The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success

It’s easy to pull up a sapling but impossible to pull up a mature tree. Likewise, longstanding habits grow tall, their roots deep in our minds, and become hard to remove. This is as true for bad habits as it is for good ones. People mostly are “riding the horse of their habits, with no idea where they’re headed” (52).

Unless we consciously change our behavior, old bad habits will lead us astray. Good habits are a tremendous help. They allow us to do things automatically without having to think them through each time. Successful CEOs aren’t perfect, but they have good habits that move them continuously toward better performance.

People learn bad habits. The allure of instant gratification overwhelms our understanding that indulgences produce bad results down the line. A cigarette doesn’t instantly cause one’s body to age; a single snack doesn’t suddenly add 60 pounds. The secret is to recognize the danger and to see that replacing a bad habit with a good one eventually compounds to a much better life.

Small, good changes can “revolutionize everything.” If its nose is pointed a mere 1% off course, an airplane from Los Angeles bound for New York will arrive 150 miles north or south of the city.

Changing habits with willpower doesn’t work: Under the slightest stress, we fall back into old, bad routines. Instead, our biggest dreams and desires must power our efforts to change. Without that inspiration, change can seem too hard to achieve.

If you’re offered $20 to walk on a 10-inch-wide plank set on the ground, the choice is easy. If the plank crosses from one building to another 100 stories up, the answer likely will be no. If, though, your child is on the other side, trapped in a burning building, and you can save her by walking that plank, you become intensely focused on rescuing her.

Some people achieve great financial success and renown but are still dissatisfied. This is because they sought external things instead of inner fulfillment. It’s therefore important to know what one really wants. This process starts when we clarify our “core values.” These are the basic standards and purposes on which we base our lives. Hardy defines his as “Growth, Excellence, and Impact” (62).

Often people define themselves by what they’re against. Having something to hate or oppose, like injustice or incompetence or disease, can be a strong motivator. Hate or anger may seem unworthy motives for seeking success, but getting even, as long as it’s for a good cause, can work wonders. Football coach Pete Carroll was “dinky” as a kid and felt a great urge to prove himself against naysayers. The actor Anthony Hopkins had dyslexia and attention-deficit issues as a kid. He resented being thought of as a “problem child,” and focused his anger on perfecting his acting craft.

Important to goal-setting is the “Law of Attraction” (66), by which the things we think about begin to appear. In fact, those things are there all along, but thinking about them makes us aware of them. For example, when we purchase a car, suddenly we see that model everywhere. The best way to achieve strong results from the Law of Attraction is to write down the goal. A goal unwritten tends to remain a “fantasy.”

People fail to reach their goals in part because they don’t see themselves as the kind of person who achieves such things. If we think we’re unworthy or otherwise can’t imagine ourselves as attaining a goal, it won’t happen. Instead of trying to figure out how to find the wife he desired, Hardy wrote out 40 pages on what she’d be like, then another 40 pages on who he had to be to win her love. He changed himself to comport with what he wanted, and the woman who became his wife appeared, almost as if by magic.

Despite our belief that we’ve handled a bad habit, a behavior can take over our lives unless we carefully track it. A common timewaster is digital media. Hardy consulted with a busy executive who needed to make more efficient use of his time. He found that the man spent, throughout the day, a total of three and a half hours reading or watching the news. Almost none of it was pertinent to his life; the executive eliminated all but 20 minutes of news consumption and regained more than three hours per day.

Alongside written goals should be notes on any bad habits that might get in the way; these represent who you are at present. Next to them should be a list of new habits that can move your behavior toward success.

Five techniques help root out bad habits. The first is to identify and write anything that triggers a bad behavior—time of day, certain people, emotions, routines. Second, eliminate any triggers: To stop drinking, remove all alcohol from the house and associated glasses and utensils; to stop watching lots of TV, cancel cable and streaming subscriptions. Third, swap bad habits for good ones: Replace mindless munching on chips with mindful crunching of carrots and celery; switch out Diet Cokes for carbonated, citrus-flavored water.

Fourth, “Ease In” by making changes in stages; this can prevent the shock of going “cold turkey.” Sometimes, though, it’s better to remove all of the parts of a bad habit at once—for example, it can be easier to immerse yourself into a cold body of water instead of entering slowly—the fifth technique is simply to “Jump In.”

It’s also good, from time to time, to make sure a moderate habit isn’t secretly an addiction. Remove the habit for a month; if there’s no problem, reintroduce it, but if you struggle, it might be a bad habit in need of eradication.

Instilling good habits requires a different set of techniques. The first is to make it easy to succeed by designing the new habit so it’s easy to do. Find a gym that’s nearby and open when you can use it; keep healthy snacks at home for hunger pangs; shut off social media when you’re not using it. Second, focus on the things you’re adding into your life instead of on the things you’re taking away: You’re not suffering from lack of burgers but instead enjoying steamed veggies and fresh fruit; you’re not losing TV viewing but gaining more time on your favorite hobbies or playing with your kids.

Third, become publicly accountable by making a promise to change a habit in front of friends or coworkers. Fourth, acquire a “success buddy” with whom you can do workouts, discuss books, and so on. Fifth, arrange a competition among fellow habit-changers to see who can keep to the improvement schedule the longest. Sixth, “Celebrate!” by rewarding yourself for reaching goals—small rewards for daily or weekly success, and larger prizes for major milestones.

Change is hard: It takes effort. Most fail at it, so doing the work will make one stand out from the crowd. It helps to be patient: Old habits are deep-seated in their own “brain groove,” and changing them takes time. Stopping the old habit and repeating the new one will make the old habit fade while the new one strengthens.