward, suddenly, it doesn't feel as achievable. So the pressure mounts, and we end up reverting to what we have always done - because it's familiar, and we've had practice.
When I think about taking small steps, I think about a man who made his career focusing on marginal gains. Sir Dave Brailsford was hired in 2003 to be Great Britain's new performance director. Before this appointment, GB's performance was particularly underwhelming - so much so that some cycling companies didn't want to work with the team in case they were seen in their branding (a bit harsh!)
Brailsford's primary strategy was 'the aggregation of marginal gains' - the notion that you searched for the tiny margins of improvement you could make in any situation. Then, add them all together, which could have quite the impact.
Brailsford said, "The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together."
This 1 percent principle looked at every single aspect of a cyclist's life - both on and off the track. From improving their bike seats, and clothing and testing things in a wind tunnel to trying different massage gels and the best kind of pillow and mattress to ensure the athletes get the best night's sleep.
The results were astounding - the cycling team won 60% of the gold medals available at the Beijing Olympics in just five years. And then, a few years later, they broke records left, right, and centre at the London Olympics.
Going back to the idea that you want to make changes in your life - we convince ourselves that to be successful, we need to make massive changes and take massive action.
But what impact could we really have if we focused on a tiny step that could be taken and repeated for a prolonged period? What minor tweaks could have the most significant impact?
In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear explores this more as he explores the notion that habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. I’d definitely recommend it!
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