The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, similar to Atomic Habits, is my favorite book and highlights how success comes from small, consistent actions over time.
The book's core principle is:
"small, smart choices + consistency + time = radical difference".
Hardy argues that success is not the result of massive, overnight changes but rather the accumulation of small, daily decisions that compound over time.
He introduces the concept of the "Compound Effect," which is the idea that even the smallest actions, when repeated consistently, can lead to major results.
Key themes in the book include the importance of "habits," "choices," and "momentum."
Hardy explains how bad habits derail progress while good habits drive success.
He stresses taking "100% responsibility" for your life, as blaming external factors only hinders growth.
The book provides practical strategies for tracking progress, staying motivated, and eliminating negative influences. It highlights the role of environment and associations, encouraging readers to surround themselves with positive influences.
Ultimately, The Compound Effect is a call to action to focus on the "small actions" that lead to BIG results.
Hardy’s message is clear: success is not about luck or talent but about consistent effort and intentional living.
My Favorite Quote from The Compound Effect
“Here’s the bottom line:
You already know all that you need to succeed.
You don’t need to learn anything more.
If all we needed was more information, everyone with an Internet connection would live in a mansion, have abs of steel, and be blissfully happy.
New or more information is not what you need—a new plan of action is.
It’s time to create new behaviors and habits that are oriented away from sabotage and toward success.
It’s that simple.” (p4)
Chapter 1 - The Compound Effect in Action
“You know that expression, “Slow and steady wins the race”? Ever heard the story of the tortoise and the hare? Ladies and gentlemen, I’m the tortoise.” (p5)
“No pain, no gain” (p6)
One of his philosophies is, “Be the guy who says ‘no.’ It’s no great achievement to go along with the crowd. Be the unusual guy, the extraordinary guy.” (p7)
One of Dad’s core philosophies was, “It doesn’t matter how smart you are or aren’t, you need to make up for in hard work what you lack in experience, skill, intelligence, or innate ability. If your competitor is smarter, more talented, or experienced, you just need to work three or four times as hard. You can still beat them!” (p7)
Miss free throws at the game? Do one thousand free throws every day for a month. (p7)
If you aren’t good at something, work harder, work smarter. (p7)
Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE. (p10)
The Magic Penny - In this example we see why consistency over time is so important. On Day Twenty-nine, you’ve got your $3 million; Penny Lane has around $2.7 million. (p11)
Three Friends - Friend number two, Scott, starts making some small, seemingly inconsequential, positive changes. He begins reading 10 pages of a good book per day and listening to 30 minutes of something instructional or inspirational on his commute to work. Scott wants to see changes in his life, but doesn’t want to make a fuss over it. He recently read an interview with Dr. Mehmet Oz in SUCCESS magazine and chose one idea from the article to implement in his life: He’s going to cut 125 calories from his diet every day. No big deal. We’re talking maybe a cup of cereal less, trading that can of soda for a bottle of seltzer, switching from mayo to mustard on his sandwich. Doable. He’s also started walking a couple thousand extra steps per day (less than a mile). No grand acts of bravery or effort. Stuff anyone could do. But Scott is determined to stick with these choices, knowing that even though they’re simple, he could also easily be tempted to abandon them. (p13)
But at about month twenty-five, we start seeing really measurable, visible differences. At month twenty-seven, we see an expansive difference. And, by month thirty-one, the change is startling. Brad is now fat while Scott is trim. By simply cutting 125 calories a day, in thirty-one months, Scott has lost thirty-three pounds! (p14)
In reality, his or her profound success was the result of small, smart choices, completed consistently over time.
The Ripple Effect - The reality is that even one small change can have a significant impact that causes an unexpected and unintended ripple effect. (p16)
The beauty of the Compound Effect is in its simplicity. Notice how, on the left side of the diagram, the results are intangible, but how powerfully they differ later on. The behaviors all along the way are exactly the same, but the magic of the Compound Effect eventually kicks in to bring massive differences in results.
