The Compound Effect

By Darren Hardy

First published in 2010, this book demonstrates how simple changes in your habits can alter the trajectory of your future. Success in your personal life, health, wellbeing, wealth, and quality of life, in general, does not come in a silver bullet that works in a single shot. Grand gestures do not bring life-changing transformations. Instead, you reap huge rewards from small, smart choices.

• Smart, seemingly insignificant, deliberate choices made and repeated over time result in long-term habits that turn into routines, character, and long-term success.

• Progress from each step in the consistent trail of repetitive action tends to multiply as the new change applies to the sum of all previous changes.

• It is comforting to know it only takes tiny steps, consistently repeated over time, to transform your life radically.

Whether you are aware of it or not, the compound effect is transforming the course of your life for better or worse. With minor changes, you can leverage the power of compounding to achieve the desired results rather than the ones you end up with unconsciously.

Consistency and Faith

This is the most challenging part. You have to work at it consistently and effectively over time for the results to become apparent. It is easy to lose faith in the process, especially if you don't enjoy the process.

Firstly, do enough research to figure out the most effective and enjoyable tiny steps that work. Then, you have to keep at it relentlessly and push through without relying on instant results for motivation. Having faith in your process is vital for compounding to work.

For someone who starts lifting weight or eating healthy, it takes four weeks for themselves to start noticing changes in their body. It takes eight weeks for friends and family and almost eight weeks for the rest of the world. Most don't stay consistent beyond two weeks because it is not easy to have faith and stay motivated without seeing immediate results.

Routine Power

A routine is something you do with little or no conscious thought. Routines help maintain consistency with relative ease towards the progress of your objective.

Be intentional about what goal you choose to make progress. Build routines that help prepare and naturally drive you to take steps that move you closer to your destination.

As an example, let's assume your goal is to start eating healthy. Let's say it requires you to build the habit of starting to eat your meals at home. The routine you can create is to set a specific day of the week to get groceries done. Build grocery shopping and food prep into your schedule to never run out of supplies when it is time to eat.

Switch up your routine when it starts to plateau or is boring. It won't be long before you start realizing that progression to the next level requires added steps in your routine.

Choices

"You make choices, and those choices make you." Also, what you don't stop doing, you are choosing.

Read that again.

Every choice you make has an impact on the compounding process of your life. Therefore, you need to be aware of the choices you make. Do not take any decision lightly. Don't let 99% of your choices be unconscious.

Start leading your life rather than life leading you!

Unconscious decisions are not exclusively based on positive influences or well-founded rational positions. For example, nobody intends to be unhealthily overweight or have a lifestyle-based heart condition. Unintended consequences come from unconscious choices.

Start taking 100% responsibility for your choices. You are responsible for what you do and what happens to you. When you start taking responsibility for your choices, you stop finding excuses. Your boss is not the reason that you don't have time to work out. Your partner is not the excuse for your failure. Your personal failure or success is a result of your choices.

Start Now

Time is of the essence. The compound effect needs time on your side. Ignore the sunken cost of lost time and start now. If you are forty and start investing now, you can still end up building a significant retirement fund by the time of your retirement age. This is because you have been investing and compounding for 25 years by that age.

Habits

We are what we do. 95% of everything we do, learn, and achieve is a result of a learned habit. But we are born with instincts and no habits. As we grow older, we learn a set of conditioned responses. Conditioning that helps respond automatically - almost without thinking. Considering how impossible it is to consciously apply your mind for every single chore you do in a day, it is a blessing. You wake up and go through your habitual routine in the morning without having to flex your brain.

Only when you are presented with a new task, do you have to think consciously and respond. These responses - good or bad - grow as habits. Habits grow and root deep. Sometimes the roots grow so deep; it's nearly impossible to uproot. Therefore, you have the choice to grow deep-rooted habits that contribute effortlessly to your progress. Keep your goals in mind when you make such choices that develop into habits.

