The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

A look at how you are able to cultivate the life that you wish to achieve by defining your goals and consistently performing actions that enable progress towards them.

Summary

First, you must define your goals so that you are sure of what your actions are towards. You must then implore consistent action in the attainment of these goals. Over time, the effects of your actions compound and become ever greater, reaching heights previously thought to be unattainable. Instil positive habits that enable progress towards your goals. The positive actions and habits that are to be undertaken must first be researched so that you have confidence in their outcomes, as they will not be immediately apparent.

You are responsible for what you engage in and what happens to you. Remember that compounding can work both positively and negatively. The longer good actions are taken, the more positive their result. But the inverse is also true and so any bad habits should be identified and replaced with haste. You must be conscious of the choices you make and the actions you take. If you view everything through a positive frame, then you are more likely to be susceptible to new opportunities when they arise, this is also done through preparation in education and ability.

Be mindful of what you consume and those who you associate yourself with so that you can ensure they are conducive towards what you aspire to do and who you aspire to be.

Key Takeaways

  1. Aiming for external factors is unlikely to inspire consistency in actions, identify internal motivators–your core values–and take action based on them.
  2. Ensure consistency in positive actions that will get you closer towards your defined goals; curate a daily routine with beneficial habits.
  3. Keep track of your progress towards your goals so that it can be referenced and changes can be made if needed.
  4. Practice disassociation, limiting association and embracing association towards different individuals based on how beneficial it is to be around them, in regards to your wellbeing and aspirations.
  5. Foster a low time preference with spending; don’t contemplate purchases as they are priced today but, as a trade for what that money could be worth later: 5x, 10x, 20x higher.

Favourite Quotes

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.

Darren Hardy

Think about what you can do for the rest of your life. The Compound Effect–the positive results you want to experience in your life–will be the result of smart choices (and actions) repeated consistently over time. You win when you take the right steps day in and day out. But you set yourself up for failure by doing too much too soon. [...] You have to build a program that you can do for fifty years, not five weeks or five months.

Darren Hardy

The great danger of the media is that it gives us a very perverted view of the world. Because the focus and the repetition of messaging is on the negative, that's what our minds start believing. This warped and narrow view of what’s not working has a severe influence on your creative potential. It can be crippling.

Darren Hardy

There are some people you can spend three hours with, but not three days. Others you can spend three minutes with but not three hours… Make sure you’re not spending three hours with a three minute person.

Darren Hardy

Learning without execution is useless… Motivation without action leads to self-delusion.

Darren Hardy

We are what we repeatedly do.

Aristotle

Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon… must inevitably come to pass!

Paul J. Meyer

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.

Jim Rohn

You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.

John C. Maxwell

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.