Compound effect is the circumstance or instance where the little things you do and the little steps you take eventually create a very big change in you. When the year begins, most people are always in a hurry to make new year plans. The new year new me shenanigans. Sometimes people will tell you their goals and you sit back wondering if you are not as ambitious or who just cursed you.
Around April last year, a friend of mine and I decided to read novels together. We’d start with 10 to 20 pages a day and the goal was to read one book a month. In the beginning, it always seemed like there’s no progress. Some days we’d just read a page. So, by the end of the first week, you feel like there’s nothing big you are doing or no visible progress you are making.
This is the 9th month since we started and we have read approximately 15 novels not counting the many articles we have read. A friend of mine once started a ‘keeping fit and slimming’ routine. They’d go to the gym while checking their diets etc. During the first two months, there were no changes. In fact they wanted to give up. They were wondering why would they sweat out (literally) for something that has no results? But I would convince them that they also didn’t come this far just to give up, if you really want to give up do it at the beginning. By the 4th month, the changes were massive! I can’t describe how they can’t stop talking about it.
Around the period I wrote the ‘mindfulness piece’, it was like a project. I wanted to learn how to be mindful. How to stay calm even in the most chaotic circumstances. So, I started meditating. I was consistent for like a week or two but I couldn’t see any changes. I’d get anxious about just anything so I dismissed the meditations. I was just like…”hii si ya kila mtu btw” after sometime though, I decided to get back to it.
Sometimes I’d see a few changes like some days I could be calm, no overthinking etc. When the ‘dark’ days came, I’d totally forgot I am supposed to be calm. By now though, I can say I totally see a very big change. I have never been calm before as I am now and I just feel so proud of myself.
Let’s say there is someone out here who decided to save 10/= a day since the beginning of the year. That’s 70/= a week and around 300/= a month. By the end of the first month, 300/= isn’t always an amount you can depend on so you’d feel like there is nothing you are doing but by the end of the year, you’d have saved 3,650/=.
All the scenarios I have given above show the effect of compounding. For compound effect, the results of your actions are not easy to notice the first day or week or month. Sometimes you can’t even notice them during the first year. The effects are only noticeable after a period of time. Compound effect is a result of a habit or system you create within you.
Like when you wake up and decide to be unproductive, you are compounding that and after a long period of time, you notice how it affects you negatively. You can’t go to the gym for a day and expect to lose 10 kgs. You can’t save 10/= a day and expect to have a million at the end of the week. You read a page a day and that’s it. When you progressively do the small things whether good or bad, you see the results later.
We are in an era where we like the easy way out. Our commercials talk of how to slim in a day, we see people winning the lottery and we just wish we could be rich in a blink. I have a cousin who bets and there is this time he actually posted those ‘congratulations you won.…’ messages. So I asked him how long he has been placing the bets to win the 2K. Truth is, he placed the bet severally before and most of the times he lost. Compound effect!
What everyone else sees, is the one time he won (the one he posted). I always know, for there to be a jackpot winner, we have a millions of people who actually lost it. So maybe we should stop getting the pressure of having everything on our plates as quick and choose to develop the life systems that will benefit our growth.
The good or sad thing about compounding interest is that every action leads to a consequence. When you ignore your lifestyle, fail to take care of yourself or learn, you actively choose a compounding effect of negative results. Like when you can’t exercise or eat healthy you realize your days are grumpy or by the end of the year you have health issues. When you choose to make changes in your life, even the slightest, you notice better changes over the years. I will definitely leave you with a wise person’s saying…it is the little things we do or don’t do that create the difference.
Now that’s compound effect for you!
Comments
You go girl?