Leaving No Stone Unturned: A Holistic Preparation Game Plan

“Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together.”—Vincent Van Gogh

Everything matters!

Yes, everything does matter. Though certain things may matter more than others, and we may be able to neglect some things in the short-term, but ultimately, everything we do or don’t do will add up for an effect in the long-run.

If you think what you eat doesn’t affect what you can achieve, then I implore you to read on. You will get a lot out of this article. 

What we eat matters!

How we sleep matters!

Who we befriend matters!

What we think matters!

What we say matters!

Where we live matters!

Hope you get the gist? In a nutshell, everything matters.

This is the idea that a coach, Dave Brailsford uses to set a remarkable record for the mediocre, British cycling team. Brailsford believes that if his team can improve a little in everything they do in connection with their game, they can compete in any competition and win. 

Change a little, change a lot; this is my way of expressing his philosophy of marginal gains. Brailsford said:

“If you broke down everything that goes into riding a bike…and then improve it by one percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them altogether.”

And the way I see it, everything that a true champion does is connected to his/her game. Even things that an amateur would assume don’t matter for the game, a professional would take them quite seriously.

And especially to Brailsford, little things matter. He was not only concerned with the key metrics of a team, such as physiology of riders, showing up for practice and their performances during training sessions. He was even focused on their sleep patterns, their beds, their pillows and their personal hygiene, including how they washed their hands. 

You see that, he was concerned with: ‘how they washed their hands’! No, the coach was not dealing with minors; he was coaching matured guys.

The skilled coach took no chances: he left no stone unturned. And as a result of this holistic approach, his cycling team—Team Sky—went on to win 70% of the gold medals in 2012 Olympics alone. 

Such is the power of making small improvement in everything we do.

Improve Everything You Do—By One Percent

To bring about the kind of success that Brailsford accomplished with his team in our own game and life, we must think less about the prize but more about the process of getting there. And this process is the concept of accumulation of small gains; it is how champions are made. 

In the words of the legendary American basketball coach, John Wooden:

"When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually you have a big improvement in conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don't look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That's the only way it happens - and when it happens, it lasts."

The interesting tip is: we don’t have to be in sports to benefit from the power of incremental improvement in the things we do. We can start now by waking up early, making healthy choices in our nutrition and thinking a little more positively about the circumstances face, each day.

These small changes may not appear to mean much in the moment but as time goes by, they will accumulate to transform us into the best possible version of ourselves later on. 

So, if you change a little in everything that you regularly do, you will eventually experience the aggregate power of marginal gains in your life.

Your Environment Matters

 “Man is largely a creature of habit, many of his activities are more or less automatic reflexes from the stimuli of his environment.”—G. Stanley Hall

As Stanley Hall, an American psychologist clearly expressed, our environment has a significant influence on our habits. Some may argue that this is not the case. However, the reality is, more than we realize, we are generally a product of our total environment. For instance, children born and bred in London do not grow up, speaking Arabic. And many Arabs in Saudi Arabia may live their whole life without ever knowing the most basic rules of English grammar. Such is the fateful power of an immediate environment.

My definition of environment covers everything that surrounds us, including the people and places we come in contact with on a regular basis. We are who we are largely because of the things, the places and the people we have associated with up till now. In the same vein, who we shall become in the next two decades will be largely determined by the things, the places and the people we surround ourselves with, going forward. 

Environmental influence may be subtle but in the long run, it is real and quite powerful. Knowing this, it makes sense to align our ambition with an environment that is congenial to it. In other words, to increase the chances that our business will flourish, we need to pick a suitable location for it.

In this article, we want to examine how we can make our environment aid us to accomplish things that matter.

Change Your Environment, Change Your Life

Now that we understand the power of our environment, the next thing is to design it to work for us instead of against us. Just as the author of, “Lean Forward Into Your Life,” Mary Anne Radmacher advises, “Choose the whole of your environment, things and events, based upon the value, meaning and function they hold.”

This is the kind of advice Bob Proctor stumbled upon at one time in his life, and he gave himself the permission to take it to heart. Growing up, the man was badly influenced by his surroundings. He was associated with many drunkards and lowlifes who had no worthy purpose and direction for their lives. 

