Reset Your Course with The Compound Effect

Copyright (c) 2011 Kim Schuld

Have you ever looked at the scale, or your bank account, or even a person in your life and wondered, "How did it get so bad?"

I hear it all the time - I've said it myself - life sneaks up on you. But is it true that life sneaks up on us, or is it that we have put our lives on auto-pilot and never take the time to make course corrections along the way? We wind up at a destination we didn't expect and it takes us by surprise.

I've been listening to Darren Hardy's book The Compound Effect while I run and it has me thinking about why we don't accomplish our goals, or succeed at weight loss or even just do the things we know we need to. Not knowing about the power of the Compound Effect can rob you of years of satisfied, fully authentic living.

The Compound Effect says that it's the little everyday decisions that take us toward the life we desire, or to a destiny of disaster by default. It's generally not the big things in life that break us, but failure to do some little, boring, mundane, even hard things every day that take us off course in our life journey. If a plane leaving Los Angeles bound for New York City is off its trajectory by as little as 1 percent, it will end up in either Albany, NY or Delaware. So, for example, if you're wondering how you ended up here, ask yourself, "When is the last time I made a course correction?" While the plane is in the air, the pilot is constantly checking the coordinates and outside factors such as wind or turbulent weather to keep the plane headed to the target.

You can reset your course at any time and apply the Compound Effect to arrive at a new destination - you're never stuck on the path you're on. Write down something you want to change in your life. Maybe you have stress over money. You could live in a fantasy world where you'll win the lottery, or you could take control of the situation with small steps right now.

To change your financial status and open yourself to receiving future prosperity, start a daily habit of keeping a small notebook with you at all times (or if you're tech savvy, find an app for your smart phone) to track every single penny you spend, even if it seems inconsequential. Over the course of a few weeks, two things will start to happen:
1) you'll quickly be able to see where you do mindless spending that could be cut out, and
2) you'll become more mindful of your cash flow because you have to account for it.
The Compound Effect of tracking your expenses every day will put you on a course to pay off your debts and change your habits to open yourself to new prosperity.

But to be the most effective with the Compound Effect, you also need to have a clear vision of WHY you are going to do the things that most people won't do. Tracking financial expenses because you want to be debt free in the next three years is a clear why. Tracking them just because you've been told you need to do so will drag you down and you'll be more likely to stop doing this little thing because it didn't produce faster results.

The beauty in the Compound Effect is not in the daily execution of small, boring, simple things. It is in the big result you'll see somewhere down the road and around the bend, a place you may not be able to see right now. You do not have to have all the courage it takes to arrive at a new destination. You only need the courage to take the first step.


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Kim Schuld is a nationally published writer and speaker who spent over
twenty years in politics honing messages on complex issues. Kim now uses
her talents to help people see through confusion to pinpoint problems
and solutions, and to find their heart-felt callings as a life journey
coach. You can find out more about Kim by clicking here