Notes from Darren Hardy’s book The Compound Effect.
This is a combination of quotes directly from the book with certain adjustments for context, as well as my personal thoughts.
What is the compound effect?
- The Compound Effect is the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices.
- The compound effect is the operating system that has been running your life, for better or worse.
- Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE
- The Compound Effect is always working. You can choose to make it work for you, or you can ignore it and experience the negative effects of this powerful principle.
Information and knowledge
- New or more information is not what you need. A new plan of action is.
- Knowledge is not power. It’s potential power. It’s like energy in a light switch, until you turn it on (taking action) power is useless. Knowledge uninvested is wasted.
- “Ideas without action leads to disillusion.” — Jim Rohn
Choices
- Our choices can be our best friend or worst enemy. Choice is at the center of all success and failure. It is what we choose that makes the biggest difference. Too often we sleepwalk through our choices. We default to choices that our society and culture tells us we should do.
- It’s not big choices, but ones that you think don’t matter or count for much that derail us. You don’t consciously think about it, but these small decisions can really change things.
- Don’t get stuck in the no man’s land in complacency and the status quo.
- Preparation (personal growth) + Attitude (belief/mindset) + Opportunity (a good thing coming your way) + Action (doing something about it) = Luck
- Start tracking.
Habits
- “We are what we repeatedly do.” — Aristotle
- You can condition your automatic and unconscious responses (habits) to be those of a developed champion.
- The first step toward change is awareness. The best way to become aware is to measure. Writing it all down is key.
- Merely becoming conscious of your actions begins to change them.
- You must know your why.
- If I were to put a ten-inch-wide, thirty-foot-long plank on the ground and say, “If you walk the length of the plank, I’ll give you twenty dollars,” would you do it? Of course, it’s an easy twenty bucks.
But what if I took that same plank and made a roof-top “bridge” between two 100-story buildings? That same twenty dollars for walking the thirty-foot plank no longer looks desirable or even possible, does it? You’d look at me and say, “Not on your life.”
However, if your child was on the opposite building, and that building was on fire, would you walk the length of the plank to save him or her? Without question and immediately—you’d do it, twenty dollars or not.
What changed? Your why. - The most motivating choices are ones that align with your “why” and your purpose.
- You (your choices) + Your Behavior (your actions)+ Your Habits (your repeated actions) [compounded] = Your Life.
- 5 steps to eliminate bad habits:
1. Identify your triggers: who, what, why, and when?
2. Clean house: remove triggers
3. Swap it: replace triggers
4. Ease in: start slow with small steps
5. Jump in: and you’ll eventually adapt - What is your E:E – Entertainment to Education ratio? The top 20% of people spend their time focused on education.
Momentum
- Momentum is huge. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion.
- The hardest part of momentum is the beginning. But like pushing the merry-go-round on the playground… Once you get moving you can keep going very easily.
- When you lose two weeks of work, you don’t just lose the work you would have done. You also lose momentum and that is the bigger problem.
- Consistency is the key to achieving and maintaining momentum.
Influences
- Everyone is affected by three kinds of influences: input (what you feed your mind), associations (the people you spend time with), and environment (your surroundings).
- Craft how you get influenced wisely.
- Your brain was not made to be happy. It was made for survival.
Do Better Than Expected
- Go above and beyond when you hit the wall.
Conclusion
Learning without execution is useless.
Motivation without action leads to self-delusion.
All merit of this article is to The Compound Effect, an amazingly actionable book by Darren Hardy.
If you haven’t read the book yet, check it out here.
Arjun Khemani 