This document provides a book review and summary of The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. It discusses key concepts from the book, including that big results come from small, consistent actions over time through the compound effect. Small choices compound to create habits, character, and destiny. The summary emphasizes taking responsibility for your life and choices, identifying and creating good habits while removing bad ones, and developing momentum through strong daily routines.
3. Introduction:-
It is the class of productivity books: it’s
concise, it’s next-action focussed and it comes with a
ton of free templates that are worth 10x the cost of the
book.
It also reinforces a message I’ve seen, learned and
taught time and again.
Big results don’t come from grand talk or gestures.
Big results come from clarity plus small, deliberate actions –
made and repeated until actions reap a habit, habits reap a
character and character reaps a destiny.
4. It would be great if you could buy your
success,fame,self-esteem,good relationships and health and
well-being in a nicely calm-shelled package at the local
Walmart.
In other words, the tortoise ALWAYSbeats the hare.
And when you think you’ve seen otherwise, you’ve
invariably confused the last lunge for the finish with the
journey that led to its end.
These ideas are at the core of Darren’s philosophy
– and they’re also the beating heart
of FASTER TO MASTER‘s TRACKTION methodology.
5. As Darren’s mentor,the great bussiness philosopher
Jim Rohn said,“There are no new fundamentals.Truth is not
new,it’s old.
Of course,the “What?” is always simpler than the
“How?”
6. Chapter#1
The Compound Effect in Action
The Compound Effect “is the principle of reaping huge
rewards from a series of small, smart choices,” made
consistently, over a long period of time.
You haven’t experienced the payoff of the Compound
Effect
You are using this strategy for improving your
health,relationships,finances or anything else for that
matter,the changes are so subtle,they are almost
imperceptible.These small changes offer little or no
immediate result,no big win,no obvious I told you so payoff.
7. Most people get tripped up by the simplicity of the
compound effect.Mostly people don’t realize is that these
small,seemongly insignificant steps completed consistently
over time will create a radical difference:Let me give you a
detailed examples.
Success formula:-
Small,Smart choices+Consistency+Time=Radical
Difference
8. Example
The Magic Penny:-
Would you rather have (A) $3 million
upfront or (B) one penny that doubles in value every day
for 31 days?
To maximise your gains, the correct answer is (B).
But it doesn’t happen quickly. After 19 days you’d still
only have $5,243 and you might feel pretty foolish next
to a friend who chose option (A).
It’s not until day 29 that the compounding gains of
option (B) net you $3 million. And by day 30 your
patience would have tripled option (A)’s total takings.
9. This example shows the power and subtlety of
compounding.
The choices that lead to life-altering change are, on
the surface, disarmingly small. The good ones are easy to
overlook and the bad ones are easy to forgive. What’s more,
cause and effect are so distant that they’re hard to connect.
Compounding requires enormous amounts of patience and
faith.
And that’s a problem because humans aren’t
programmed for patience or faith. We’re programmed
for instant gratification. And that programming runs
deep. In the uncertain world of our ancestors, passing
up chances to flee, feed or fornicate were shortcuts to
physical or genetic death. Even today, the social
pressure to keep up with peers, even when
we know we’re making poor long-term decisions, is an
10. But compounding is real. And it’s powerful. And
it’s defining the course of your life, right now, both for and
against you, based on every decision you make.
So, what’s the first step to tip the balance in your
favour?
The answer is to take full responsibility for your
life.
Think about it – if small choices made consistently lead to
big outcomes, it follows that many big outcomes come
down to small choices.
11. The 10 minutes you read before bed. The 15
minutes you snooze in the morning. The 100 calories you
don’t need at lunch.
Every thought you repeatedly have, every impulse
you often indulge, every decision you consistently make
contributes to some kind of compounding.
Even if you can’t match cause with effect your life is
the product of your choices.
12. Action Steps:-
Decide to take full ownership of your life – even if you can’t
explain how you got here.
Write down 6 seemingly inconsequential positive steps you
can start doing daily.
Identify 6 seemingly inconsequential negative actions you can
put a stop to.
Identify any areas of life where you’ve enjoyed success in the
past but may have become complacent and are no longer
improving.