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. It doesn’t matter where you are on this graph. Starting today, you can decide to make simple, positive changes and allow the Compound Effect to take you where you want to go. (p21)
Be Scott—Write out the half-dozen small, seemingly inconsequential steps you can take every day that can take your life in a completely new and positive direction. (p22)
Chapter 2 - Choices
Think about it.
Everything in your life exists because you first made a choice about something.
Choices are at the root of every one of your results.
Each choice starts a behavior that over time becomes a habit.
Choose poorly, and you just might find yourself back at the drawing board, forced to make new, often harder choices.
Don’t choose at all, and you’ve made the choice to be the passive receiver of whatever comes your way. (p23)
In essence, you make your choices, and then your choices make you.
Every decision, no matter how slight, alters the trajectory of your life—whether or not to go to college, who to marry, to have that last drink before you drive, to indulge in gossip or stay silent, to make one more prospecting call or call it a day, to say I love you or not.
Every choice has an impact on the Compound Effect of your life. (p23)
You’ll ask yourself (and be able to answer),
“How many of my behaviors have I not ‘voted on’?
What am I doing that I didn’t consciously choose to do, yet continue to do every day?” (p24)
Your biggest challenge is that you’ve been sleepwalking through your choices. (p24)
For most of us, it’s the frequent, small, and seemingly inconsequential choices that are of grave concern. I’m talking about the decisions you think don’t make any difference at all. It’s the little things that inevitably and predictably derail your success. (p25)
* Highlight, page 27
One Thanksgiving, I decided to keep a Thanks Giving journal for my wife.
Every day for an entire year I logged at least one thing I appreciated about her—the way she interacted with her friends, how she cared for our dogs, the fresh bed she prepared, a succulent meal she whipped up, or the beautiful way she styled her hair that day—whatever.
I looked for the things my wife was doing that touched me, or revealed attributes, characteristics, or qualities I appreciated.
I wrote them all down secretly for the entire year.
By the end of that year, I’d filled an entire journal.
Owning 100 Percent With Zero Expectation
* Text Note, page 29
The instructor turned to the easel and wrote 100/0 on the paper in big black letters.
“You have to be willing to give 100 percent with zero expectation of receiving anything in return,”
he said.
“Only when you’re willing to take 100 percent responsibility for making the relationship work will it work. Otherwise, a relationship left to chance will always be vulnerable to disaster.”
* Text Note, page 29
If I always took 100 percent responsibility for everything I experienced—completely owning all of my choices and all the ways I responded to whatever happened to me—I held the power.
Everything was up to me.
I was responsible for everything I did, didn’t do, or how I responded to what was done to me.
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“You alone are responsible for what you do, don’t do, or how you respond to what’s done to you.”
This empowering mindset revolutionized my life.
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“Luck is when opportunity meets preparation”
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The (Complete) Formula for Getting Lucky: Preparation (personal growth) + Attitude (belief/mindset) + Opportunity (a good thing coming your way) + Action (doing something about it) = Luck
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Preparation: By consistently improving and preparing yourself— your skills, knowledge, expertise, relationships, and resources—you have the wherewithal to take advantage of great opportunities when they arise (when luck “strikes”).
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“It’s a funny thing; the more I practice, the luckier I get.” Arnold Palmer - SUCCESS magazine, Feb 2009.
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Attitude: This is where luck evades most people, and where Sir Richard is spot-on with his belief that luck is all around us. It’s simply a matter of seeing situations, conversations, and circumstances as fortuitous.
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Opportunity: It’s possible to make your own luck, but the luck I’m talking about here isn’t planned for, or it comes faster or differently than expected.
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Action: This is where you come in. However this luck was delivered to you—from the universe, God, the Lucky Charms leprechaun, or whomever or whatever you associate delivering your good fortune—it’s now your job to act on it.
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Jim Rohn said, “The day you graduate from childhood to adulthood is the day you take full responsibility for your life.”
Your Secret Weapon—Your Scorecard
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Right this moment:
Pick an area of your life where you most want to be successful.
