“The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy
This summary is brought to you by www.hookmybook.com
This book is about success and how it is not a "magic bullet, secret formula, or quick fix." The author tells the reader that it takes time and effort to be successful and that there are no shortcuts to success. He also says that it is important to remember the "simple but profound fundamentals" of success and that he has experienced success himself because he has followed the principles in this book.
Earning success is hard. The process is laborious, tedious, and sometimes even boring. Becoming wealthy, influential, and world-class in your field is slow and arduous.
However, if you have an aversion to work, discipline, and commitment, you can succeed with the principle called “The compound effect”
THE COMPOUND EFFECT IN ACTION
The principle of the compound effect is the idea that by making small, consistent choices, you will reap rewards later on that are much greater than the initial changes. For example, if you start exercising regularly, even if you don't lose any weight at first, over time you will likely lose weight and improve your health. Similarly, if you start making contributions to your retirement account even if the return isn't very high at first, over time you will likely earn more money and have more savings.
People who use the Compound Effect for their benefit in comparison to their peers appear to be "overnight successes." In reality, their success was the result of small, smart choices, completed consistently over time.
We’ve been conditioned by society to believe in the effectiveness of a great display of massive effort. However, The Compound Effect is the idea that taking small steps over a while will lead to larger changes. This is good news because it makes it easier to achieve goals. The most challenging aspect of the Compound Effect is that it can take years of consistent effort to see any payoff. Our grandparents knew this, though, and worked hard throughout their entire lives.
If you want to achieve success, you need to be patient. You shouldn't expect things to happen quickly, like getting your one-hour glasses fixed in a matter of minutes or winning the lottery in a matter of seconds. Instead, you should expect things to take a little bit of time.
CHOICES
People come into this world with choices and can go in many different directions depending on the choices they make. Every choice leads to a chain of events that either helps or hurts the individual. Nobody intends to become obese, go through bankruptcy, or get a divorce, but often (if not always) those consequences are the result of a series of small, poor choices.
Maybe you believe you’re simply unlucky. But really, that’s just another excuse. The difference between becoming fabulously rich, happy, and healthy, or broke, depressed, and unhealthy, is the choices you make throughout life. Luck is the combination of preparation, attitude, and opportunity. The more you prepare yourself, have a positive attitude, and are open to opportunities, the more luck you will have.
The Compound Effect is the idea that the more times you do something, the easier it becomes and the more likely it is that you will continue to do it. This is why you will be able to track your habits for 21 days and still be able to reap the benefits.
Tracking your life will help you focus on the good and bad things you're doing, and eventually, you'll see better results. However, it'll probably take some time for these results to show up.
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.
Losing is a habit. So is winning. Now let’s work on permanently instilling winning habits into your life. Eliminate sabotaging habits and instill the needed positive habits, and you can take your life in any direction you desire, to the heights of your greatest imagination.
HABITS
95 percent of everything we feel, think, do, and achieve is a result of a learned habit. Successful people are not necessarily more intelligent or more talented than anyone else, but their habits take them in the direction of becoming more informed, more knowledgeable, more competent, better skilled, and better prepared.
The power of your why is what gets you to stick through the grueling, mundane, and laborious. All of the hows will be meaningless until your whys are powerful enough. Until you’ve set your desire and motivation in place, you’ll abandon any new path you seek to better your life.