The Compound Effect

I recently experienced something amazing. I accomplished a goal I’ve had for the majority of my life! The amazing part is that I didn’t realize my accomplishment until someone else opened my eyes to see it. My mind was completely blown as I held what was once a thought, a dream really, in my very own hands 🤯

I’m sharing this experience today because the decision I made and the steps I took are easily repeatable. I was contributing to something called the compound effect, but didn’t even realize it.

For our 1st wedding anniversary my husband gave me the most thoughtful and special gift. He had the first year of Project Breadcrumb Trail printed in a book format 📕

Fun Fact: The gift for the first year of marriage is paper.

I’ve always wanted to write a book. My topics and focus often felt like that of squirrel though, making it hard to settle on a topic. I started the book writing process once.  It was an incredibly challenging and painful experience. I thought a blog would be a better start. That’s how Project Breadcrumb Trail was born.

I committed to writing one post per week.

That seemed easy enough, even though it often proved to be difficult and require a lot of discipline. No matter where we were or what life events were going on, I had to make sure I had content and was ready to hit “PUBLISH” every Saturday AM.

I’d often go to ProjectBreadCrumbTrail.com and scroll back through my posts. I’d think, wow, I have a lot of blogs and short stories, but I’ll never be able to write a book.

On Sept. 19th 2021, my husband gifted me a book. A book that I had written.

Author Darren Hardy writes in his book, The Compound Effect, (which I highly recommend)

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

Making the choice to write a blog every week wasn’t exactly a small choice, as it consumed hours each week to accomplish, but this principle applies to any task.

I often listened to the stories of my personal training clients inability to stick to a routine. More often than not, they failed because they bit off more than they could chew.

(That may not have been the best choice of words……!)

New Years resolutions are a prime example:

On January 1st everyone plans to go on a strict diet, workout everyday, meditate 1 hour per day and get 8 hours of sleep.

People fail and wonder why. Though these choices are smart, they certainly are not small.

The problem is that eliminating the cans of Coke every day doesn’t seem like enough. This is true, if you only do it once. Repeated over the course of a few weeks, those calories compound and you’ll find yourself down a pound or two just from one small change.

Darren Hardy uses the following example. It’s spectacular!

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.

If you hadn’t seen this illustration, which option would you have picked?

People who use the compound method to accomplish their goals generally apply it in two areas:

• Weight Loss / General Health
• Personal Finance

While these are exceptional areas, it works in any area or with any task:

• Learning a language
• Decluttering a house
• Completing a degree
• Writing a book

Will my book make the display at Barnes & Noble or land on a best sellers list?

It doesn’t seem so.

Will it motivate me to see what else I’m capable of? Will it help eliminate my fear of failing? Will it inspire me to keep writing?

HECK YES! 👏👏👏

Thanks for following Project Breadcrumb Trail.

Please share with your family and friends!

May God bless and protect our country and everyone reading.

~ MLO