Do you want more money in the bank?
A trimmer waistline?
The strength to compete in an Iron Man event?
A better relationship with your spouse or kids?
Picture where you are in that area, right now.
Now picture where you want to be: richer, thinner, happier, you name it.
The first step toward change is awareness.
If you want to get from where you are to where you want to be, you have to start by becoming aware of the choices that lead you away from your desired destination.
Become very conscious of every choice you make today so you can begin to make smarter choices moving forward.
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To help you become aware of your choices, I want you to track every action that relates to the area of your life you want to improve.
If you’ve decided you want to get out of debt, you’re going to track every penny you pull from your pocket.
If you’ve decided you want to lose weight, you’re going to track everything you put into your mouth.
If you’ve decided to train for an athletic event, you’re going to track every step you take, every workout you do.
Simply carry around a small notebook, something you’ll keep in your pocket or purse at all times, and a writing instrument.
You’re going to write it all down.
Every day.
Without fail.
No excuses, no exceptions.
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The process forces you to be conscious of your decisions.
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John Rohn would say, “What’s simple to do is also simple not to do.”
The magic is not in the complexity of the task; the magic is in the doing of simple things repeatedly and long enough to ignite the miracle of the Compound Effect.
So, beware of neglecting the simple things that make the big things in your life possible.
The biggest difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not.
Remember that; it will come in handy many times throughout life when faced with a difficult, tedious, or tough choice.
Money Trap
* Text Note, page 36
Here’s what my accountant had me do:
carry a small notepad in my back pocket, and write down every single cent I spent for thirty days.
Whether it was a thousand dollars for a new suit or fifty cents for air to fill up my tires, it all had to go down on the notepad.
Wow.
This brought an instantaneous awareness of the many unconscious choices I was making that resulted in money pouring out of my pockets.
Because I had to log everything, I resisted buying some things, just so I didn’t have to take out the notepad and write it in the dang book!
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Over the years I’ve tracked what I eat and drink, how much I exercise, how much time I spend improving a skill, my number of sales calls, even the improvement of my relationships with family, friends, or my spouse.
The results have been no less profound than my money-tracking wake-up call.
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This is where I’m going to become a hard-ass and insist you track your behaviors for at least one whole week.
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Because your life isn’t working as successfully as you’d like. You’ve gotten derailed.
Tracking is the way to get it back on track.
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All winners are trackers.
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I want you to track your life with the same intention: to bring your goals within sight.
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Tracking is a simple exercise.
It works because it brings moment-to-moment awareness to the actions you take in the area of your life you want to improve.
You’ll be surprised at what you will observe about your behavior.
You cannot manage or improve something until you measure it.
Likewise, you can’t make the most of who you are—your talents and resources and capabilities—until you are aware of and accountable for your actions.
Keep It Slow and Easy
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Just track one habit for one week.
Pick the habit that has the greatest control over you; that’s where you’ll start.
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I am going to start tracking _______ on ________. [date/month/year]
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Why three weeks? You’ve heard psychologists say that something doesn’t become a habit until you practice it for three weeks.
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Promise yourself to start. Today.
For the next three weeks, choose to carry around your own small notepad (or large one, if that’s more enticing), and write every single thing down in your category.
Take a Walk
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All because Phil committed to one small, seemingly insignificant step done consistently over time.
Money Tree
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All starting from the choice to take one small step and start saving $33 a month!
Time Is of the Essence
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The earlier you start making small changes, the more powerfully the Compound Effect works in your favor.
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The key is to start NOW.
Every great act, every fantastic adventure, starts with small steps.
The first step always looks harder than it actually is.
Success Is a (Half-) Marathon
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Since your outcomes are all a result of your moment-to moment choices, you have incredible power to change your life by changing those choices.
Step by step, day by day, your choices will shape your actions until they become habits, where practice makes them permanent.
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What area, person, or circumstance in your life do you struggle with the most?
Start journaling all the aspects of that situation that you are grateful for.
Keep a record of everything that reinforces and expands your gratitude in that area.
