Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out.
-Robert Collier
Success in achieving your goals is possible through little, little efforts every day.
Everything you do makes a difference. Everyone has a dream and a vision. Your dream inspires you to get going. But that’s not all you need to succeed. You will need the discipline to keep going once you feel like you don’t have the motivation to continue. Discipline is the bridge that connects your present state to your goals.
Success does not happen by magic. It takes effort and time.
Growing up and just going with flow of everyday life we start to assume that success will just come suddenly. However, this is not how anybody succeeds. Success requires small efforts everyday. You have to make 0.1 percent effort at a time in little, little factors. You will go one step further by doing this everyday. If you can do this you will slowly see that you are reaching your goals.
Repeated actions and efforts work like compound interest. It works like the law of compounding effects in practice. Those repeated actions make a big difference.
Let’s know the power of the 1% rule from the real life story of Will Smith.
When Will Smith was 12 years old, he and his younger brother were given a seemingly impossible task by their father. Will’s father owned a bakery and he had decided to have new wall in front of his shop. His father had already torn down the existing wall and had instructed his son’s to construct a new wall from scratch.
First Will and his brother dug a 6-foot hole as the foundation for the new wall. After doing that, they mixed concrete and started to build the wall everyday after school. They perfectly laid one brick at a time. They repeated this process day in day out. Will and his younger brother laid one brick after another. They ensured that each brick was laid as perfectly as the one that preceded it.
Everyday for 18 months they laid bricks after school.
After months of laboring, they finished their wall.
Will Smith described that at that time, he found that constructing the wall to be impossible and the most difficult task that he had to do. But he and his brother preserved and after one and a half years later they laid the final brick for the wall.
Will Smith says:
“You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid. You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.”
We all have our dreams and aspirations in life which is our ultimate concern which we always strive to achieve. That dream will not be achieved overnight. We have to start by laying the bricks slowly, slowly. Will Smith’s statement perfectly describes the essential path that we must follow to realize our ambitions in life.
The wall represents the vision- the goal that we want to achieve. The secret to accomplishing your goal is not to focus on the wall (goal) but to perfectly lay one brick at a time. Eventually, you will have the wall by laying each brick perfectly. Do something every day that can help you achieve your goal.
Small incremental actions can result in massive results. The day-to-day actions will add up in the long run. Success is the product of day-to-day repeated actions that you take against your goals.
Aristotle emphasizes that-
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
The story of British cycling is yet another inspiring story that demonstrates the power of repeated effort.
The governing organization responsible for professional cycling in Great Britain recruited Sir Dave Brailsford in 2002. The cycling team had no record of success. In 110 years, no British cyclist had ever won the Tour de France- cycling’s biggest race.
The performance of British riders was so poor that one of Europe’s top bike manufacturers declined to sell bikes to the British cycling team. The manufacturer argued that it would hurt their commercial reputation and result in low sales turnover if other professionals saw the British team using the bike manufactured by them.
Sir Dave Brailsford was hired to change all that and create a bright future for the British team. He had a strategy, which he called “the aggregation of marginal gains”. His philosophy was to look for way to improve everything, which you do by tiny margin of improvement.
Things were about to change in Sir Brailsford’s leadership. He says –
“The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”
Sir Brailsford and his coaching team started by making small changes to the professional cycling team.
- The bike seats were re-designed to make them more comfortable.
- Alcohol was rubbed on tires for a better grip.
- The cyclers were requested to wear electrically heated overshorts to ensure that ideal muscle temperature was maintained.
- To analyse how the cyclers responded to a particular workout biofeedback sensors were used.
- Various types of massage gel was used to see which one led to a quicker muscle recovery.
- A surgeon was hired to teach the athletes the most effective way to wash their hands to reduce their chances of getting sick.
- For each rider they determined the best type of pillow and mattress that would ensure that the athlete has a good night sleep.
Similar small improvements like these were made by Sir Brailsford and his team. Each change made a tiny difference. When the all the changes were put together the results were enormous.
The results were remarkable.
- The British Cycling team won 60 percent of the gold metals available at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
- At the 2012 Olympic Games at London, they set nine Olympic records and seven world records.
- Again in 2012, the Tour de France was won by the first British Cyclist Bradly Wiggins.
- The next year, his team mate Chris Froome won the Tour de France and he went he also won that race in 2015, 2016 and 2017. This made the British Cycling team won five Tour de France victories in six years.
- From 2007 to 2017 The Brits won 178 world championships, 66 Olympic or Paralympic Gold metals. They won five Tour de France victories, which is extensively regarded as the most successful run in the history of cycling.
Their victory is really astounding.
One may wonder how did the British cycling team who were regarded as losers went on to become world-class performers in cycling.
The answer is simple.
The ordinary athletes become extra-ordinary with the tiny changes that they were making on a day-to-day basis.
James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits also discusses the inspirational story of the British Cycling team in his book. He says
“Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.”
Progress is not an overnight thing. If we strive to take 1 percent action against our goals then those small acts will accumulate and give you what you will call success.
Massive success does require massive action. But you don’t have to do everything all at once.
Start easy, take small easy steps towards your goals.
Will Smith’s and the British cycling team’s story practically describes the notion of the 1% rule.
Doing 1% won’t seem noticeable in the present but it will definitely be meaningful in the future.
Jim Ron has explicitly said how you can achieve success by this method. He has said-
“Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.”
We all want success in our lives, but very few are able to achieve that.
There is a hidden power in small actions and small gains. Following the 1% rule can really do wonders in your life.
The 1% rule can be simply stated as:
Do something small every day towards achieving your goal.
Don’t forget that it has a Compounding Effect.
When the marginal gains are aggregated – we have Massive Success.
If you’re already doing your 1% towards your goals then all the best to you. You’ll make soon to success.
And if you haven’t taken any action towards your goals, what are you waiting for.
Now you know the Powerful 1% Rule.
You can get moving now.