Change the world... no, seriously

Now that my hip is on the mend after my operation in May, I have started to weight train again and have buddied up with a longstanding training parter and friend of mine. 

Its great to train with someone else -generally- as it will help you with your motivation. However, because my friend and I have similar career and life circumstances, I have noticed that our gym visits have become somewhat of a creative session also. Often, in between big deadlifts or squats, we will find ourselves talking about how we plan to change the world - no joke. This is the sort of conversation you may recall having down the pub after 10 pints, except we are sober and have no excuses for our delusion of grandeur ;-)
Anyway, I started a 'tongue in cheek' trend with my training buddy by saying farewell after every visit to the gym with the phrase 'change the world' as opposed to the usual mundane 'have a nice day' or 'take it easy'. Aside from providing minor amusement, this also got me thinking about just how outlandish most people feel about their propensity to 'change the world'. 



Could the gym be the new pub for a healthy generation? Many hardcore trainers would frown upon this type of behaviour and tell you to take your conversation down the pub and get out of their squat rack but frankly, provided you are not curling in the squat rack, I think a bit of conversation is healthy. Perhaps another blog for another time... 

Changing the world seems like a massive task doesn't it? To change the world conjures visions of landing a man on the moon or inventing the warp drive but it can be much more manageable. Everyone is empowered to make a difference in the world we live in, its just a matter of whether you choose to see it that way or not. I believe the trendy term for this is 'empowerment'. 

Start out with something simple - do something every day that you can be proud of. Maybe this is going to the gym, eating a good breakfast, spending quality time with your children, or tackling a pesky challenge at work. Whatever it is, if it is something you can be proud of, do it and change the world one piece at a time. 

Dave Brailsford, the former UK Director of Performance of British Cycling and now Boss of Team Sky is a big proponent of the concept of the 'aggregation of marginal gains' which basically states that you can take a bunch of marginal improvements (as little as 1%) and add them together to create a big improvement. Dave has been quite successful with this approach, winning multiple Olympic and World Gold medals with his teams and more recently he architected winning the Tour de France twice in a row with British Riders. Clive Woodward took a similar approach in 2003 when he won the Rugby World Cup with an incredible England Team. I think it is fair to say that the Science behind this approach is substantial and not to be ignored. 

The world is littered with examples of seemingly modest and ordinary people (bright.. but by no means Einstein or Newton) having extremely positive impacts on the world and the examples I mention above are only the examples that make the headlines. Neither Clive or Dave would describe themselves as particularly exceptional individuals as they will always credit their teams for their success (and rightly so) but what does make them exceptional is their commitment to their belief that making small improvements on daily basis over a long period of time will eventually lead to a significant improvement (and sometimes greatness).  

At this point, I would like to leave you with a quote from someone else who had a big impact on our world during his time with us.

“When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and you're life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.”

-Steve Jobs, Apple CEO

Thanks for reading, now go change the world... 

Chancey