The Compound Effect
Darren Hardy
Book Overview from the Publisher
The Compound Effect is based on the principle that decisions shape your destiny. Little, everyday
decisions will either take you to the life you desire or to disaster by default. Darren Hardy, publisher
of ​Success Magazine​, presents ​The Compound Effect​, a distillation of the fundamental principles
that have guided the most phenomenal achievements in business, relationships, and beyond. This
easy-to-use, step-by-step operating system allows you to multiply your success, chart your
progress, and achieve any desire. If you’re serious about living an extraordinary life, use the power
of T
​ he Compound Effect t​ o create the success you want.
KEY POINTS COVERED IN THIS SUMMARY:
1. Frequent, Small, & Seemingly Inconsequential Choices ​- How small
choices actually make large impact
2. Momentum ​- 3 keys to building and speeding up momentum
3. Tracking -​ How to stop wasting time and become highly effective
4. Associations ​- Taking stock of the people in your life is crucial for
your success
1) Frequent, Small, and Seemingly Inconsequential
Choices
We are all making frequent, small, and seemingly inconsequential choices over and over again.
In the moment these small choices don't feel like they're making any difference.
Let’s take a look at these example choices:
Daily POSITIVE CHOICES (Person 1)
Daily NEGATIVE CHOICES (Person 2)
Going for a 15-minute workout after coming back
from work.
Watching TV for 15 minutes
Working on your business for 2 hours
Watching a movie
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Watching educational videos
Watching sitcoms
Eating and drinking healthy
Eating junk food
Initially when you're doing these things, the effects are not visible.
● It would feel like you're not really making any positive difference in your life.
● It would seem like both persons making these different choices are moving in the same
direction.
● The choices would feel inconsequential as they are just small choices.
But over time, these frequent, small, and seemingly inconsequential choices -- whether positive
or negative -- become very powerful.
As you do something again and again, it builds momentum.
15 minutes don't seem like they make a big difference, but over time they keep on adding up.
After a while the difference is huge.
The compound effect is sneaky since initially you don't see any results for a while, so you don't
believe these choices really have any consequences. But the truth is the consequences are very
dramatic. By the time they start showing up, it's too late.
The compound effect starts to work as you consistently put in the effort and make the right
choices.
On the other hand, if you're consistently doing the wrong things again and again, even though
they don't feel like a big deal in the moment, your life goes down dramatically.
So realize each of those recurrent small, inconsequential decisions that you think doesn't matter
-- a 5-minute break for social media or a news site instead of working on your business -- is a
very definite choice you're making every single time.
2) How to Build and Speed Up Momentum
If you’ve ever seen a train speeding by, you know it is a very dangerous machine.
● A train moving at 55 miles per hour can actually run right through a 5-feet-deep wall of
concrete. It will keep running forward.
● However, let’s say a 1-inch block of wood is placed in front of the wheels of a stationary
train. In that case, the train would not even budge forward even if it’s engines are
humming. It’s stuck.
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Why is it that when the train is initially starting to move, it can be stopped with just a 1-inch
wide piece of wood, but when it has been running, it is able to ram through a 5-feet wall of
concrete?
The difference of course is momentum. Massive momentum.
3 Keys to Building Momentum
If you want to have the momentum of a speeding train that will not be stopped in the face of
any obstacles, these are the ideas to remember and understand:
1. I​ t takes a lot of effort initially to get something moving.
In fact, a lot of effort initially leads to very little results -- and that's true for all kinds of efforts.
You put in a lot of effort and you get miniscule results.
Most people will actually give up because of not seeing results initially. However, the key to
building momentum is to go right through the stage and continue to consistently put in the
effort and hard work in order to get something to move.
2. C
​ onsistency is the ultimate key to momentum.
The train has an engine and has pistons that are moving it and consistently pushing it forward.
The engine is doing all the work very consistently, and that leads to a consistent output. It is a
machine with very predictable and consistent motion.
3. I​ n order to build consistency, we need routines.
Just as a train’s engine has a precise system of how everything works together, we also need
routines in our lives in order to make our momentum work.
No routines ➜ No consistency ➜ No momentum ➜ No execution
So just remember that while it initially takes a lot of effort and the results are very limited, these
results will eventually get bigger if we consistently put effort over time.
To get big results, the only way is to make sure you have routines in place to move things
forward, to make sure you do what you said you would do.
3) Tracking
How can we stop wasting time and become highly effective?
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The answer is ​tracking​. And not only is this technique good in helping us make use of our time
well, it is also good for improving any behavior in any area of our lives. Whether it’s with
exercise, money, or food whatever you’re going after, you can improve your behavior with
tracking.
How tracking works
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Simply write down throughout the day in your notebook or journal how you used a
resource or did a behavior.
Log it as soon as you’re doing it or as soon as you’ve done it but not at a later time.
You cannot do this from memory. You have to take note of it right away.
When you change the task or do something else, write down what you did.
Now you are tracking everything.
EXAMPLE: You want to control your weight.
● Start noting down everything that you're eating.
● You’ll start seeing a dramatic difference from Week 1 to Week 2.
● You become conscious. You now become aware of what you're doing.
● You get closer to your goal.
Once you start tracking, you start eliminating the bad behaviors and do the right things instead.
You make good choices again and again. Just the simple act of tracking moves you into the
direction you want.
You can’t improve what you can't measure.
If you can't measure something, you can't improve it.
Measurement is required in order to improve, and tracking is a really simple way to do it. With
tracking, you’ll actually start noticing what you're doing on any given behavior. You’ll see your
progress and you’ll get massive results. You've got to do it.
When and how long to do your tracking
Do your tracking for ​3 weeks​ (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3).
You'll start to see improvement from Week 1 to Week 2 and you'll see improvements again
from Week 2 to Week 3.
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Do it for 3 weeks to see the real effects of this tracking. You'll be astonished with how you're
wasting your time and how well you start using your time.
4) Associations
Associations are one of the most powerful ways in which the compound effect works in our life.
As Jim Rohn, the great personal development guru, said:
We are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with.
In every area of your life, you are the average of the 5 people you spend most of your time with.
So if you spend your time with positive, uplifting people who are going somewhere in life, you
are growing up in life as well. If you spend it with negative people, your life will move in the
wrong direction.
If you look at the average income of the 5 people you spend the most time with, you'll see that
you are somewhere in that neighborhood as well.
EXERCISE:
Here's a really simple but powerful exercise you can do to start making changes in your
associations.
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Make a list of all the people you associate with on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.
Now make 3 separate lists.
a. Disassociations - People we need to stop associating with because they're
actually pulling us down
b. Limited associations - People we need to have limited engagement with. These
are the people whom we can spend a few hours or a few days with but we
cannot spend a lot of time with.
c. Expanded associations - Your most powerful group of associations. These are
the people you need to spend more time with, the people in your life who will
actually move you up in life.
So make these 3 lists of the people in your life and start evaluating your time use according to
these lists.
As David McClelland of Harvard University said:
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95% of our success comes as a result of the people we associate with.
That’s a huge part of our success. So it's a really powerful idea. The associations we have will
change the trajectory of our lives, whether up or down.
Related Books:
●
The 80/20 Principle
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