Little margins make a great difference

Usain Bolt beat Justin Gatlin by just 0.01 seconds in the 100 metres finals during the current IAAF event. That’s one hundredth of a second. That tiniest of a difference meant that Bolt received a gold medal while pre-finals favourite Gatlin settled for silver. That difference meant that Bolt became only the third person in history to become a three-time 100m world champion. The other two are Carl Lewis & Maurice Greene.
In terms of form, Gatlin should have beaten Bolt. So, what made the difference?

Calm versus nervousness
Bolt kept his cool. Gatlin seemed a bit nervous. You just had to look at how he was puffing his cheeks before getting down the blocks. From a psychological stand point, it’s almost impossible to perform at your very best while nervous. How much calm do you tap into when the heat is on?

Focusing on the finish line
I looked at the images taken during the photo finish and you can see Bolt focused on the finish line while Gatlin is looking on his left almost nervously as if to ask, “is he crossing the line before me?”. In a race determined by microseconds, that glance rather than focusing on finishing should have impacted him negatively.

He was doing two jobs – running and glancing. Bolt? Running. The efficiency had to be different. In life, once you have clarified the journey, focus on finishing the race more than monitoring your adversaries.

Timing is everything
Gatlin leaned forward too early which distabilised his balance and then had to do it again during the final moments. Bolt just leaned forward at the final kick. Remember though that it could have been a desperate move to catch Bolt and this error in judgement must have been kick started by the earlier nervousness. You? Make the critical moves when it matters most. Timing is everything.

Following instructions
“After the semi-finals my coach (Glen Mills) said, ‘You are thinking about it too much. There’s too much on your mind, all you have to do is remember is that you’ve done this a million times so just go out there and relax’. That’s what I did…My coach said, ‘You’ll have to run 100 metres if you’re going to win the race… So I ran 100 metres.” Bolt said after the famous run. Why 100 metres? Because Bolt typically slows down and celebrates way before crossing the line since he beats his competitors by big margins. But his coach knew that this would be tight.
The reason I’m raising this point is because Gatlin’s coach must have given him a game plan which I bet he didn’t follow – otherwise he would have won given his form coming into the finals. So, when you have a trusted teacher or coach, listen and follow instructions.
From sports, business to life, little margins and details can make a huge difference in results created. What’s your margin of performance today?

The writer is the CEO of Success Africa. [email protected]