One of my colleagues was telling a story the other day about "shavings" and how all of the little things we do pile can pile up and eventually, we have a mountain. It reminded me of a story I heard about the British cycling team, where they improved everything they did by 1% in a process they called, "the aggregation of marginal gains" - a philosophy that pulled every piece of what goes into cycling apart, improved it and then as the theory goes, once all the pieces are put back together, the gains made are significant.
I like this philosophy.
I didn't know of it at the time, but the philosophy behind my own business is, a bit at a time, you can change everything, where the focus is on personal development through key skill growth. It seems simple and perhaps pithy, but when applied consistently over an extended period of time, the results can be outstanding.
In many ways, it is like the bees that collect this micro particles of pollen from thousands of flowers and then, bring them together to sustain an entire hive and, produce honey. In many ways, it "shouldn't be possible" but nature is the queen of aggregating marginal gains with the supreme patience that has seen us evolve through millions of years and multiple species to become what we are today. It is quite incredible.
If it ain't broke.
Yet, we as individuals only live a single lifetime and therefore, there is a timer on how long we have to evolve ourselves and only so far we can change and because of this, we likely feel rushed. We feel we don't have the time for the aggregation of of marginal gains and try to cut corners to force results and get what we want sooner. However, there is the "slow and steady" lesson of the tortoise and the hare that we should remember where, speed doesn't necessarily get us there faster, especially if we run out of energy half way through the race.
I feel that culture these days draws our attention and energy in ways that means that before we get the results we are after, we are pulled to chase another result, so what happens is that we keep investing ourselves, but not for long enough to make any significant inroads. This means that because our investment is too low for the task requirements, our investment is lost - like trying to build a mansion with 10,000 dollars - it is just going to burn through the money, and there won't even be a whole in the ground to show for it.
Do you think about what you do each day?
If when you wake up next, you had to choose one tony thing to focus on to improve your life, what would it be? and Then, what would it be the day after? Of course, you'd likely need to make some of these habitual, so what if the focus was daily for a month on each thing, so that in a year from now, you would have improved 12 tiny components of your life and committed them to a a habitual process - what would change?
Five years from now with 60 things?
Five years sounds like a long time, but it really is not much more than a blink and if consistently improving in this way, the aggregated result from process development is almost guaranteed to be significantly better than today. And, it won't take five years to see the results, as they will be compounding from the very first day positive changes are made.
I was thinking about this in terms of investing too, where for example, those small amounts of money that get wasted on very little of value, add up to significant amounts a year from now. For example, how many people actually quit smoking and take that same income and invest it instead? What difference would that make in that five year view? For example in Finland, a pack a day smoker spends 3100€ a year on cigarettes, the equivalent of about an average monthly salary before taxes.
That is a significant amount put into investments over the next 20 years and calculated at a conservative 5% interest a year, it amounts to 114K euros, or the price of a small investment property for rental. The rent on that is around 700 a month, so that means that 20 years down the track, the saving on the cigarettes has bought an apartment outright and is doubling the cost of the cigarettes in positive earnings, effectively tripling the value, plus the ownership of the apartment on top, to provide an average monthly income, passively.
All those shavings add up.
But, it is hard to do, because our attention is constantly drawn to those shiny consumables that makes us feel that we are missing out for not buying, not taking part. We feel we are "suffering" yet when we actually look at what causes the most suffering in our lives, it isn't because we aren't smoking enough, watching enough TV, wearing the most expensive clothes or driving the fanciest car - for most of us, the suffering is because we do not have enough money to comfortably buy basics and because we re "investing" what we have poorly, we never will.
The hardest part of this isn't the understanding of it, it is the investment into the application of it until there is a behavioral change. It isn't good enough to know, it has to be done.
I struggle with this daily.
I don't know many who don't.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
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We are definitely being drawn to the next consumable instead of developing ourselves and trying to attain better results! I know that 5 years as a parent goes by in the blink of an eye for sure! Prior to that it was still fast but not as fast lol. It’s a good notion to try and make small improvements each day or every other day and see how it adds up.
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I am hoping that I can start "training" my daughter to build habits for self-development, but not too sure how to go about it yet :)
I don't understand how people have time for shiny consumables, I find housework wastes a good deal of my time XD
I knew a guy who spent 100K doing up a car - but didn't own a fridge....
Must have really loved that car x_x
Sometimes I ask myself about what I do for myself each day. As I think that we have a limited time in life, I all the time try to enchance my life. However, I think that I could not do that for the past two years due to the pandemic. If I look at the bright side, I have done some important renovations inside and around my house, which perhaps I might not be able to do later.
I can also say that I have invested in HIVE more than ever during this period.
If I could go back the two years, I would probably exercise a bit more! :D
Fortunately, I have kept my body similar to pre-pandemic time :)
I think we worry too much about things that generally turn out ok. If only we worried less and enjoyed growing in the journey, we might be able to contribute more to the world.
This is true. However, I also think that there are a lot of people who justify their poor behavior as "part of the journey" while they forget about the need for growth on that journey.
I try to save and it's more like a long-term outlook on things. With everything happening, those small amounts will add up over time and compound interest can make that amount boom into something amazing. Not everything will understand it but it won't hurt to save a few extra pennies every day.
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It is a different approach to life - some save for a rainy day, some spend for a sunny day now - but end up living in a lot of rain.
Even, by your own definitions, your reality evolves.
What is a mansion? What is a life? What does better look to you? What are the results desired, vs, what is really required?
Sometimes, our we can shackle ourselves into a more complex hamster wheel. But, it is still a hamster wheel by design.
