The Compound Effect = Consistent daily Choices + Behaviours + Habits formed give you the life you lead
- The Compound Effect (Hardy, 2012), describes the principle of reaping huge rewards or losses from a series of small, wise or unwise conscious or sub-conscious choices and actions which, when applied consistently and with direction and commitment over time, will obtain massive results.
- By consistently applying a specific dynamic plan, you can attain any goal you desire and live the life you were meant to live. It’s not a magic bullet, though. It takes hard work to develop the discipline and mentality you will need to achieve your goals. Most times, the steps you have to take produce such subtle and unnoticed changes that you may well ask, “Why bother?”
- If you have NO PLAN then The Compound Effect will take you anywhere your sub-conscious decides.
- Hard work and focus are essential. The Compound Effect does require disciplines to be formed – every day, in the same way, with faith, patience and focus, in the belief that the reward we seek (whether it be money, friendship, health or a particular skill-set) will be attained.
- Small, smart choices + consistency + time = radical positive difference. Example: If you start with a 1$ and double your money every day, after 30 days you will have accrued almost $11 million. Isn’t this astounding!!!
- The Compound Effect is always working – either with you or against you. Every day we make choices of habits and behaviours in all aspects of our lives, and the Compound Effect either improves or reduces our income, our health, our relationships, our happiness and our success.
- Each choice begins or promotes a behaviour that becomes a habit. Every choice has an impact on the Compound Effect of our life. If we remain unaware of where our daily activities are taking us, we can easily sleepwalk through them.
- Like a ship that is less than 0.1 degrees out of sync. It will end up degrees away from its destination.
- It is so easy to forge poor habits because each of us is wired to choose the easy way.
- It’s easy not to exercise in the morning and just stay in bed instead. It’s easy to watch television rather than read a book. So, our best intentions will fail if we don’t have a system to follow and a big enough reason to change our routine or ideas. Need a WHY?
- Our new attitudes and behaviours must be incorporated into our daily, weekly and monthly routines to effect any real, positive and lasting change.
- As we watch sports, the elite make it look so easy. However, all champions have daily rituals and routines to follow, to acquire the skills necessary to achieve.
- It is not luck that forges their success. It takes:
- Commitment is doing the thing you said you would long after the mood you said it in has left you.
- Consistency is a critical component of achieving the Compound Effect. Darren Hardy (2012)
- It then becomes logical to focus on what influences our decisions, for these determine what we are becoming. Once we are aware of the Compound Effect, we should stop and think. And ask?
- “What do I feed my brain?
- “Do I involve myself with achievers, and educational and uplifting books and programs?”
- “Or do I just watch news and sitcoms?”
- Our brains take in everything we see, hear and say. The brain remembers our language, our behaviour and all the noises around us, all day and every day. Ultimately, we get in life what we create. The conversation in our head is at the base of what each of us creates in life. So:
- What/who are you thinking about?
- What/who is influencing and directing your thoughts?
- What are you are allowing yourself to hear, see and say?
- The people with whom we habitually associate can determine up to 95% of our success or failure. Jim Rohn once said that we become the combined average of the five people we hang around with the most.
- That being the case, we can influence the quality of our health, our attitude to life and our income by looking at the people around us. These people determine the conversations that dominate our attention and the attitudes to which we are exposed regularly.
- Almost unconsciously, we begin to eat what they eat, talk about what they talk about, watch what they watch, speak as they speak and use the same language as they do. We may wind up virtually believing what they believe – beliefs which may, in fact, be averse to our own purpose and meaning in life.
- Tragically, we are usually unaware of these associations because the influence is so subtle, and it may be years before we realise whether or not we are following our best path or heading away from it.
- I hope the Compound Effect will become an important part of your future thinking and that you will ponder over your life and your society and become aware of how changes have gradually occurred and are still occurring day by day. By being aware of the Compound Effect you are able to ensure that you question why and what you do or think in your own life and how the same occurs in society.
Forming new habits, or adjusting old ones, takes at least twenty-eight days before the new or amended habits become programmed into your subconscious – be patient, determined and focused.
“Actions are the seeds of fate. Deeds grow into destiny” Harry S Truman
“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes” Mahatma Gandhi
“Don’t go through life with a glass half full and looking for another who can fill your cup.”
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