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Where in your life are you not taking 100 percent responsibility for the success or failure of your present condition?
Write down three things you have done in the past that have messed things up.
List three things you should have done but didn’t.
Write out three things that happened to you but you responded poorly.
Write down three things you can start doing right now to take back responsibility for the outcomes of your life.
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Start tracking at least one behavior in one area of your life you’d like to change and improve (e.g., money, nutrition, fitness, recognizing others, parenting... any area).
CHAPTER 3 - HABITS
Creatures of Habit
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Aristotle wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do.”
MerriamWebster defines habit this way:
“An acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary.”
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If you’ve been living on autopilot and allowing your habits to run you, I want you to understand why. And I want you to let yourself off the hook. After all, you’re in good company. Psychological studies reveal that 95 percent of everything we feel, think, do, and achieve is a result of a learned habit!
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If you eat healthfully, you’ve likely built healthy habits around the food you buy and what you order at restaurants.
If you’re fit, it’s probably because you work out regularly.
If you’re successful in a sales job, it’s probably because your habits of mental preparation and positive self-talk enable you to stay optimistic in the face of rejection.
It was Larry’s habits—his relentless dedication to practice and to improve his game.
Bird was one of the most consistent free-throw shooters in the history of the NBA.
Growing up, his habit was to practice five hundred free-throw shots every morning before school. (p58)
With that kind of discipline, Larry made the most of his God-given talents and kicked the butts of some of the most “gifted” players on the court.
With enough practice and repetition, any behavior, good or bad, becomes automatic over time. (p58)
Finding Your Mojo—Your Why-Power
* Text Note, page 62
Forget about willpower.
It’s time for why-power.
Your choices are only meaningful when you connect them to your desires and dreams.
The wisest and most motivating choices are the ones aligned with that which you identify as your purpose, your core self, and your highest values.
You’ve got to want something, and know why you want it, or you’ll end up giving up too easily.
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So, what is your why?
You’ve got to have a reason if you want to make significant improvements to your life.
And to make you want to make the necessary changes, your why must be something that is fantastically motivating—to you.
You’ve got to want to get up and go, go, go, go, go—for years!
So, what is it that moves you the most? Identifying your why is critical.
What motivates you is the ignition to your passion, the source for your enthusiasm, and the fuel of your persistence.
This is so important that I made it the focus of my first book, Design Your Best Year Ever: A Proven Formula for Achieving BIG GOALS (SUCCESS Books, 2009).
You MUST know your why.
Why Everything’s Possible
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Why is it that the fi rst time I asked you to cross that sky-high plank, you said no way, yet, the second time you wouldn’t hesitate? The risks and the dangers are the same. What changed?
Your why changed—your reason for wanting to do it.
You see, when the reason is big enough, you will be willing to perform almost any how.
Find Your Fight
* Text Note, page 67
Enemies give us a reason to stand tall with courage.
Having to fight challenges your skills, your character, and your resolve.
It forces you to assess and exercise your talents and abilities.
Without a motivating fight, we can become fat and lazy; we lose our strength and purpose.
Goals
* Text Note, page 69
But you must know where you want to go.
What goals, dreams, and destinations do you desire?
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If Paul were here, he would tell us, “If you are not making the progress that you would like to make and are capable of making, it is simply because your goals are not clearly defined.”
One of Paul’s most memorable quotes reminds us of the importance of goals:
“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon... must inevitably come to pass!”
Who You Have to Become
One thing Jim Rohn taught me is: “If you want to have more, you have to become more. Success is not something you pursue. What you pursue will elude you; it can be like trying to chase butterflies. Success is something you attract by the person you become.”
When I understood that philosophy, wow! It revolutionized my life and personal growth.
When I was single and ready to find my mate and get married, I made a long list of traitsI desired in the perfect woman (for me). I filled more than forty pages of a journal, front and back, describing her in great detail—her personality, character, key attributes, attitudes, and philosophies about life, even what kind of family she’d come from, including her culture and physical makeup, down to the texture of her hair. I wrote in depth what our life would be like and what we’d do together.
