![]() ![]() Or think of a transcontinental flight from Los Angeles to New York. The difference between eating a burger and eating a salad today may not be that significant, but what about 30 years of opting for burgers over salads? That’s a different story-and a sadder, fatter one. They’re small, but they can unleash incredible power. ![]() Any object is comprised of much smaller parts-atoms. The more time that passes, the clearer the impact of habitual actions becomes-for better or worse. One percent changes don’t seem significant, but time reveals the power of habits. It can be discouraging traversing this Plateau because it “feels” like you don’t have much to show for your efforts. When we begin to develop new habits or try to kick bad ones, there is usually a dormant period, where nothing appears to be happening. As the temperature continues to increase, a puddle forms around the cube, and grows as the change becomes even more dramatic. ![]() But once it hits 32, something starts to happen. If you have an ice cube in a room set to 26 degrees Fahrenheit, and then slowly raise the temperature, nothing happens for a while: 27…28…29…30…31…still nothing. David Brailsford’s “aggregation of marginal gains” doesn’t just work wonders for floundering cyclists-it’s applicable to you and every aspect of your life. But another option is accruing one percent wins that yield shockingly significant improvements over time. Attempting something monumental in one gargantuan effort, getting exhausted and overwhelmed, and then quitting: that’s one option. The pressure to do so is soul-crushing and leaves us stymied. We are under the mistaken impression that a major success requires major action. But all these one percent changes began to add up. The coach implemented hundreds of changes that, in isolation, would deliver negligible payoffs. Something remarkable happened in Great Britain’s cycling program. Many consider British Cycling’s recent success the most notable win streak in the sport’s history. In the space of a decade, British Cycling took home almost 180 world championships and 66 Olympic golds. Another Brit won the Tour de France in 2013-and in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Not long after, a British man won the coveted Tour de France title for the first time in the competition’s history. At the 2012 London Olympics, the Brits broke nine Olympic records and seven world records for cycling. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, they won more than half of the indoor and outdoor cycling events in which they competed. These minor improvements seemed absurd, but within five years of Brailsford’s leadership, something strange happened: British Cycling started winning. Even most obsessive compulsives would have been satisfied by Brailsford’s rigor and attention to seemingly superfluous details. He took athletes to labs to test their sleep patterns and determine which mattresses and pillows would maximize each cyclist’s rest. He had the insides of transport trucks painted white, so that the dust (which might disrupt the bikes’ precise modifications and settings) would be readily noticeable and easily eliminated. He had more comfortable seats developed, swapped out old outdoor cyclist wear for the more aerodynamic indoor outfits, and outfitted athletes with electrically heated shorts that would maintain the ideal temperature for optimal muscular output. He adopted a style utterly different than that of his predecessors-one he referred to as “the aggregation of marginal gains.”īrailsford identified hundreds of factors that, in isolation, would be dismissed as having no serious impact on cyclist performance. Cycling enthusiasts in Britain hoped Brailsford would be able to reverse Britain’s abysmal record. In 2003, British Cycling brought on a new performance director, David Brailsford. They were so bad that one cycling brand refused to export its products to Great Britain, fearing that Great Britain’s reputation would tarnish the brand’s reputation. From its founding in 1908 until the early 2000s, the Brits won just one Olympic gold and never won the Tour de France. British Cycling was a joke for almost a century. ![]()
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