Oh, hey!
I was just listening to a few mental fitness techniques from this program called Reboot Mindfulness that my son’s high school mountain bike team uses. I volunteer as a coach for the team, and I’ve seen that regardless of each athlete’s approach or attitude, there’s something inside each athlete that drives them.
There are so many other things beyond just simply how they’re wired that can help them meet their goals. A lighter bike. Working on skills. Learning how to hydrate and fuel. Getting sleep. Reframing their nerves. Learning positive self talk.
These young athletes have so much to learn and try as they work to improve. But they don’t have to do it all at once. And they don’t have to master them all. But if they can improve in a few areas, they’ll continue to make marginal gains that can really add up.
I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with marginal gains, but if you’re not, it’s an idea that emerged out of cycling where making several small improvements across multiple aspects of your performance will lead to a much larger cumulative gain.
Let’s say an athlete hydrates and fuels properly instead of missing calories or electrolytes. For these young racers, that’s a pretty big gain actually. Maybe even 20%
And let’s say that they’ve gotten into the proper mindset so that their bodies and minds feel ready to perform. Let’s say that gives them another 15% improvement.
And in practice last week they worked on and feel confident in some skill areas they’ve been falling short on. Boom, another 10% gain.
Even if they don’t improve other things that could help them perform their best, by improving a few things just a little bit, they’ve improved by like, 40+%.
And that’s a huge margin in a race.
Marginal gains are an important concept for athletes because competition is never just about how good your technique is or how fit you are. Coming out on top is about so much more.
But you don’t have to be perfect at all of them.
All you need are some marginal gains.
I love playing around with thinking about improving your brand performance like this because it lets you tinker to see what works and then build on them rather than tear the house down and rebuild from scratch.
Think about how this could apply to your social.
Instead of thinking about making something that goes viral or hooking your wagon to the biggest and brightest influencer, what can you do to get 10% higher engagement?
Maybe it’s your posting time. Maybe it’s the visual content. Maybe it’s a different copy approach. Maybe it’s all of those things. You can play around, see what works, and then apply what works going forward and build on it.
Think about email. What happens if you mix up your story arc? Play around with your content approach. Or just up the frequency to different segments. You can play around and see what works and then apply that going forward.
With marginal gains, you’re looking for progress over perfection, much like a growth mindset. But don’t just get all willy nilly with this. Look for several areas to improve but start with small improvements. And then monitor and build.
So, pick three things that you can try to improve just a little and see where it takes you.
For me, I’m going to try posting this at different time than I usually do and not forget to use hashtags like I always do.
Alright, I’m going to get back to learning about how to get into the zone. Bet there are marginal gains to be had there!