However, upon learning that he had the exclusive power to choose a better destination for himself, Bob decided to change his environment for good. In order to live better, he had to leave a toxic environment. He moved far away from negative influences by moving close to positive ones. And as a result of that decision he is a now respected man of value, a world-class entrepreneur, an author and a millionaire.

For us, we don’t have to take such a drastic step to benefit from Bob’s inspiring example. In our own lives, we can make changes to eliminate distractions and strengthen focus in our day-to-day living. For example, if you have a goal to read 12 books this year, then keep those books in compelling places in your room and office. Make it the easier thing to do in any moment of relaxation, not watching television, reading magazines or worse, engaging in gossip and idle talks.

It is hard to overstate the effect of our environment on our behaviours.  Many of the mediocrities in this world are not necessarily the result of inadequacy of good fibre of people but because of an environment that makes poor decisions easier to make than wise ones. To rear children where there are many libraries will increase the odds of creating a more literate society in the future and to rear children in a slum will generally produce different results.

No doubt, living right is an inside job, but designing an environment that enables wise choice remains one of the best strategies of the most successful people in the world.

The Power of Systemic Thinking on Goal Achievement

“Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. Once you get there, you can move mountains.”—Steve Jobs

Once in the ancient city of Greece, an ambitious young man dreamt of becoming the strongest man of his time—a daring goal for sure. But to achieve an aim that could attract the laughter of many, the guy even adopted a training strategy that many others could easily dismiss.

He used a simple but powerful strategy of systemic force. He chose to train himself by lifting a small calf, day after day—never missing a day—until he was lifting a fully matured bull. 

Milo was the young man’s name.

Eventually, Milo achieved his goal; he became the strongest man in Athens simply by systematizing his thoughts and actions. He became so enormously strong that a group of contenders could not bend even his fingers. Incredible!

Let’s consider his strategy in a fictional context for an academic feat.

Becoming a Valedictorian

Imagine a scenario in which two good students gained admission into a university of their choice; one, a student of medicine and the other, of engineering. Wanting to make a name for themselves, the two decided to be the best in their classes.

At the end of their programmes, one student graduated summa cum laude while the other graduated magna cum laude. The first one not only became the best in his class but also the overall best graduating student in the college. Student A surpassed his goal and student B just nearly hit his own.

Now why did the first person achieve his objective and the other person almost do? 

Having been a college student myself, I can relate personally to such an experience. Without a system, you can't retain the best position in a highly competitive environment, no matter the strength of your willpower.

Though many factors can be responsible for a grand outcome, but based on the focus of this article, the emphasis here is on the power of systemic, regular study. Ostensibly, this is about the most important determinant in most cases, all things being equal, of course.

Therefore, the answer to the above question is: having a goal is not enough; we need the support of a good system of work to help us realize our dreams and crystallize our visions.

The distinction student relied on a solid system of uninterrupted study and thus his goal became real for him and the upper student relied on willpower and thus missed his mark, even though he might have felt a greater stress of hard work.

The following examples will illustrate what I mean more clearly:

Student A:  He has a personal study session every morning before the class begins. He doesn’t miss his appointment with himself, everyday. He knows that each day is a crucial block in the chain of his aspiration.

Student B: He has such plan too but he doesn’t keep it every day. He thinks he is strong enough to make up for any days he missed. He therefore resorts to burning the mid-night oil at the eleventh hour. 

You see, even though student A may have worked relatively lesser, he is the one with the satisfaction of the topmost prize. 

Therefore, it is beneficial to take life as a series, to give each day its due value. Whether we want to get the best grade, build a profitable business or nurture a healthy body, approaching the goal systematically is what will make it more likely to happen in the end. And it will also make the journey seem more effortlessly natural for us.

Listening is a Key Trait of Enlightened Individuals

“It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.”—Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

The precedence that listening has over talking has been made clear by God. He created us with one mouth and two ears. Therefore, He expects us to listen first and well before we choose to open our mouths to talk. 

However, it can be very tempting for most people to place speaking ahead of listening. Everyone wants to prove his or her smarts by being the one who takes the lead in the talks. Truthfully, we all like to feel we know better than the other guys, so we tend to talk more than we listen.

But if you pause to think about it, men of wisdom are the ones who understand that two ears mean listening twice for every utterance they intend to make. And the same goes for women. Definitely, this is the behaviour of enlightened individuals, and it is the behaviour for knightly living as the former President of USA, Calvin Coolidge did attest. He said, “It takes a great man to be a good listener.” 