The Present Bias

We are biased against our present self when we plan to get things done. I'll start running next week, conveniently letting your present self sit back and spend hours on Netflix. You procrastinate to let your present self attain instant gratification. Get out of the instant gratification trap.

Recognize the power of now.

Identify Your "Why?"

Your desire and motivations are your "Why." Your "Why" is not to look good in front of the mirror. Your "Why" is to live a healthy, self-sufficient, meaningful life without being dependent as long as you are alive. This "why" is the reason you will be motivated to stay consistent. Find your more profound, more meaningful "Why?"

Life Goals before Work Goals

What goals, dreams, and destinations do you desire for your life.

• Where do you see yourself living?

• What do you want your future self to be doing for a living?

• What skills do you want to be good at?

Decide what you will enjoy doing for your personal self before you set your business or work goals. Spend time in setting goals. Build your life goals first, then build your work goals around that. You are committing to spend your life to achieve these goals.

Momentum

Resistance to change is a basic instinct. It is hard to get started. You need to get past the inertial force of resistance to gain momentum and build a habit. Once you achieve the momentum, your habits become relatively easy. You spend less energy to keep going than the energy and desire you spend to get you off to start a routine.

Finding your rhythm, or as I call it, having a schedule.

Your time needs an assignment. Any time of the week that you haven't consciously assigned to a specific event or a task will be spent doing things that are usually not important or urgent. Ideally, you need to be spending most of your time doing things that are most important to your long-term progress. If you leave your long weekend an open schedule, you will burn through it with the first toxic influence that presents itself. A week planned with time blocks assigned to routines selected consciously based on your priorities will help you make better decisions about your time. So when your toxic "friend" calls for a late night out, it's easy for you to say no - since you have an early morning routine of workout/run the next day.

Find a rhythm that will last a lifetime. Do not try to do too much, too soon. You are most likely to break your rhythm if you do too much, too soon. Instead, start small and be consistent. Recognize the power of consistency. Staying consistent and maintaining momentum is critical.

Choose Your Influences Wisely

We have established that you are 100% responsible for your actions and your choices. Your choices have both external and internal influences. You also get to choose what should influence you, like:

• How things you learn influence you - The Inputs

• Who you are with - The Associations &

• What is around you - Your Environment

1. The Inputs

What you feed your mind will contribute to the predispositions that formulate your choices and actions. Consume content that is productive, positive, and creative. Weed everything out. Limit your social media use to consume knowledge rather than personal updates and holiday pictures. Use the follow button wisely. Be aware of how much time you spend letting the content influence you.

2. The Associations

Be aware of who you spend your time with. The more you spend time with someone, the more likely you are to follow their actions. Therefore, associate yourself with people who can drive you towards the best self that you want for yourself. Conversely, disengage, limit, and disassociate with people who are likely to weigh you down.

3. Your Environment

Clear out the clutter in your life. Both physical and emotional. Watch what you tolerate. Life will organize around what standard you set for yourself.

Acceleration

When you build your habits and consistently put in the effort in the right direction, you start being presented with opportunities to accelerate your progress towards your goal. You can take advantage of unique moments of truth you are given because you have been preparing yourself for a long time already. These moments are usually out of reach for someone with no preparations.

Last summer, all running races were shut down in the region, and no one was training seriously anymore in hot Arabian Summer and pandemic-related shutdowns. Nevertheless, I kept going, ran around my house while I was fasting, and there was curfew after 5 pm. Then when the races finally opened up in a small window of September 2020, not only was I able to participate, I was able to beat a few serious runners and get a podium finish.

Be Ready

Don't wish it was easier. Wish you were better. Be ready to take advantage of moments of truths and opportunity when it presents itself.

Always go above and over

Do the unexpected. Common things give common results. If you want extraordinary results, do better than expectations. Find creative ways to do better every time incrementally. You will end up with something extraordinary over time.

Do it Now!

Giving a little more time, energy, and thought to your efforts will not just improve your results. Instead, it will multiply your results.

And the time to do it is NOW!