Are you struggling to form new habits to kickstart your success journey? Maybe, the YouTube gurus and online courses have ingrained in your mind the need to have a dozen different “rituals” that in reality, do not contribute to a productive lifestyle. In reality, you only need a few tiny habits and the power of “compounding” will do the rest.
PlayTru Media’s “Book of the Month” is proud to bring to you the very first edition of key takeaways from “Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy. In the previous article, we gave you a small overview of the book and how Darren has taught us the power of compounding.
It’s now time to go deep into the tenets of the book, see how compounding is present in everyday life, and what the fundamentals are.
What The Compound Effect Is and Isn’t
The Compound Effect looks at the formation of new inconsequential habits, as a way of reaping powerful rewards over long-term application
Small changes compounded over time can have drastic effects for us. Say you want to lose 10 kgs in a year and to do that, you’ve decided to consume 300 calories less per day. Over a year, those 300 calories a day compound to around 75,000 calories a year which is the equivalent of 10 kgs.
Now it’s up to you to put in consistent effort and eat 500 calories yet. The benefit is for you to lose or gain. But hopefully, you understand the power of compounding now.
The compound effect also draws parallels with money. A penny that doubles in value every day ends up being worth over $100 over time.
It’s important to draw the distinction between Compounding and Habits, however. A habit is a set of actions that are repeated consistently over time to produce meaningful results. The Compound Effect relates to a wide variety of habits or actions that come together to cause significant leaps in our growth.
For example, you start learning piano and practice for 30 minute. The repetitive action of practicing piano at a set pace, at a specific time is a habit. However, as you progress into a virtuoso over 5-10 years is where compounding comes into play. The question still is – Are you willing to spend those 30 minutes each and every day for the next 5-10 years?
The Importance of being Diligent and Consistent
The general rule of thumb of almost any aspect of life is the need to be “consistent and diligent” with our actions. We can start working on a dozen new habits but they will only give us results if we apply them consistently, day in day out.
Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE
Darren Hardy | The Compound Effect
- Practicing piano consistently can drastically increase our chances of becoming a pro musician, right?
- Investing a certain amount of cash into stocks consistently does grow our portfolio of positive returns, correct or not?:
The biggest variable with “being consistent” is the need to have SMART Goals. After all, doesn’t it help to know where consistency will take you:
The other half of the coin looks at diligence. Darren pushes us to work on our decision making and make sure that we don’t slacken off after a week or two. He further adds to that conversation by writing that if we want to see significant results, we have to put in double the effort AFTER the positive results start coming in.
Sounds counterintuitive, right? I’ve benefited from brushing my teeth for a week. Why should I continue, right? The human mind looks for instant gratification and for the easy way out once we’ve received that sense of gratification.
The Compound Effect applied in Daily Life
Now let’s get out of the theory and see the compound effect applied in real life.
To keep things transparent, I’ll give you an example right out of my own life. I had my first encounter with Digital Marketing back in 2019. Guess what I did?
- Ignore that call and continue wasting my time
- Start learning all about Digital Marketing
You can bet I took the second option. I actually found all the publications and websites I could and started reading about Digital Marketing. At first, it was jargon that I couldn’t understand since I was jumping from Social Media to SEO to PR to Paid Ads. With some research, I found out about a Free course that the Pakistani Government was promoting at the time. I joined their batch at once and started learning marketing in a structured way.
Now I could have completed the course and went about my business. But I didn’t do that, I still kept looking for journals, newsletters, books – anything I could find to keep understanding marketing in a deeper way.
What’s the outcome? Fast-forward to 2022, I am well-versed in the fundamentals of marketing, and have helped countless clients in multiple industries with Content Marketing, Social Media, Research – you name it…
I was only able to do this because I kept learning about marketing consistently. Let’s draw attention to the word – “consistently” – I didn’t practice marketing 7 days a week – heck I don’t do that even now. Consistency doesn’t mean showing up to work 7 days a week. It means showing up on a regular basis and being actually productive. You can work 7 days a week and not get the desired results. It’s all about planning and about being consistent in the right way.
Conclusion
The Compound Effect is a lifelong process that we can never get away from. Success is temporary only when our actions towards it are temporary. In order to be happy and successful throughout our lives, we have to make sure we’re using compounding each day every day.
Whether we want to build a million dollar business or want to do enough to provide for our family, the compound effect stays in motion throughout IF we relay it to our mind.
In the next article, we will look at some of the key quotes that distinguish The Compound Effect from other books as well as some practical resources that you can use to get started right away.
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