13. Chapter#2
Choices
So if it all comes down to the choices we make, how do we
get better at making them?
The answer, like compounding, is disarmingly simple:
stop living on autopilot and start making conscious
decisions.
Choose gratitude.
Choose 100% responsibility for your relationships.
14. Choose 100% responsibility for your setbacks and the
lessons they’ll teach you.
Choose 100% responsibility for your luck.
Think about it.Everything in your life exists because
you first made a choice about something.Choices are at the
root of every one of your results.Each choice starts a
behavior that over time becomes a habit.You make your
choices and then your choices make you.
Every choice has an impact on the Compound Effect
of your life.This chapter is about becoming aware of and
making choices that support the expansion of your lofe.Our
choices are often shaped by our culture and upbringing.
15. Getting Lucky:-
May be 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.Nothing else will make the difference.
The (complete) formula for getting lucky:-
Preparation(personal growth)+
Attitude(belief/mindset)+
Opportunity(a good thing coming your way)+
Action(doing something about it)=
Luck
16. Preparation:-
By consistently improving and preparing yourself-
your skills,knowledge,expertise,relationships and resources-you have
the wherewithal to take advantage of great opportunities when they
arise(when luck “strikes”)
Attitueds:-
This is where luck evades most people and where Sir
Richard is spot-on with his belief that luck is all around us.It’s simply a
matter of seeing situations,conversations and circumstances as
fortuitous.You cannot see what you don’t look for and you cannot
17. Look for what you don’t lokk for amd you cannot look for
what you don’t believe in.
Opportunity:-
It’s possible to make your own luck,but
the luck I’m talking about here isn’t planned for,or it comes
faster or differently than expected.In this stage of the
formula,luck isn’t forced.It’s a natural occurrance and it
often shows up seemingly of its own record.
Action:-
This is where you come in.However,this luck was
18. was delivered to you from the universe,God,the lucky charms
leprechaun,or whomever or whatever you associate delivering
your good fortune.
Choose to make consious choices about even (especially)
the smallest of choices in any part of life you want to tramsform.
How? “You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” so
choose to start tracking every action in the part of life
that you’re focussing on.
Want to lose weight?Track your weight.Track your
measurements.Track your calories.Track your steps.Track the
minutes you excercise each day.Track anything amd everything
19. that compounds you towards or away from your goals.
Keep it slow and easy:-
Start slowly. Track one habit for
one week. Then add to your list until there’s not a choice,
big or small, you don’t know about.
At first, you’ll be shocked. Not just at the state of
your choices but also at how hard it is to stay conscious of
them. But before long you’ll be surprised then delighted at
the power of clarity in shaping your actions.
Don’t panic.We’re starting off with an
easy,breezy tempo. Just track one habit for one
week.Pick
20. the habit that has the greatest control over you; that’s
where you’ll start. Once you begin reaping the rewards of
the Compound Effect,you’ll naturally want to introduce this
practice into other areas of your life. In other words, you’ll
choose to choose tracking.
The unsung, Unseen hero:-
Once you start tracking your
life, your attention will be focused on the small things you’re
doing right, as well as the smallest things you’re doing
wrong.And when you choose to make even the smallest
course corrections consistently, over time, you’ll begin
21. To see amazing results.But don’t expect immediate fanfare.
The most important choices of all? Choose to start
early. Choose to start now.
Because the sooner you start making conscious choices,
the sooner you can turn those choices back into habits.
And that’s when the real magic begins.
22. Action Steps:-
Identify the one area of life you’re struggling most with
and start journalling 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 behaviour in one area of your
life you’d like to change and improve.
23. Chapter#3
Habits
Habits are “an acquired mode of behaviour that has become
nearly or completely involuntary.” They’re choices on autopilot.
And they grow stronger with each repetition.
Most people let their habits form unconsciously. Those
habits then dictate the choices that determine the course of
their lives.
Taking control of your life means mastering your
habits. It means taking full responsibility for creating good
habits while removing the bad ones.
