<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"James Clear\u00A0writes about using behavioral science to master your habits and improve your health. His free guide,\u00A0Transform Your Habits,\u00A0has been downloaded more than 80,000 times. This post originally appeared on\u00A0his blog.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn 2010, Dave Brailsford faced a tough job.\r\n\r\nNo British cyclist had ever won the Tour de France, but as the new General Manager and Performance Director for Team Sky (Great Britain\u2019s professional cycling team), Brailsford was asked to change that.\r\n\r\nHis approach was simple.\r\n\r\nBrailsford believed in a concept that he referred to as the \u201Caggregation of marginal gains.\u201D He explained it as \u201Cthe 1 percent margin for improvement in everything you do.\u201D His belief was that if you improved every area related to cycling by just 1 percent, then those small gains would add up to remarkable improvement.\r\n\r\nThey started by optimizing the things you might expect: the nutrition of riders, their weekly training program, the ergonomics of the bike seat, and the weight of the tires.\r\n\r\nBut Brailsford and his team didn\u2019t stop there. They searched for 1 percent improvements in tiny areas that were overlooked by almost everyone else: discovering the pillow that offered the best sleep and taking it with them to hotels, testing for the most effective type of massage gel, and teaching riders the best way to wash their hands to avoid infection. They searched for 1 percent improvements everywhere.\r\n\r\nBrailsford believed that if they could successfully execute this strategy, then Team Sky would be in a position to win the Tour de France in five years time.\r\n\r\nHe was wrong. They won it in three years.\r\n\r\nIn 2012, Team Sky rider Sir Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France. That same year, Brailsford coached the British cycling team at the 2012 Olympic Games and dominated the competition by winning 70 percent of the gold medals available.\r\n\r\nIn 2013, Team Sky repeated their feat by winning the Tour de France again, this time with rider Chris Froome. Many have referred to the British cycling feats in the Olympics and the Tour de France over the past 10 years as the most successful run in modern cycling history.\r\n\r\nAnd now for the important question: what can we learn from Brailsford\u2019s approach?\r\nThe aggregation of marginal gains\r\nIt\u2019s so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making better decisions on a daily basis.\r\n\r\nAlmost every habit that you have \u2014 good or bad \u2014 is the result of many small decisions over time.\r\n\r\nAnd yet, how easily we forget this when we want to make a change.\r\n\r\nSo often we convince ourselves that change is only meaningful if there is some large, visible outcome associated with it. Whether it is losing weight, building a business, traveling the world or any other goal, we often put pressure on ourselves to make some earth-shattering improvement that everyone will talk about.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile, improving by just 1 percent isn\u2019t notable (and sometimes it isn\u2019t even noticeable). But it can be just as meaningful, especially in the long run.\r\n\r\nAnd from what I can tell, this pattern works the same way in reverse. (An aggregation of marginal losses, in other words.) If you find yourself stuck with bad habits or poor results, it\u2019s usually not because something happened overnight. It\u2019s the sum of many small choices \u2014 a 1 percent decline here and there \u2014 that eventually leads to a problem.\r\n\r\nInspiration for this image came from a\u00A0graphic\u00A0in The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson.In the beginning, there is basically no difference between making a choice that is 1 percent better or 1 percent worse. (In other words, it won\u2019t impact you very much today.)\r\n\r\nBut as time goes on, these small improvements or declines compound and you suddenly find a very big gap between people who make slightly better decisions on a daily basis and those who don\u2019t. This is why small choices don\u2019t make much of a difference at the time, but add up over the long-term.\r\n\r\nOn a related note, this is why I love\u00A0setting a schedule for important things, planning for failure and using the\u00A0\u201Cnever miss twice\u201D rule. I know that it\u2019s not a big deal if I make a mistake or slip up on a habit every now and then. It\u2019s the compound effect of never getting back on track that causes problems.\r\n\r\nBy setting a schedule to never miss twice, you can prevent simple errors from snowballing out of control.\r\nThe bottom line\r\nSuccess is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.\r\n\u2014Jim Rohn\r\nYou probably won\u2019t find yourself in the Tour de France anytime soon, but the concept of aggregating marginal gains can be useful all the same.\r\n\r\nMost people love to talk about success (and life in general) as an event. We talk about losing 50 pounds or building a successful business or winning the Tour de France as if they are events. But the truth is that most of the significant things in life aren\u2019t stand-alone events, but rather the sum of all the moments when we chose to do things 1 percent better or 1 percent worse. Aggregating these marginal gains makes a difference.\r\n\r\nThere is power in small wins and slow gains. This is why\u00A0average speed yields above average results. This is why\u00A0the system is greater than the goal. This is why\u00A0mastering your habits\u00A0is more important than achieving a certain outcome.\r\n\r\nWhere are the 1 percent improvements in your life?\r\n\r\nRead next:\u00A0You get 25,000 mornings as an adult. Here are 8 ways to not waste them"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2014/08/19/marginal-gains/>