If I had then asked, “What do I have to do to find and get this girl?” I might still be on that butterfly chase. Instead, I looked back at the list and considered whether or not I embodied those same attributes myself.
Did I have the very qualities I was expecting in her? I asked myself,
“What kind of a man would a woman like this be looking for?
Who do I need to become to be attractive to a woman of this substance?”
The key was my getting clear on who I’d have to be to attract and keep a woman of her quality, and then doing the work to achieve that.
Behave Yourself
This is the doing process—or, in some cases, the STOP-doing process.
Your life comes down to this formula:
YOU CHOICE + BEHAVIOR + HABIT + COMPOUNDED = GOALS
(decision) (action) (repeated action) (time)
Game Changers: Five Strategies for Eliminating Bad Habits
1. Identify Your Triggers
Figure out what I call “The Big 4’s”—the “who,” the “what,” the “where,” and the “when” underlying each bad behavior.
For example:
- Is there a particular time of day when you just have to have something sweet?
- What emotions tend to provoke your worst habits—stress,fatigue, anger, nervousness, boredom?
- When do you experience those emotions? Who are you with, where are you, or what are you doing?
- What situations prompt your bad habits to surface— getting in your car, the time before performance reviews, visits with your in-laws? Conferences? Social settings? Feeling physically insecure? Deadlines?
2. Clean House
If you want to eat more healthfully, clean your cupboards of all the crap, stop buying the junk food—and stop buying into the argument that it’s “not fair” to deny the other people in your family junk food just because you don’t want it in your life. Trust me; everyone in your family is better off without it. Don’t bring it into the house, period. Get rid of whatever enables your bad habits.
3. Swap It
Look again at your list of bad habits. How can you alter them so that they’re not as harmful? Can you replace them with healthier habits or drop-kick them altogether? As in, for good.
4. Ease In
For some of your long-standing and deep-rooted habits, it may be more effective to take small steps to ease into unwinding them. You may have spent decades repeating, cementing, and fortifying those habits, so it can be wise to give yourself some time to unravel them, one step at a time.
5. Or Jump In
Some researchers have found that it can be paradoxically easier for people to make lifestyle changes if they change a great many bad habits at once.
Game Changers: Seven Techniques for Installing Good Habits
The key is staying aware. If you really want to maintain a good habit, make sure you pay attention to it at least once a day, and you’re far more likely to succeed.
1. Set Yourself Up to Succeed
If you want to lose weight and eat healthier, make sure your fridge and pantry are stocked with healthy options.
2. Think Addition, Not Subtraction
“It’s not so much what you attempt to take out of your diet,” he explained to me. “It’s what you put in instead.” This has become his analogy for life. Instead of thinking that he has to deprive himself, or take something out of his diet (e.g., “I can’t eat a hamburger, chocolate, or dairy”), he thinks about what he can have instead (e.g., “Today I’m going to have a salad and steamed vegetables and fresh fi gs”). He fi lls his focus and his belly with what he can have so he no longer has attention or hunger for what he can’t. Instead of focusing on what he has to sacrifice, Montel thinks about what he gets to “add in.” The result is a lot more powerful.
3. Go for a PDA: Public Display of Accountability
4. Find a Success Buddy
5. Competition & Camaraderie
6. Celebrate!
7. Change Is Hard: Yippee!
Be Patient
CHAPTER 4 - MOMENTUM
Harnessing the Power of Big Mo (Big Momentum)
If you remember your high-school physics class (you do, don’t you?), you’ll recall Newton’s First Law, also known as the Law of Inertia: Objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless acted on by an outside force. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, unless something stops their momentum. Put another way, couch potatoes tend to stay couch potatoes. Achievers—people who get into a successful rhythm—continue busting their butts and end up achieving more and more.
Routine Power
When it comes down to it, your new attitudes and behaviors must be incorporated into your monthly, weekly, and daily routines to affect any real, positive change. A routine is something you do every day without fail, so that eventually, like brushing your teeth or putting on your seatbelt, you do it without conscious thought.