24. Creatures of habit:-
Aristotle wrote, “We are what we
repeatedly do”.Merriam-Webster defines habit this way:“An
acquired mode of behaviour that has become nearly or
completely involuntary”.
Why everything’s possible:-
The power of your “why” is
what gets you to stick through the grueling, mundanes and
laborious.All of the “hows” will be meaningless until your
“whys” are powerful enough.Until you’ve set your desire
and motivation in places,you’ll abandon any new path you
25. seek to better your life. If your why-power your desire isn’t
powerful enough,you’ll end up like every other person who
makes a new year’s resolution and gives up too quickly and
reverts to sleepwalking through poor choices.
To Take Responisbility for your Habits:
Acknowledge the power of habits in light of the
compound effect;
Determine a powerfully motivating “Why?” for changing
your behaviour;
Set effective goals and clearly visualise what success looks
like;
26. Identify and remove the bad habits holding you back from
your goals; and
Identify and create the good habits you’ll need to reach
your goals.
Core motivation:-
The access point of your why-power is
through your core values, which define both who you are
and what you stand for.Your core values are your internal
compass, your guiding beacon, your personal GPS. They act
as the filter through the which you run all of life’s
demands,requests and temptations,making sure they’re
27. leading you toward your intended destination. Getting your
core values defined and properly calibrated is one of the
most important steps in redirecting your life toward your
headset vision.
Find your fight:-
People are either motivated by something
they want or something they don’t want. Love is a
powerfully motivating force. But so is hate. Contrary to
social correctness,it can be good to hate. Hate disease, hate
injustice, hate ignorance, hate complacency and so on.
Enemies give us a reason to stand tall with courage
28. Having to fight challenges your skills, your character and
your resolve. It forces you to assess and exercise your
talents and abilities.Without a motivating fight,we can
become fat and lazy, we lose our strength and purpose.
To Determine a Powerfully Motivating “Why?”:
Define your core values
Set concise, compelling and awe-inspiring goals
How goal setting actually works:
The mystery “secret” revealed:-
You only see, experience
29. And get what you look for. If you don’t know what to look
for, you certainly won’t get it. By our very nature, we are
goal-seeking creatures.Our brain is always trying to align our
outer world with what we’e seeing and expecting in our
inner world. So, when you instruct your brain to look for the
things you want, you will begin to see them.In fact, the
object of your desire has probably always existed around
you, but your mind and eyes weren’t open to “seeing” it.
Behave yourself:-
Alright, let’s map out your process for
achieving the goals you’ve decided upon. This is the doing
process or, in some cases, the stop-doing process.
30. Your life comes down to this formula;
YOU CHOICE+BEHAVIOR+HABIT+COMPOUNDED=GOALS
(Decision) (action) (repeated action) (time)
That’s why it’s imperative to figure out which behaviors
are blocking the path that leads to your goal and which
behaviours will help you accomplish your goal.
Game changers:Five strategies for eliminating bad
habits:-
31. Identify your triggers – what, who, when or where are
the triggers that kick-off the behaviour you want to stop?
Eliminate those triggers from your environment – make
friction your friend to prevent undesirable action;
Substitute with a reward that has the same effect – want
to feel good? Call a friend instead of eating a cookie; and
then
Either: Ease into your new reward – some habits are
easier to change by cutting them down slowly.
Or: Make a hard change – others are more easier
to
32. dislodge with a quick decisive tug at the roots.
You may not want to totally eliminate all your
vices – and that’s OK! If there’s something you enjoy – but
know can get out of control – periodically abstain from it for
a 30-day period to prove to it and yourself that you’re still
the one driving.
To create good habits:-
Start Strongly – your motivation will never be
higher than it is on day 1 – start as you mean
to go on;
Set Yourself Up to Succeed – make friction
your
33. friend by eliminating as many barriers between you
and your desired action as possible;
Think Addition, Not Subtraction– focus on what
your new habit will add to your life instead of
worrying about what you’ll be losing;
Make a Public Commitment – create your own peer
pressure and use it to steer you in the right direction;
Find a Success Buddy – create accountability by
checking in with a coach or success buddy on a
frequent basis;
Set up Some Competition – even the challenge of
beating
34. your own streaks and records can be enough to get
you through a tough day; and
Celebrate – training your brain is much like training
a dog so don’t underestimate the power of small,
simple rewards for good behaviour.
