In the book Atomic Habits, one of the most interesting concepts is precisely how changing small habits and making small improvements can have such a large impact in the medium/long term. One of the most interesting examples that makes this evident is that of coach Brailsford, who seeks to improve the performance of the British cycling team and achieves this with great success. Following this, we have a numerical representation of what it would be like to be 1% better every day to give a better idea. Come learn a little more about the content of the book Atomic Habits!
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Improve a Little Every Day
In Chapter 1, "The Surprising Power of Atomic Habits" we are introduced to the story of coach Brailsford, who was hired to improve the British cycling team, which had been performing so poorly that even bicycle companies avoided sponsoring the team to avoid associating their image with it. This story is fundamental to understanding the power that applying the teachings of Atomic Habits can have in your life.
In short, after Brailsford took over, the British cycling team was very successful, dominating cycling events and winning numerous Olympic medals. All this thanks to Brailsford's training method of "aggregating marginal gains." The method worked as follows: the coach looked for ways to achieve even the smallest improvements that could enhance the cyclists' performance.
The idea was to divide all the actions involved in cycling and then improve each one slightly (just 1%). In the end, improving everything makes a huge difference. In the case of cycling, Brailsford sought to improve bicycle seats, tires, clothing – a little bit of everything – and the result was what he achieved.
It's important to show Brailsford's example first because he and his team obtained real and very impactful results. So, if you apply it to your specific problem, you're likely to achieve great results as well. The translation of this to your life is to take an activity or a problem you have, break it down into its component parts, then zoom in and look for ways to improve each of those parts a little. In the end, the whole will be more efficient, with just 1% improvement.
The Power of 1% Improvement!
In Brailsford's example, he took each of the activities that make up the whole and improved them by 1%, but do you have any idea of the power of 1%? In the book, the author immediately demonstrates what this means, showing what it would be like to be 1% better each day and 1% worse, and the final result will surprise you.
The power of the long term is truly frightening. If a person manages to improve by 1% each day, at the end of a year they will be 37.78 times better. If they worsen by 1% every day, they will reach a value of 0.03, that is, close to 0. Both are very absurd numbers, but I believe the author's objective was not to tell you to improve exactly 1% every day, but rather to show numerically that you need to always aim to improve and never worsen.
This shows us that small changes, sometimes imperceptible, over a long period cause great impacts. An example is financial independence; if you save a little and start investing, the initial result may be discouraging because you start receiving pennies, but over time it starts to increase and in the future, if everything remains constant, you start to be able to pay some bills, until you reach total freedom.
