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The Compound Effect by Darren Gardy

Chapter 1 : The Compound Effect in action

this first chapter mostly explain about all good and bad effect of your habits in form of compound effect.

It’s pretty simple if you eat well, exercise well and keep learning and improving your skills, it will be much more visible within few years or months

similarly in reverse way, if you keep eating junk, don’t exercise regularly, stop learning new things everything will keep getting worse every year

Chapter 2 : Choices

We all come into this world the same: naked, scared, and ignorant. After that grand entrance, the life we end up with is simply an accumulation of all the choices we make. Our choices can be our best friend or our worst enemy. They can deliver us to our goals or send us orbiting into galaxy far, far away.

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 behaviour 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 actually made the choice to be the passive receiver of whatever comes your way.

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, whom 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 let the moment pass by. Every choice has an impact on the compound effect of your life.

Your biggest challenge isn’t that you’ve intentionally been making bad choices. Heck, that would be easy to fix. Your biggest challenge is that you’ve been sleepwalking through your choices. Half the time, you’re not even aware you’re making them. Our choices are often shaped by our culture and upbringing. Nobody intends to become obese, go through bankruptcy, or get a divorce, but often those consequences are the result of a series of small poor choices.

Thanks giving year-round

It’s easy to point fingers at others, isn’t it? “I’m not getting ahead because of my lame boss.” “I would have gotten that promotion if it hadn’t been for that backstabbing co-worker.” “I,m always in a bad mood because my kids are driving me crazy.” We’re particularly gifted in the finger-pointing department when it comes to our romantic relationships- you know, where the other person is the one who need to change.

A few years back, a friend of mine was complaining about his wife. From my observation, she was terrific lady and he was lucky to have her. I told him as much, but he continued to point out all the ways she was responsible for his unhappiness.

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 beautiful way she styled her hair that day. 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.

When i gave it to her the following thanksgiving, she cried, calling it the best gift she’d ever received. The funny thing was that the person most affected by this fight was me. All that journalling forced me to focus on my wife’s positive aspects. I was consciously looking for all the things she was doing right. That heartfelt focus overwhelmed anything I might have otherwise complained about. I feel deeply in love with here all over again (may be even more than ever, as i was seeing subtleties in here nature and behaviour, instead of her more obvious qualities)

Owning 100 Percent

This concept explain about taking full responsibility for everything in your life. you’re 100% responsible for everything in your life to make it work be it relationship, work, health, kids. you’re responsible for everything I did, didn’t do, or how I responded to what was done to me. When you look at most people operate in the world, there’s lot of finger point, victimhood, blaming and expecting someone else or the government to solve their problems.

If you’ve ever blamed traffic for being late, or decided you are in a bad mood because of something your kid, spouse, or co-worker did, you’re not taking 100% personal responsibility. You’re arrived late because the printer was busy? maybe you shouldn’t have waited until the last minute? co-worker messed up the presentation? shouldn’t you have double checked it yourself before delivering it? not getting along with your unreasonable teen? there are a countless fantastic books and classes to help learn how to deal.

“you alone are responsible for what you do or don’t do, or how you respond to what’s done to you. “

The Formula for getting lucky

  • Preparation
    • By consistently improving and preparing yourself , your skills, knowledge, expertise, relationships, and resources you have to take advantage of great opportunities when the arise
  • Attitude
    • It’s simply matter of seeing situations, onversations, and circumstances as fortuitous.
    • you cannot see what you don’t look for, and you cannot look for what you don’t believe in
  • 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. In this stage of the formula, luck isn’t forced. it’s natural occurrence and it often shows up seemingly of its own accord
  • Action
    • this is where you come in. However this luck was delivered to you from the universe, god , the lucky charms leprechaun, or whomever you associate delivering your good fortune it’s now your job to act on it.

Your secret weapon- your scoreboard

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 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 small notebook something you’ll keep in your pocket or purse at all times and writing instrument. You’re going to write it all down. Every day, without fail, no excuses, no exceptions.

Chapter 3 : Habits

Finding your Mojo- Your why power

Assuming willpower is what you need to change your habits is akin to trying to keep a hungry grizzly bear out of your picnic basket by covering it with a napkin. to fight the bear out of your bad habits, you need something stronger.

when you’re having trouble doing the hard work of achieving your goals, it’s common to believe you simply lack willpower. I disagree. It’s not enough to choose to be successful. what’s going to keep you consistent with the new positive choices you need to make: What’s going to stop you from falling back into your mindless bad habits? What’s going to be different this time versus the times you’ve tried and failed before? As soon as you get the slightest bit uncomfortable, you’re going to be tempted to slide back into your old comfortable routine.

Forget about willpower. it’s time for your 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.

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, for years. So, what is 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.

Strategies for eliminating bad habits

  • Identify your triggers
  • Clean house
    • this means just remove access of things which causes bad habits, like if you want to stop drinking remove all liquor from your house
  • Swap it
    • just replace your bad habit with new less bad had habit or good habit
  • Ease in
    • make small incremental changes to habit instead bigger one

Techniques for installing good habits

  • Set yourself up to succeed
    • make sure that for you need least amount of effort to follow on your new habit, use power of least resistance. for example, if you want to go to gym make sure that it’s closer, if you want to lose weight make sure that your fridge and pantry are stocked with healthy options
  • Go for Public Display of accountability
    • basically, make someone accountable for your goals and progress

Chapter 4 : Momentum

this chapter explain important of routine and consistency.

Chapter 5 : Influences

  • this is basically minimalism
  • staying away from garbage stuff news, food, ads

Chapter 6 : Acceleration

entire chapter is just about pushing through wall mean means pushing through your max limits.

be it exercise , some sort of competition or your work.

Simply keep going.