Why the Brits crushed the French at the Olympics. Compound interest.

The french are not happy. The Brits have won a huge pile of gold medals in cycling and the French papers are full of analysis and irritation at being stomped on by a country with a similar sized population and economic ranking. Some of their athletes are even suggesting foul play. Damn it feels good.

Why did this happen? Ask Einstein.

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it, he who doesn’t, pays it.” Albert Einstein

If you’ve read my previous post on how ‘1% improvement a day makes you 37 times better a year’ you will recall this calculation:

“If you start out with $100 at the beginning of the year and you were able to increase what you have by 1% every single day, at the end of the year, you would have $3,778.34 = $100 * (1 + 1%) ^ 365. That is 37.78x what you had at the beginning of the year. Get that 1% every single day!”

If you want proof of whether this works then look no further than the British Cycling team that is crushing all opposition at the Olympics.

This is a quote by Sir Dave Brailsford, who helped build the foundations of British cycling: “If you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by one percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together”

What were their 1% improvements?

“By experimenting in a wind tunnel, we searched for small improvements to aerodynamics.

By analyzing the mechanics area in the team truck, we discovered that dust was accumulating on the floor, undermining bike maintenance. So we painted the floor white, in order to spot any impurities.

We hired a surgeon to teach our athletes about proper hand-washing so as to avoid illnesses during competition (we also decided not to shake any hands during the Olympics).

We were precise about food preparation.

We brought our own mattresses and pillows so our athletes could sleep in the same posture every night.

We searched for small improvements everywhere and found countless opportunities. Taken together, we felt they gave us a competitive advantage.”

Sir David Brailsford

Why don’t we all do this?

“So 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.” from http://jamesclear.com/marginal-gains

Makes sense doesn’t it? Now I know why that Rocky training montage never worked when I tried it. So what are the 1% improvements we can make each day? Nothing too shocking. Don’t exercise? Do 30 jumping jacks in the morning. Can’t concentrate? Use a focus booster for an hour. Want a better less irritable mind? Use a one minute meditation. Better sleep? Turn off electronics 30 mins before bedtime and read a book. In other words, do all the crap you know you should do, just don’t try to do them all at the same time.