Be kind.
I am of the current understanding that we are always in a type of hamster wheel, no matter the decisions we make. I know people who live largely self-sufficiently in the middle of nowhere, and whole their life is different to mine, they are just on a different color wheel, running through different tasks to me.
Tgat might be depressing or, it could be something that we have to accept. Life is a series of processes, but I think of we choose to improve our own processes in ways we value, we are going to have a better life experience than those who choose to be passive victims of circumstance.
Improvement and investment can be hard at first. BUT when you see the power of it, I think it becomes easier. This can even be applied to learning a skill. Don't have time to dedicate full on? Learn a fact a day on the subject.
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Learn something new everyday. Even better, learn something useful everyday :)
Well said :) Then we truly are making the best version of ourselves 🙌
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As the old adage states.
The only problem with this approach is in the execution. It works but God awful slow.
I'm editing a long detailed video with hours of footage and it's taking all of my focus to keep it on track.
It's a good analogy for the above concepts.
Cut it into smaller sections and then cut again and when you're happy with it.
Leave it for a couple of days and cut it again. Pairing out the superfluous and leaving the essential parts.
Easy to talk about but a hell of a job to execute. Luckily I like editing. 🤦♂️😂👍
Ever watched a movie that is so poorly edited, it is hard to make sense of it? I reckon most live their lives that way :D
Agreed most live their lives without a script or plot other than the one they were handed and never questioned.
Freedom comes when you are in the driving seat. 👍
I don’t smoke, but I do like to go to a coffee shop at find a chair for reading after ordering a latté. Yeah, it can really add up.
In Finland, add a bun or slice of cake to that and it is around 10€ - back in 2017, that was about 4 Bitcoin a year :D
Hope you don't mind if I steal this idea for my next article? The concept of distractions is really something to consider...everything is so 'in-your-face' that it makes it very difficult not to lose focus and not just with finance
Pull all you want :)
And yes, it is all clamouring for attention, like toddlers throwing tantrums.
fabulous picture of the bee with even the pollen! 😍
:)
I am hoping for more garden time in the summer - I should probably do some garden work too....
The idea is nice, but it depends on the society and cultural impedances where you live, this affects how you think and do.
This seems similar to what we teach our kids when handing over them piggy banks to put any unspent money for future toys or other stuff.
Culture influences for sure, but we are not 100% toed to our culture, we can change. This is how culture changes :)
All good and dandy in this post. Actually everything seems like good advice. However the core of the tale looks more like a fairy tale addressed exclusively to youngsters who still are under the impression they have a lot of time ahead and probably they could reach immortality at some point in their future.
Well, not always everything happens like this. And there are already some of us who have been on this planet long enough to confirm that time is shorter than we thought and there is not much more left for us already to continue with those primal instructions of optimism and fantasy.
In my opinion, everyone must do what they must do according to their own circumstances based on an inescapable and implacable reality. And of course in that process we are always going to make mistakes, one way or another.
So, if you really believe that by abstaining from smoking now and giving up buying yourself a pack of cigarettes every day, in the next 20 years you could eventually reach to gather the sum of 114K euros and with that money invest in a small property that you could rent and generate at least 700 euros per month. First let me tell you that there are already many of us for whom 20 years already represent an eternity and obviously we know that we will never see them. And keep in mind that I say this from experience.
In reality, we have achieved a lot throughout our lives by making sacrifices, but eventually we have also lost it or could lose everything in a heartbeat by the most unlikely and unforeseen reasons that also happen in our lives. Everyone to their own with their optimism. Life is only lived once and most of the time there is not enough time to live it. In these cases, it may also be useful to know something about the teachings of Sisyphus. :)
Do you remember about 5 years ago when you said you wouldn't give up smoking? I am pretty sure you would have made the same decision 10 or 20 years ago. This has very little to do with age, but for those who have stubbornly let it go to far, it might be too late.
Well, first I would have to tell you that quitting smoking has always been the easiest thing in the world for me. Given that I at least, I ended up quitting smoking about six or seven times before. :)
Yeah, I know, it has more to do with optimisms and false expectations typical of young people. That's why I told you everything I told you. Because it is basically impossible that you can see the future as I have already seen it.
Exactly! you are right and this has always been a dusty road to transit where experiences run both ways.
You seem to forget - I am not a spotty faced teen.
I have never forgotten it. But I do know that because of your age you could also easily be my son.
Everything I say to you is never to attack you, criticize you nor contradict you. I only do it so that you can contemplate many other possible perspectives that clearly are also very feasible for the future.
How many focus chests are you getting? I was only able to gather 2.
I played a lot and got 7 :D
In IT we say “ keep fixing it until it’s broke” job creation scheme.
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Lol
If it ain't broke, it hasn't been fixed enough :D
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1% story is really good. Thanks for that
investing in some every single time is not as easy as we think, but when it becomes a habit to one it will become his lifting in the nearest future.
With so many offers and happenings around us we feel tempted and have put us in an endless race of acquiring them. In this process we often lose our focus and end up gaining little.
Aggregating the marginal gains is a formula that has magical effects. There are many side and hidden things we gain during the gain of one particular thing. For instance, if we start learning 1 new word a day. It would make 365 new words in an year. But is it just the gain of 365 words. Noooo! With new words we are likely to make out the meaning of some other unknown words. With this new vocabulary our reading and understanding of the content speeds up and so a year later we are likely to collect and absorb more knowledge. It would help in many other ways. The point is that compounding effects are not in one direction but in multiple facets. Every small thing we do,Counts