Henry John Kaiser was such a man! 

He was born in New York by humble immigrant family of German origin. Henry started working in his teen years, with limited formal education. Yet, he eventually grew to become one of the pioneers of shipbuilding industry in the twentieth century. 

He became the father of modern shipbuilding in the United States of America. Kaiser rose from humility to abundance and influence with one simple secret; he learned to be a good listener. Now he disclosed how he benefitted immensely from the expansive world of real education: the University of Life. He said:

“I make progress by having people around me who are smarter than I am and listening to them. And I assume that everyone is smarter about something than I am.”

Do you get the gist of that sensible statement? 

Are you humble enough to listen and learn from everyone you come in contact with? 

Or

Are you the snobbish type who unduly thinks he/she is better than everyone else?

To answer for myself, I certainly refuse the latter; I am always willing to learn from anyone. Are you?

Be Humble and Choose to Listen Well

If you can imbibe Henry’s message, then rejoice, for you have the potential to become greater than he was. You can become a good leader in this age and time, in your own industry and country.  

But if you have too much pride to apply that judicious lesson, then now is the time for you to consider a new attitude about life. A newspaper editor, Doug Larson counsels you on this. He says, “Wisdom is the reward you get from a lifetime of listening when you would have preferred to talk.”

Meanwhile, bear in mind that good listening isn’t passive at all. Good listening is an active mental state of paying rapt attention not only to what is being said, but to everything that is not expressed in words: the feelings, the wishes, and the body languages. It is those who can do this that can make the most of any experience. They are the ones who listen not just with their ears but even with their hearts. They are the knights of this world.

I dare you to join their ranks by habitually talking less and listening more. It will benefit you a whole lot. And it is the hallmark of true greatness.

Dare To Think Like Thomas Edison

“The most dangerous notion a young man can acquire is that there is no more room for originality.”—Henry Ford

Creativity or inventing is a skill that we can all learn. It is the art of putting things or ideas together in a better way than anyone has done it before. It is an approach for a better present and a more promising future. It is an example that Thomas Edison illustriously lived. 

Ironically, Edison was branded “retarded child” by his teacher in the earliest stages of his education. Yet he grew to become one of the greatest serial inventors of all time. He improved human standard of living in a significant measure. 

He was the inventor of the globally enduring utility: electric light bulb. He also invented the record player, motion picture camera, and a battery for an electric car. Overall, he patented more than one thousand inventions in one lifetime. 

In the book, The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented Modern World, the author, Randall Stross argues that Edison has enhanced the well-being of people, perhaps, more than any other single person in human history. He calls him the Napoleon of invention. 

Edison is therefore a role model to emulate if we have a real desire to improve the physical world in which we live. Now, let’s see how we can apply one of his paradigms in our approach to our work.

How To Think Like a Great Inventor

Thomas Edison himself disclosed to us the secret of his phenomena creativity in the following statement. He said:

“I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it.”

That beautiful sentence shows the incredible force of Edison’s innovative mind. And interestingly, it also implies few key ideas to budding entrepreneurs in the modern creative business.  

It implies that it doesn’t matter whether the item in question is good enough already. It doesn’t matter if Edison was not the person who made the item in the first place. And it doesn’t matter if the item is apparently judged as failure or even success by the world. 

To Edison, it matters only what he can do by himself, to make it better than it currently is. The focus of his mind on anything he chooses was: 

How can I fix it, if it is broken? 

Or how can I improve it, if it is sort of okay?

 

You see, all his inventive efforts were borne of genuine desire to serve humanity. So I challenge you to apply this idea to your work, family and life; dare to live your life in a way that keeps adding value to others, to things and to yourself. This is what innovation means: changing things for good in our business, in our homes and in the society. However, don’t be stressed out by the challenge because it is not as hard as most of us assume, if we can learn to think as Edison did.

To think like Edison is to believe we can’t live better than trying to become better; to think like Edison is to believe that no matter how long something has been done a certain way, there is always a better way. To think like Edison is to believe that invention is a never ending process of growth.

The foregoing suggests that we must keep working to turn our novel ideas into impactful utilities. This is the exemplary way of The Wizard of Menlo Park. And it is the way of all innovators who advance humanity in both small and big degrees.Given that progress is the essence of life—from now on— this must also be our way: me and you!