Mike has his dreams of climbing mountains. He heard about the tallest mountain in the world and decided to accomplish it. He wanted to climb a mountain that is 10,000 km high. All he had to do was to make a small step. After all the efforts applied for 1 day, he realized that “I had not reached even 1 percent above after all the efforts. I can not give more than this.” What the hell!! it is going on. I put so many steps and still I am just at the bottom. He quits and came back to the starting point And left for home.
He was very very keen on mountain climbing, rather than quit he thought of another way out he decide to cover the distance by air. He calculated all the expenses and even after all the effort of saving money. Each week he would calculate his savings and say alas! 1 they are still so less How will I make it come true and most of the time he can keep it for one month and then he spent on clothes, sports or etc. He could not make it to travel till his old age. It is not like he did not try, but after all the efforts what he gets was so small he left it as it is or spent it somewhere.
What Mike taught me!!!
If I look at the intention of Mike, it was all clear what he wants but still, he was unable to achieve it. JUST BECAUSE SMALL STEPS DOES NOT SHOW CHANGES IT can not be said that they do not bring change, they are the milestone that brings a change in one’s life. It should be understood and can be figured out that if Mike would have saved his money although it appears so meager in the start slowly and slowly it would turn out to be a large sum. But to count it up it would have taken some time.
Let us understand this better through the book Of Atomic habits by James Clear.
James Clear has called these small steps (from where they can not be broken smaller) as “Atomic” and repetitive action which turn out to have an effect on your behavior as “Habit”.
The significance of “Atomic” and “Habits”
Most of the time our behavioral habits are developed without our consciousness; means we keep on repeating an action like most people around the globe have a habit of Bed Coffee. And if somehow they could not get it, they will be annoyed throughout the day.
Let us take another example like a sudden unexpected sound, In general with these sounds, affect men differently they will be angry at that sound, whereas a woman will get panic. It is due to the default reaction on males and females on these triggers. So now, even if you know that you are going to react like this in these situations, you could not get rid of your response so easily. These actions are your habit and by default get activated.
Author James clear states, that if you want to improve in a task then notice out all the actions and different perspectives in it, then break them into as many small pieces as you can. Now making just one percent improvement in each small piece of work will give you 37 times better output than in a year.
Improving yourself for 1 % per day will lead you to 37times better. (How and does it work)
In 2003, the British cycling Organization appointed Dave Brailsford as a new director, then it was just 1 gold medal in the bag of the British cycling team, and guess what just after 5 years in Beijing Olympic 2008, the same unit under the leadership of Sir Brailsford captured 60% of the available Gold medals. They went further to set nine Olympic records and seven world records in the next Olympic at London in 2013.
How did this miracle happen? Something which was unachieved in the past 100 years, Dave made it possible in 10 years. How?
Mr. Brailsford in an interview shared his philosophy of the "aggregation of marginal gains” - a philosophy or practice that changed the shape and future of British cycling. the philosophy was pretty similar to search a tiny margin of improvement in everything we do.
Mr. Director made many tiny improvements like redesigning their cycling seat to make it more comfortable. They applied alcohol on tires to enhance the grip on the road. Riders were recommended to wear electrically heated overshots to maintain idle muscle temperature while riding. Now, what will these things do these things are not related to cycling results and if they are they do not carry as such result. But these small changes over a period of time enhanced the result by providing a better environment to the cyclist.
Brailsford made further small improvements in the areas overlooked or unexpected and improvement was so small that no one even dare to work on them. from massage gels to team trucks to Medical teams everywhere. and just a small improvement of 1%. As these and hundreds of other small improvements accumulated, the results came faster than anyone could have imagined.
This is an excellent example of how small changes lead to big results.
How does Progress really happen?
Well if you keep an Ice cube at a temperature of 24 degrees Celsius nothing will happen, which means you could notice it melt if you increase the temperature by 1 degree Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius, still, the change is difficult to notice, again, an increment by 1 degree i.e. 26 Degree Celsius, no change, 27 Degree Celsius 28 Degree Celsius 29 Degree Celsius 30 Degree Celsius 31 Degree Celsius….No change only vapors could be noticed.
But now just 1 degree more and see it becomes 32 Degree Celsius, now the magic happens. You could easily notice it melting. But it does not happen all of a sudden it was gradually increasing for a long time, the only difference was that it took some time to be noticeable.
It is the same with our efforts it takes time to show change and after a long time, only a change could occur. Most people quit when they are too close but just being frustrated as Mike above they quit and move away, it takes time to bring the change, and between change and you a deep valley of depression awaits
Summary (Pt-1) Atomic habit by Sir James clear.
(To be continued......)