The compound effect: key takeaways

Top lessons from the compound effect book:

(For a detailed book summary of the compound effect click here.)

“You will get in life what you accept and expect you are worthy of.”

“You make your choices, and then your choices make you.”

“You get in life what you create. Expectation drives the creative process. What do you expect? You expect whatever it is you’re thinking about. Your thought process, the conversation in your head, is at the base of the results you create in life.”

“You cannot see what you don’t look for, and you cannot look for what you don’t believe in.”

“You alone are responsible for what you do, don’t do, or how you respond to what’s done to you.”

“When you define your goals, you give your brain something new to look for and focus on. It’s as if you’re giving your mind a new set of eyes from which to see all the people, circumstances, conversations, resources, ideas, and creativity surrounding you.”

“We are all self-made men and women, but only the successful take credit for it.”

“Unsuccessful people carry their goals around in their head like marbles rattling around in a can, and we say a goal that is not in writing is merely a fantasy.”

“There’s nothing wrong with ordinary. I just prefer to shoot for extraordinary.”

“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.”

“The truth is, complacency has impacted all great empires, including, but not limited to, the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English. Why? Because nothing fails like success.”

“The real cost of a four-dollar-a-day coffee habit over 20 years is $51,833.79. That’s the power of the Compound Effect.”

“The person who has a clear, compelling, and white-hot burning why will always defeat even the best of the best at doing the how.”

“The Compound Effect is the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices.”

“The biggest difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not.”

“Seek out positive people who have achieved the success you want to create in your own life. Remember the adage: “Never ask the advice of someone with whom you wouldn’t want to trade places.”

“New or more information is not what you need—a new plan of action is. It’s time to create new behaviors and habits that are oriented away from sabotage and toward success.”

“Losing is a habit. So is winning. Now let’s work on permanently instilling winning habits into your life.”

“It’s not the big things that add up in the end; it’s the hundreds, thousands, or millions of little things that separate the ordinary from the extraordinary.”

“Isn’t it comforting to know you only need to take a series of tiny steps, consistently, over time, to radically improve your life?”

“In essence, you make your choices, and then your choices make you.”

“If you are not making the progress that you would like to make and are capable of making, it is simply because your goals are not clearly defined.”

“Have you ever been bitten by an elephant? How about a mosquito? It’s the little things in life that will bite you.”

“Earning success is hard. The process is laborious, tedious, and sometimes even boring. Becoming wealthy, influential, and world-class in your field is slow and arduous.”

“Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.”

“Don’t wait another day to start the small disciplines that will lead you in the direction of your goals!”

“Determine the quality of life you want to have, and then surround yourself with the people who represent and support that vision.”

“Consistency is the key to achieving and maintaining momentum.”

“And as long as you’re making choices unconsciously, you can’t consciously choose to change that ineffective behavior and turn it into productive habits.”

“All winners are trackers.”

“A daily routine built on good habits and disciplines separates the most successful among us from everyone else. A routine is exceptionally powerful.”

These are all the action steps you have to take it…

I have covered all actions from all the chapters.

Action steps from The Compound Effect book.

Write out a few excuses you might be clinging to (e.g., not smart enough, no experience, wrong upbringing, don’t have the education, etc.).

Decide to make up for hard work and personal development to outcompete anyone— including your old self.

Write out the half-dozen small, seemingly inconsequential steps you can take every day that can take your life in a completely new and positive direction.

Write down the small, seemingly inconsequential actions you can stop doing that might be compounding your results downward.

List a few areas, skills, or outcomes where you have been most successful in the past. Consider whether you could be taking those for granted and are not continuing to improve, and are therefore in jeopardy of having that complacency lead to future failure.

What area, person, or circumstance in your life do you struggle with the most? Start journaling all the aspects of that situation that you are grateful for.

Keep a record of everything that reinforces and expands your gratitude in that area.

Where in your life are you not taking 100 percent responsibility for the success or failure of your present condition?

Write down three things you have done in the past that have messed things up. List three things you should have done but didn’t.

Write out three things that happened to you but you responded poorly. Write down three things you can start doing right now to take back responsibility for the outcomes of your life.

Start tracking at least one behavior in one area of your life you’d like to change and improve (e.g., money, nutrition, fitness, recognizing others, parenting… any area).

Identify your three best habits—those that support your most important goal. Identify your three bad habits that take you off course from your most important goal.

Identify three new habits you need to develop to put you on track toward your most important goal.

Identify your core motivation. Discover what gets you fired up and keeps you fired up to achieve big results.

Find your why-power. Design your concise, compelling, and awe-inspiring goals.

Build your bookend morning and evening routines. Design a predictable and fail-safe world-class routine schedule for your life.

List three areas of life in which you are not consistent enough. What has this inconsistency cost you in life thus far? Make a declaration to stay steadfast in your new commitment to consistency.

On your Rhythm Register, write down a half-dozen key behaviors relevant to your new goals.

These should be behaviors you want to establish a rhythm with and eventually create momentum.

Identify the influence the input of media and information is having on your life.

Determine what input you need to protect your glass (mind) from and how you are going to keep your glass (mind) regularly flushed with positive, uplifting, and supportive input.

Evaluate your current associations.

Who might you need to further limit your association?

Who might you need to completely dissociate from? Strategize ways you will expand your associations.

Pick a peak-performance partner. Decide when, how regularly, and what you will hold each other accountable to, and what ideas you will expect the other to bring to each conversation.

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

Your mentors could be people who have accomplished what you wish to and with whom you have brief conversations, or they could be experts who have written down their ideas in books or recorded their ideas on CDs.

When do you hit your moments of truth (e.g., making prospecting calls, exercising, communicating with your spouse or kids)?

Identify so you know when to push through to find new growth and where you can separate yourself from others and your old self.

Find three areas in your life where you can do “extra” (e.g., weight lifting reps, calls, recognition, sentiments of appreciation, etc.).

Identify three areas in your life where you can beat the expectations. Where and how can you create “wow” moments?

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

Thank you for your time.