…start by making tiny changes in your life, one at a time.
In 2003, Sir Dave Brailsford took over the British Cycling Team. He wasn’t a professional coach, and he’d only been an amateur cyclist.
Instead of trying to rebuild the perennially weak cycling team from scratch, Brailsford implemented a business strategy called the aggregation of marginal gains. He simply tried to improve every aspect of the cyclists’ life–training, nutrition, sleep, and equipment–by 1%.
He didn’t go out looking for new sponsors; some bike companies refused to sell to the team because they were so bad. Instead, he first improved their seats to make them more comfortable. And he didn’t implement a radical diet change or workout regime; he simply improved each by 1% at a time. When the new tiny gain had been realized, he asked himself, “How do I improve this feature by 1% NOW?”
In 2008, the British Cycling team won 8 gold medals, 4 silver, and 2 bronze: more medals than in their entire history combined. Then Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, two members of the team, combined to win the Tour de France four times in the next decade.
Aggregating small wins WORKS.
You don’t need a radical new Keto diet. You don’t need a “detox” (they’re fake anyway.) You don’t need to start jogging 5 miles every morning. You just need to take one tiny step.
My training has been very focused on cycling for the last six months, and I’m training HARD. But my nutrition sucks: working from home most of the time means every food is available all the time, and it’s all amazing. Robin is a great cook, and the coffee maker is always running. I knew I needed to get my nutrition back in line for my brain’s sake…and my body’s sake. But this year, I didn’t jump right back into the Zone, or count macros to balance out my blood sugar. This year, I just started writing it down.
I downloaded the MyFitnessPal app, because it integrates with the other apps we use at Catalyst (Trainerize, Strava, and Garmin.) I started putting recording my food. Guess what? I immediately started thinking more before each meal. I didn’t track calories or make use of the macro balancing feature. I literally just started entering my food into the app. That’s it.
If your diet is already solid, you can start by just doing ten squats. Call it a day. Try for eleven–or ten pushups the next day. But don’t think about that yet: just move.
I love having a coach. I just have to show up, and the coach tells me what to do. Maybe that’s your first small step: sign up for a free no-sweat intro, and let Jamie tell you what you should do first. Or just do 1 squat and start tracking your food. After 365 days, if we improve by 1% each day, you’ll be over 30 TIMES more fit!
Skip to content
Fill out the form below to get started
Take the first step towards getting the results that you want!