Make up for what you have lost

You are the driver of your car called life and you have the choice what is that you want to drive with. If you carry on driving with self – doubt, self – pity; in short holding on to the past, you are not going to get too far. If you have to make up for the lost time, not only do you have to move forward, but also move fast. I know its easier said than done. If there is an unfinished task, that you know you should have done, sadly it is still to be done. It may seem all crazy and overwhelming. You must be thinking that there is so much of it, where should I start from and how do I begin? Well, all these feelings are natural and for sure you will go through it. It may seem too big and too complex to even begin resolving the situation, but you have to. There is a popular saying ‘If you are going through shit, keep going, that’s the only way you are going to come out of it’

It's never too late…. This might sound cliché, but that fact is it holds true. You may have lost valuable time doing the stuff which now in hindsight makes you look foolish, stupid, crazy, judgemental, lethargic… I can go on endlessly with these adjectives.

There is a theory called ‘Aggregation of marginal gains’ that was applied by a gentleman called Dave Brailsford, who was the team director of ‘Team Sky’ a cycling team from the UK back in the years in early 2000s, The idea is to breakdown your stuff into small chunks and separate them from the bigger stuff. . It is still one of the most reckoned teams at the international level but lately has been involved in some controversies. That is another subject anyway.

Coming back to our point. He was entrusted with the revival of fortunes of the team that was struggling to win major championships. When Dave took over the reins, it seemed a huge task cut out for him. He had a lot riding on his shoulder. This is when he came up with a plan to work on every minute detail with a small degree of focus. Simply put, he identified everything that would or could impact the team performance and decided to target it and change it marginally. What Dave did was made small changes to a lot of things that could impact the outcome. One of the things that Dave did was he found the best possible massage gel and replaced the existing one, this improved the injury to recovery time for his athletes. The other thing that he did was procured the best possible available hand wash for his athletes so that they were least exposed to any sort of infection when traveling. This increased the chances of the team being healthier and less prone to infections. Sounds a little bizarre, but trust me, he actually made small changes in every sphere that could impact the team performance. To give you one more example of what Dave changed is the pillows. Whenever the team traveled, each team member carried their own pillow. No one used the pillows at the hotel. The reason, sound sleep at night, ensured that the athletes are ready the next day for practice. When Dave took over the charge of team sky, he had set a goal of five years to get the team to the top, but to his and everyone’s surprise, he managed the feat in just three years. Remarkable indeed. That theory that we spoke worked wonders for Dave and his team. 

Think for a minute. Well, you obviously came up with something related to improving the physical strength, stamina, mental health of the team members, maybe motivate them, maybe change the training regime, maybe change the diet of the team, look at better equipment, and a lot more. If you did so, you aren’t wrong in any way. But there are a lot of finer details we leave behind.

Therefore, concluding the article I would say, start small. Look at what small things can you change in you and around you. Look at the things you never looked at even thought about. Look at the simpler and finer aspects that most of the people will ignore.  

It’s a simple and straightforward theory. It advocates that small changes in every sphere of life over a period of time translates into substantial improvements. If you look at it broadly, having a personalized pillow has very little or almost no direct bearing on the team winning a cycling championship. But if you look at it from the perspective of this theory, it does contribute in a way. Likewise, so many other things would have. It is just that all the minute changes that are sustained over a period of time produce? results.

My next article will feature some real life examples that have helped me transform myself and lot of other people.

Amit Mankani - Transformation Enabler