The Compound Effect – Darren Hardy

Allow yourself to go and do it wrong. Don’t expect to always get it right. It will prevent you from doing anything

The Effect Explained

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.

A daily routine built on good habits and discipline separates the most successful among us from everyone else.

Step by step, day by day, your choices will shape your actions until they become habits, where practice makes them permanent.

Actionable Steps

• Decide to take full responsibility for your own life—even if you can’t explain how you got here.
• Write down six seemingly inconsequential positive steps you can start doing daily (like reading books).
• Identify six seemingly inconsequential negative actions you can put a stop to. (less watching TV, less playing video games).
• Identify any areas of your life where you’ve enjoyed success in the past but may have become complacent and are no longer improving.

Choices

Luck = Preparation + Attitude + Opportunity + Action

•  Identify the one area of life you’re struggling most with and start journaling all the things you’re grateful for about it.
• Identify and assess an area of life you want to change and that you’re not taking 100% responsibility for.
• Start tracking at least one behavior in one area of your life you’d like to change and improve.

Eliminating Bad Habits

• Identify your triggers.
• Eliminate those TRIGGERS from your Environment. 
• Substitute with a REWARD that has the same effect 
• Either: Ease into your new reward – (if No.3 doesn’t work) some habits are easier to change by cutting them down slowly.
• Or: Make a hard change – others are easier to dislodge with a quick decisive tug at the roots.

Creating Good Habits

• Start Strongly – start with a strong WHY
• Set Yourself Up to Succeed – eliminate distractions
• Think Addition, Not Subtraction – focus on what you will get not what you lose.
• Make a Public Commitment 
• Find a Success Buddy –a friend or a coach
• Set up Some Competition – compare the results with yesterday’s progress
• Celebrate – training your brain is much like training a dog so don’t underestimate the power of small, simple rewards for good behavior.

You can only control two things in life: Your attitude and your actions.

Creating Momentum

Create a good evening and morning routine.

List three areas of life where you’re not consistent enough. What has this cost you? Decide to be consistent from now on.

Create a habit register and write down a half-dozen key behaviors (which may be beneficial in the future).

Consistency is the key to achieving and maintaining momentum

Influences

Identify the influence of media and information on your life. Identify ways to protect it from the negative and fill it with positive information.

Evaluate your current associations. Which must you stop or limit? How will you expand your (good) associations?

Pick an accountable partner and decide when, how often, what to and how you’ll hold each other accountable.

Identify three areas of life you are most focused on improving. Find and engage a mentor in each area of those areas.

Acceleration

Giving a little more energy or thought to your efforts won’t just improve your results; it will multiply them.

Identify times when you hit your moments of truth and commit to pushing through them when you next get there.

Find three areas in your life where you can do “extra” and make a plan to do more.

Identify three areas in your life where you can beat expectations, then plan where and how to create “wow” moments.

Identify three ways you can do the unexpected. Where can you differentiate between what is common, normal, or expected?