My Reflections on the best selling book: THE COMPOUND EFFECT

THE COMPOUND EFFECT

By Darren Hardy

Pages: 174

Year: 2010

Tagline: Multiplying Your Success, One Simple Step at a Time

I started this book on 6^th January and finished on 8^th January, 2014. In this short but excellent book, I found the principles of reaping the rich harvest from the series of small but smart choices. Hardy finds two major challenges in human achievements.

1] Hype around the personal achievement

2] Tendency to sabotage our success by neglecting positive choices

There aren’t 5,000 things we need to do well to be successful; we need to do only half a dozen things repeated 5,000 times.

Hardy attacks the quick-fixed mentality like make 10, 00,000 within one month and reduces the weight by 15 kg within 15 days. These repetitive marketing messages have distorted our thinking. We are losing our sight of simple but profound truth of what it takes to be successful. It’s time to go back to basics.

The Compound Effect is the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices. The most amazing thing: Though the results are massive, the steps to achieve them are so simple and at moments look insignificant.  The results will speak themselves provided given the time and consistency in following those simple steps.

The essence of compound effect is:

Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time= Radical Difference

CHOICES: Everything in life, exist because we made a choice about something. Each choice starts behaviours which over a time become a habit.

Our biggest challenge is not that we have made intentionally bad choices. They are easy to fix.  The big issue is we have been sleepwalking through our choices- sometimes not even aware that we are making them. Nobody wants to be unsuccessful, bankrupt, obese or ugly, but we used to make such choices which ultimately lead to such catastrophes. The Compound Effect always works: either in positive or negative direction. Your good choices put you on the Moon and your bad choices put you off the course. Now we have to be aware about our choices.

Sleep-waking choices vs. Wake up choices.

TAKING 100 % RESPONSIBILITY OF YOUR LIFE: This principle, I have founded repeatedly in numerous self-help books [including my best: Success Principles by Jack Canfield]. The day we take 100% responsibility of our life, we completely transform our life.

I am responsible for everything I do, don’t do, or how I responded to what is done to me.

In our finger-pointing generation, we always expect that some miracle will save us or someone else solve our problems. But you yourself are responsible for the conditions and solutions you bring to your problems. WOW! What a revelation! It is to be, it is up to me.  This truth provides unlimited power to control our destiny.  

HABITS: As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do.” Psychological studies reveal that 95 % of everything we feel, think and do and achieve is a result of a learned habit. We are born with instincts; not with habits. We gradually develop them over time.

Question is how to uproot those bad habits which have become obstacles in the path of successful life and how to imbibe those good habits which can put us on the top of life. The best solution is TRACKING.  Tracking is the most powerful system to track our behaviours. Keep track on those behaviours which you want to instil or discard for at least 3 months. Have a small notebook and log everything regarding the particular behaviours. This can make awareness about our mindless habits which lead to reckless behaviours.

DAILY RITUALS: A daily routine built on good habits and disciplines separates most successful among us.  A routine is exceptionally powerful. As a society, we are good at starting something new but poor at staying focused at it. If we get some diet plan or exercise routine, we start with full on enthusiasm, but with the passage of time, our enthusiasm withers and eventually dies. Nothing kills the compound effect quicker than lack of consistency. Lack of consistency is an epidemic. Be the person who given enough time, will beat virtually anybody in any competition as a result of positive habits and behaviours applied consistently.  The best way to maintain consistency is to maintain rhythm register.

The Compound Effect challenges us to ponder on and imbibe these philosophies in our life [ It means in our daily habits, disciplines and routines. Giving a little more time, energy and thought to our efforts will not only improve but also multiply them. That’s power of Compound Effect!

MY VERDICT: This book can alter your life, if you apply the philosophies, fill the forms which are given at the back of the book and follow them consistently over the long period of time until they become the parts of your nature. Good investment for reading something practical which helps us grow practically in life. I heartily recommend THE COMPOUND EFFECT to those who wants to grow but fumbled by the distraction of media.

Thank YOU, Darren, you are not only a live example of the Compound effect but also a hope that basics have not yet lost in this quick-fix society.