Bookend Your Days
Starting with my goals in mind, I designed my behaviors and routines accordingly.
Rise & Shine
First, I think of all the things I’m grateful for.
Second, I do something that sounds a bit odd, but I send love to someone.
Third, I think about my No. 1 goal and decide which three things I’m going to do on this day to move closer toward reaching it.
“If I only did three things today, what are the actions that will produce the greatest results in moving me closer to my big goals?”
Build your bookend morning and evening routines. Design a predictable and fail-safe world-class routine schedule for your life.
CHAPTER 5 - Influences
I. Input: Garbage In, Garbage Out
Controlling the input has a direct and measurable impact on your productivity and outcomes.
Don’t Drink Dirty Water
You get in life what you create.
Expectation drives the creative process.
What do you expect?
You expect whatever it is you’re thinking about.
Your thought process, the conversation in your head, is at the base of the results you create in life.
So the question is, What are you thinking about?
What is influencing and directing your thoughts?
The answer: whatever you’re allowing yourself to hear and see.
This is the input you are feeding your brain. Period.
Step 1: Stand Guard
It’s estimated that Americans (twelve and older) spend 1,704 hours watching TV per year. That averages out to 4.7 HOURS per day. We’re spending almost 30 percent of our waking hours watching TV. Almost thirty-three hours per week—more than one whole day each week! It’s the equivalent of watching TV for two solid months out of every twelve! WOW! And people wonder why they can’t get ahead in life?
Put Yourself on a Media Diet
My Personal Junk Filter
As you might guess, I don’t watch or listen to any news and I don’t read any newspapers or news magazines. Ninety-nine percent of all news has no bearing on my personal life or my personal goals, dreams, and ambitions anyway. I have set up a few RSS feeds identifying the news and industry updates that do pertain to my direct interests and goals.
Step 2: Enroll in Drive-Time U
It’s not enough to eliminate negative input. To move in a positive direction, you must flush out the bad and fill up on the good. My car won’t move without two things: gasoline and an ever-present library of instructional CDs I listen to as I drive. The average American drives about twelve thousand miles a year. That’s three hundred hours of flushing potential right there!
Brian Tracy taught me the concept of turning my car into a mobile classroom. He explained to me that by listening to instructional CDs as I drive, I gain knowledge equivalent to two semesters of an advanced college degree—every year.
II. Associations: Who’s Influencing You?
It’s time to reappraise and reprioritize the people you spend time with. These relationships can nurture you, starve you, or keep you stuck. Now that you’ve started to carefully consider with whom you spend your time, let’s go a little deeper. As Jim Rohn taught me, it’s powerful to evaluate and shift your associations into three categories: dissociations, limited associations, and expanded associations.
Dissociations
You guard against the influences your children are exposed to, and the people they hang around. You are aware of the influence these people could have on your children and the choices they might make as a result. I believe this same principle should apply to you! You already know this: There are some people you might need to break away from. Completely.
Limited Associations
Take a look at your relationships and make sure you’re not spending three hours with a three-minute person.
Expanded Associations
We’ve just talked about weeding out negative influencers. While you’re doing that, you’ll also want to reach out. Identify people who have positive qualities in the areas of life where you want to improve—people with the financial and business success you desire, the parenting skills you want, the relationships you yearn for, the lifestyle you love. And then spend more time with them. Join organizations and businesses and health clubs where these people gather and make friends. Ahead, you’ll see how I even used to drive to a different town to spend quality time—with fortuitous results.
If you want to have a better, deeper, more meaningful relationship, ask yourself,
- “Who has the type of relationship I want?
- How can I spend (more) time with that person?
- Who can I meet who can positively influence me?”
Let their glow rub off on you.
Befriend the person you think is the biggest, baddest, most successful person in your field.
- What do they read?
- Where do they go for lunch?
- How can that association influence you?