And remember: Change is hard, and that’s a good
thing.
Be patient with yourself, stick with
it, don’t get distracted and stay focussed on the simple
but profound disciplines that lead to success.
35. Action steps:-
Identify your three best habits you can learn from,
three worst habits you need to stop and three new
habits you want to start;
Identify your core motivation;
Practice designing concise, compelling and awe-
inspiring goals.
36. Chapter#4
Momentum
Consistency and persistence are critical ingredients in
compounding.
But making active daily decisions and
deliberately changing your habits is hard. It’s easy to
fall off the wagon. And it’s precisely at moments like
these where momentum will give you an edge.
You’ll recognise momentum when it feels weird
not to do something that’s become a regular part of
your day.
37. It’s the gyro that keeps you upright when you wobble.
It’s the wind that lifts you over your hurdles.
How can you create it? One powerful way is to
master your daily routines. And the most important
routines are ones at the start and the end of your day.
As long as you control your mornings and
evenings you know you can start and end strong. And
a strong start and finish are your best chance at
consistently winning.
Routine power:-
Some of our best intentions fail because
38. we don’t have a system of execution. When it comes down
to it, your new attitudes and behaviors must be
incorporated into your monthly, weekly and daily routines to
affect any real, positive change.A routine is something you
do every day without fail, so that eventually,like brushing
your teeth or putting on your seatbelt, you do it without
conscious thought. Similar to our discussion in the habits
section, if you look at anything you so that’s
successful,you’ll see that you’ve probably developed a
routine for it. These routines ease life’s stresses by making
our actions automatic and effective.To reach new goals and
develop new habits,it’s necessary to create new routines to
39. Support your objectives.
Bookend your days:-
The key to becoming worl-class in
your endeavors is to build your performance around world-
class routines. It can be difficult,even futile, to predict or
control what will show up in the middle of your workday.
But you can almost always control how your day starts and
ends.
Rise and shine:-
For practical guidance, I’ve written at
40. length about morning routines here and you can check out
Darren’s own two-hour ritual below:
5:00: Wake Up (8 mins)
Reflect on three things I’m grateful for;
Visualise sending love to the people around me; and
Visualise my number 1 goal and 3 actions to progress
it.
5:08 Get up (12 mins)
5:20 Stretch (10 mins)
5:30 Read (30 mins)
6:00 Deep work (60 mins)
7:00 Calibrate (15 mins)
41. Review big picture goals; and
Set 3 most important tasks for today.
Darren’s evening routine is much simpler and follows
three steps:
Compare actuals with plan – Ask: How did today
go compared to how I thought it would go? Why?
Reflect on new ideas and insights – Ask: What did
I learn today? What can I use to make tomorrow
better?
Read 10 pages of an inspirational book – If you’re
42. stuck for ideas, you’ll find plenty of suggestions here.
An interesting point: If you notice something
in your rituals that used to energise you but is no
longer generating powerful results, don’t be afraid to
change up your routine. Your rituals are there to help
you so don’t let rigid thinking get in the way of a good
outcome.
What next? With your daily rhythm in check,
start focussing on your weekly, monthly and quarterly
rhythms. Darren suggests using a Rhythm Register to
keep track of regular habits and actions. You’ll find a
template among his free downloads and a similar
system in F2M’s TRACKTION Planner.
43. Most important of all? Make your new
habits and rituals sustainable. Going from couch potato
to 8 miles a day, overnight is a guaranteed path to burn
out and injury. That inconsistency is very expensive. It
takes a lot of energy to get a derailed train back on the
tracks.
The same lesson goes for your routines.
Sustainability leads to consistency, consistency creates
momentum and momentum makes it easy to stick to
your rhythm.
In other words: be realistic and ease into
your new lifestyle gradually.
44. Action steps:-
Build your bookend evening and morning routines.
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 rhythm register and write down a half-
dozen key behaviours.
