Little Actions Add Up...

In 2003, the British Cycling Governing Body hired a new performance director. Up till this point, for over 95 years, the British Cycling team had not won a single championship. It was embarrassing! 

Rather than focus on the big actions and getting the current team to simply work harder, the new coach focused on ensuring that the team improves by at least 1% in every area that contributes to cycling. 

He began paying attention to things like:

• Making the bike seat more comfortable
• Changing the racing suit fabric to something lighter and more aerodynamic
• Hiring a surgeon to teach riders the best way to wash their hands to reduce the chances of catching a cold
• Determining the type of pillow and mattress that gave each rider the best night’s sleep, and so on.

Some of these feels like “how is this relevant to riding a bike?” but the coach understood a fundamental principle that was succinctly captured by James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits - “changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.”

It took about 5 years of doing this before the team started winning. From 2007 - 2017, British cyclists won 178 world championships and sixty-six Olympic or Paralympic gold medals and captured five Tour de France victories in what is widely regarded as the most successful run in cycling history. 

When we set big goals, we believe what we need are big actions, and then it becomes overwhelming for us till we get to the point where nothing is done anymore. Big goals don’t always mean big action, big goals mean consistently doing the little things that move us towards our goals.

So, consider your 2020 goals and break it down into smaller components that are easy to do. Your goal to read a book a month becomes reading a few pages daily and choosing the right location/time to get it done. Your goal to lose weight becomes reducing your consumption of CSD, doing simple exercise routines like 3 push-ups daily, etc. Note that reading 2 pages per day or doing 3 push-ups a day is better than doing nothing. 

Little things add up, don’t despise them and don’t let anyone talk you off them, rather embrace them. It compounds in time! May the road rise to meet you.

Thanks for reading. I hope you find it helpful. Do have an amazing weekend.