The compound effect

To continue on from yesterday’s post (if you haven’t read it, I recommend reading that first) about not letting fear paralyse you and how something incredible can happen you make the decision to just do it anyways. It’s called the compound effect.

“Life’s this game of inches, when you add up all those inches, that’s gonna make the f*****g difference between winning and losing, between living and dying” – Al Pacino, Any Given Sunday.

One of my favourite books is Darren Hardy’s ‘The Compound Effect’. The principle is straight forward enough, the compound affect is similar to adding up all the inches, he talks about how the choices we make every day will compound over time.

If you are consistently making good food and exercise choices, you will get in better shape, feel better and have more energy. If you are consistently working on feeding your mind with positive thoughts every single day, those positive thoughts will become ‘automatic’ your perspective will automatically go towards the positive.

However, the same can happens with negative thoughts, if you let negative thoughts enter your mind every single day, your automatic ‘go to’ will be to see the negative in everything. We all know that one person who complains about everything: they hate their job, their relationships; if the sun is out, ‘its too hot’, if its raining ‘it’s a horrible day again’ – most of the time these people don’t even realise they’re doing it; they’re negative thoughts have become ‘automatic’.

‘If you don’t program your mind, your mind will be programed’ – unknown.

You decide what ideas, thoughts and things you let into your mind. Make the conscience decision to only feed your mind with ideas and positive things that support your life and your journey.

FAST FOOD MAKES YOU FAT, NEGATIVE THOUGHTS MAKE YOU NEGATIVE! 
Would you eat fast food every day and expect to lose weight and have an amazing physique? Probably not, but putting garbage ideas into your head does the exact same thing. Thoughts become things, the thoughts we have influence the actions we take, and the actions we take dictate the direction of your life. Cut negative external sources like you would cut fast food from you diet. If you want a better body, cut crappy food, if you want a positive life, cut crappy thoughts.

THE MAGIC PENNY!
There’s an amazing story in ‘The Compound Effect’ about how powerful the idea can be in practice.
For example, “if you were given a choice between taking $3 million in cash this very instant and a single penny that doubles in value every day for 31 days, which would you choose?
Let’s say you take the cold, hard cash and your friend goes the penny route. On Day Five, your friend has sixteen cents. You, however, have $3 million. On Day Ten, it’s $5.12 versus your big bucks. How do you think your friend is feeling about her decision? You’re spending your millions, enjoying the heck out of it, and loving your choice.
After 20 full days, with only 11 days left, your friend has only $5,243. How is she feeling about herself at this point? For all her sacrifice and positive behavior, she has barely more than $5,000. You, however, have $3 million.
Then the invisible magic of the Compound Effect starts to become visible. The same small mathematical growth improvement each day makes the compounded penny worth $10,737,418.24 on Day Thirty-one, more than three times your $3 million.
In this example we see why consistency over time is so important. On Day Twenty-nine, you’ve got your $3 million; your frined has around $2.7 million. It isn’t until Day Thirty of this 31-day race that she pulls ahead, with $5.3 million. And it isn’t until the very last day of this month long ultramarathon that your friend blows you out of the water; she ends up with $10,737,418.24 to your $3 million”
When I heard this first, I had to take out my calculator to make sure it was true. Sure enough it is, so why is it so hard to believe choosing the penny will result in more money in the end? Because it takes so much longer to see the payoff. This story has supported me on my journey as it can be applied to nearly every aspect of life.

The reason I got up at 5am every morning when I was starting my business and continued to make videos and write blog posts that nobody watched, read or saw was because I knew the compound effect would eventually kick in.

The same can be applied when you’re trying to lose weight or get in great shape- if you’ve been overweight for 10 years, you’re not going to get lean in 10 days but in 6, 12 or 18 months, you might look like a completely different person.

I apply this compound effect even now with my relationships with people, my daughter in particular. I’ve talked in previous chapters about ‘ how being present’ with my little girl is always my number 1 goal. ‘Being present’ is something I struggle with naturally as my ‘go to’ is to constantly be thinking of the future and ‘what’s next’ but I know that the compound effect of always being present will build our bond over time. My goal is have our relationship stronger than anything else on this planet! I cant see the effects of that now, she’s nearly two at the publication of this book but I know in 10,15, 20 years when I’m her ‘go to’ person (like my mum is for me) – that the compound effect will have worked. It just comes down to making the right decisions (small as they may be) day after day.

“Greatness is just doing the right things day after day… after day after day” – Jamie Fox

Written by Brian Keane 16.9.2016