45. Chapter#5
Influences
Change is a hard enough challenge without trying to
paddle upstream. That’s why, one of the most
important steps you can take to jumpstart your success
is to consciously tailor the information, associations
and environment that you swim in.
Take Control of Information
Your brain is an
information processing machine: garbage in, garbage
out.
Darren’s solution? To change the quality of your
thinking,
46. change the quality of your inputs with these two fool-proof
wins:
Guard Against Garbage – Put yourself on a media diet
and stop reading news; and
Join Drive-Time U – Absorb audiobooks and
courses whenever you’re hands free.
Wherever you are, whatever you do, you are
constantly bombarded by data.
Make it your mission to replace as much of
the hateful, harmful and downright unhelpful sources
as you
47. can with healthy alternatives for a wiser, happier existence.
Take Control of Your Associations
The people you associate with (your “reference
group”) determine as much as 95 per cent of your success
or failure in life.
First, take control of your friendships:
Evaluate your current associations – Are you surrounded
by people who love, support and inspire you? If not, why
not?
Visualise your ideal associations – If you could
bring five imaginary friends to life, what or who would
they be like?
48. Weed out the worst ones completely – Where
immediate elimination is hard, find ways
to increasingly avoid or distance yourself from bad
actors.
Consciously limit what’s left – When it comes to
loved ones, quality is far more important than
quantity.
Expand and replicate the best ones – Ask: Where
do people like my best friends hang out? How can I
make more friends like these?
Next, find yourself one or more peak-performance
partners – people who share the same goals, values
and determination to become their best selves as you
do. Create
49. a lasting bond of accountability with weekly calls and
messages to hold each other accountable.
Finally, cultivate and invest in mentors and
advisers. “Never ask advice of someone with whom
you wouldn’t want to trade places.” And for the best
results, find ways to seek help and advice without
making it a big time commitment for others.
Take Control of Your Environment
Last up on our checklist of
influences is taking ruthless control of your physical
and mental environment.
50. Consciously take control of whatever
surrounds you – physically, emotionally and mentally –
including (/especially) the place and space where you
live.
Eliminate all the incomplete, poisonous
clutter (both mental and physical) that you can from
your life.
And remember: “You will get in life what you
accept and expect you are worthy of.”
51. Action steps:-
Identify the influence of media and information on
your life. Identify ways to protect it from negative and
flush it with positive information.
Evaluate your current associations. Which must you
stop or limit? How will you expand your
associations?
Pick a peak performance 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.
52. Chapter#6
Acceleration
Giving a little more energy or your thought to your
efforts won’t just improve your results, it will multiply
them.
We all face moments of truth, or walls when it
feels like there’s nothing left to give.
Approach these moments not as obstacles,
but as opportunities.
First, understand that it’s only after these walls
that real growth happens. Everything up to the wall was
just a warm-up.
53. Second, know that everyone else is facing
the same wall, and the vast majority will give up, which
is why the open plains success lies on the other side of
it.
Stand out from the crowd. Do the
unexpected. Look for as many opportunities to surprise
and “WOW” others as you can with the level, speed
and originality of your accomplishments as possible.
Don’t just choose to meet expectations,
choose to do better and then choose to do better than
that.
Take extraordinary action. Harness the
compound effect. And you’ll find yourself well on the
way to jumpstarting your income, your life and your
success.
54. Action steps:-
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 from what is common, normal or
expected?
55. Conclusion:-
Compound Effect is a powerful book with a simple
message – disarmingly small choices remade
consistently over time lead to life-altering changes, and
those forces can work for or against you.
Darren offers a simple 6-step process to help
turn the tides in your favour:
Accept the power of compounding;
Make and track conscious micro-choices;
56. Foster positive and banish bad habits;
Set up daily and weekly routines;
Optimise your environment; and
Take extraordinary action.
Simple, but not easy – which is why The
Compound Effect is filled with practical actions and
templates.
But now the ball’s in your court and your
choice is straightforward.
57. If you choose progress, you might want
to check out F2M’s TRACKTION Planner – a simple,
no-nonsense productivity tool that gives you the clarity,
focus and accountability you need to build new habits
and accomplish more of what matters each day.
Good luck, go well and be awesome.
