Making Life Changes With The Compound Effect
Hello, my lovely people. Have you ever had great ideas of making life-changing decisions, where you’ve shed the weight you wanted, your dress sense is on par with the Influencers you see on Instagram and you’re living your best life?
But the habits you have, along with a lack of motivation means you probably spend a load of money on gym clothes and healthy food, that won’t get worn and will end up going uneaten. We’ve all been there!
This is where I want to introduce you to the compound effect.
The compound effect is the idea that making small gradual changes to your habits and routines, over a longer period of time, has more of an impact than trying to make one huge change.
In this blog, I will share how the compound effect can help you transform your life.
This blog post is about the compound effect
Understanding The Compound Effect
The principle of the compound effect is that making small, seemingly insignificant actions or decisions, consistently (this is important here and something I’ll go into detail on later), can lead to significant changes and outcomes.
This applies mainly to your habits, choices, and behaviours. An example of this might be, that you want to start reading more, but finding the time during a hectic day might seem impossible, or unsustainable.
What you might do is set yourself 15 minutes aside each day to read. This could be before you go to bed, when you’re eating your lunch, or when cooking dinner.
Breaking this new change down, into a small and manageable time slot, can add up to over 90 hours of reading a year!! Think of how many of your favourite books you can read in 90 hours.
The Magic Of Consistency
I have said this countless times, consistency is the key to success. Reading once, or even 4 times for 15 minutes isn’t going to have the same impact on your life as if you read for 15 minutes every day.
Consistency is crucial in leveraging the compound effect and here’s why:
Accumulation of Effort
Just as a snowball grows larger as it rolls down a hill, consistent actions build upon each other. Over time, these seemingly small changes will have a substantial impact on your life. Without this, the impact it has becomes less and less.
Formation of Habits
Consistently performing a task will create a new habit. By creating a new habit, it takes away the ‘energy’ and effort of performing that task. It will simply become part of your daily routine, with no effort and will even happen without you thinking about it.
Predictability and Measurement
When you consistently apply a new habit you will, over time, start to see change. With this change, you can measure your progress and make any adjustments to your new habit to achieve your overall goal.
Trust and Reliability
As you implement new habits you will start to trust yourself more. You will no longer be that person who is unreliable, or inconsistent. The people around you will also notice this and start to see the big changes you are making.
Overcoming Setbacks
Motivation will only get you so far, it’s the consistent habits that will change you. Where motivation lets you down and prevents growth and accomplishments, consistency won’t. Consistency is reliable and is where progress can be made and seen. This helps with any setbacks you might encounter.
Compound Growth
Consistent effort towards your goals can only lead to improving your skills, knowledge, health or wealth (depending on your goals).
Applying The Compound Effect
If you’re looking for quick wins or to see major transformation in a matter of weeks, then I’m afraid to say you’re just going to fail.
We’ve all been there, and when Monday comes around, we’re all filled with motivation and enthusiasm to make big changes. Then by Thursday, we’ve lost that motivation and we’re back to our old habits without seeing any improvement. And so the cycle begins next Monday!
Small Steps to Big Dreams
When looking at your goals, you want to see them as a mountain. You would be stupid to start trying to sprint to the top, you ain’t going to get there!
However, if you break your goal down into smaller steps, and take one step at a time, you might surprise yourself and get further to the peak of that mountain than you think.
Here are some practical steps to incorporate the compound effect into your life:
1. Set clear, actionable goals
Create small actions to start with, something that is manageable with the time you have and something you can do every day.
2. Track your habits
Either with a journal or an app, track your progress. You will be able to see where you have made significant changes and improvements in your life.
3. Celebrate your wins
No matter how small, or insignificant you might think they are, celebrate your wins – ALL of them.
4. Stay patient and persistent
The compound effect works overtime, be patient. Give yourself the time to create the best habits that help you achieve your goals.
5. Adjust as necessary
If something isn’t working for you, change it. The compound effect is about finding habits that serve you and being able to stick to them.
Overcoming Challenges With The Compound Effect
You’re going to face challenges, this is inevitable. But can you be prepared for them. Here are some of the common challenges you might face:
1. Lack of motivation
As I’ve said before, motivation is only going to get you so far. The key is to rely on discipline rather than motivation. Your new routine should be easy to stick to, regardless of how you feel.
2. Impatience
Where instant gratification is so easy to achieve through scrolling social media, it’s easy to become impatient. Celebrate your small wins and remember, great things take time.
3. Inconsistency
Skipping your new habits, once or twice might seem harmless however, we all know this can be a slippery slope. It’s important to make sure your habits fit around your current routines, maybe tag them onto the end of something you already do.
4. Distractions and interruptions
Designate specific times for your new habit, or as mentioned above, tag them onto the end of something you already do. Let those around you know what you’re trying to achieve to gain their support and prevent distractions.
5. Self-doubt
It’s very easy to let your own negative thoughts talk you out of making any changes or going after your dreams. This is why it’s important to track your progress. When you have these moments of self-doubt, you can look back and see how far you’ve come.
My Personal Journey With The Compound Effect
Like most people, I made big plans for 2024 and on the 1st of January, I was going to wake up early, exercise, eat healthily, start a journal and pursue my dreams.
The reality was I woke up hungover and needing a McDonalds to save my life! It’s safe to say, my 2024 didn’t start off the way I wanted it to.
However, by making small changes to my daily routine, I have already seen some changes. My first habit was to read for 15 minutes before bed. This has resulted in me finishing a book I have wanted to read for a long time.
My next small change was to add more fruit and veg to my meals, not calorie counting, just adding more healthy options to my plate for each meal. I’m now more consciously aware of what I’m eating, rather than going for the normal, unhealthy options each mealtime.
2024 is 366 days (cus it’s a leap year!), it’s not a month, it’s not a certain date, it’s a full 366 days! I plan to give myself the whole year to make changes and my aim is to go into 2025 as a whole new me with a completely new stack of habits that serve me.
I encourage you, lovely reader, to give yourself the time and space to create new habits that serve you and not to put pressure on yourself to achieve these in a small amount of time.
Here’s to embracing the compound effect.