You can build these expanded associations by joining networking groups, Toastmasters, and similar organizations. Find the charity organizations, symphonies, country clubs, where the people you want to emulate gather.
Find a Peak-Performance Partner
Another way to increase your exposure to expanded associations is by teaming up with a peak performance partner, someone as equally committed to study and personal growth as you.
Invest in Mentorship
Paul J. Meyer is another man who served as a mentor to me.
Develop Your Own Personal Board of Advisors
Who should be on your personal board of advisors? Seek out positive people who have achieved the success you want to create in your own life. Remember the adage: “Never ask advice of someone with whom you wouldn’t want to trade places.”
III. Environment: Changing Your View Changes Your Perspective
Put another way, you will get in life what you accept and expect you are worthy of.
CHAPTER 6 - Acceleration
When you’ve prepared, practiced, studied, and consistently put in the required effort, sooner or later you’ll be presented with your own moment of truth. In that moment, you will define who you are and who you are becoming. It is in those moments where growth and improvement live—when we either step forward or shrink back, when we climb to the top of the podium and seize the medal or we continue to applaud sullenly from the crowd for others’ victories.
Moments of Truth
“There is a point in every race when a rider encounters his real opponent and understands that it’s himself,” writes Lance in his autobiography. “In my most painful moments on the bike, I am at my most curious, and I wonder each and every time how I will respond. Will I discover my innermost weakness, or will I seek out my innermost strength?”
Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest fighters of all time, not only because of his speed and agility, but also because of his strategy.
Hitting the wall isn’t an obstacle; it’s an opportunity.
As Jim Rohn would say, “Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.”
Multiplying Your Results
The real growth happens with what you do after you’re at the wall.
Viewing yourself as your toughest competitor is one of the best ways to multiply your results. Go above and beyond when you hit the wall. Another way to multiply your results is pushing past what other people expect of you—doing more than “enough.”
Beat the Expectations
Oprah is famous for using this principle—blasting beyond anyone’s expectations with her generosity and ability to live and work in a BIG way.
Let’s go back in time for a minute…. The audience members were selected because their friends and family members had written in saying each of them desperately needed a new car. Oprah opened the show by calling eleven people to the stage. She gave every one of them a car—a 2005 Pontiac G6.
Then the real surprise: She surpassed everyone’s expectations when she distributed gift boxes to the rest of the audience saying one of the boxes contained a key to the twelfth car.
But when the audience members opened their boxes, every one of them had a set of keys.
She screamed, “Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!”
Now you might be saying, yeah, but she’s Oprah, of course she can do those things. But the truth is there are plenty of others in Oprah’s position—with the finances and the fame—who could do those things, but never venture into the realm of extraordinary. Oprah does. That’s what makes her Oprah.
Take a lesson from her. You can do more than expected in every aspect of your life.
Do the Unexpected
For instance, everyone sends Christmas cards. But, since everyone does, it doesn’t really have much emotional impact, in my opinion. So I choose to send Thanksgiving cards instead. How many Thanksgiving cards do you get? Exactly.
In our attention-deficit, propaganda-saturated society, sometimes doing the unexpected is required to get your voice heard. If you have a cause or ideal worthy of attention, do what it takes, even the unexpected, to make your case heard. Add a little audacity to your repertoire.
Do Better Than Expected
Find the line of expectation and then exceed it. Even when it comes to the small stuff—or maybe especially then.
I challenge you to adopt these philosophies in your own life—in your daily habits, disciplines and routines. Giving a little more time, energy, or thought to your efforts won’t just improve your results; it will multiply them. It takes very little extra to be EXTRAordinary.
In all areas of your life, look for the multiplier opportunities where you can go a little further, push yourself a little harder, last a little longer, prepare a little better, and deliver a little bit more.
- Where can you do better and more than expected?
- When can you do the totally unexpected?
Find as many opportunities for “WOW,” and the level and speed of your accomplishments will astonish you… and everyone else around you.
CONCLUSION
The Compound Effect is a tool that, when combined with consistent, positive action, will make a real and lasting difference in your life.