The Power Of Compounding Action

Simon Sinek pointed out that brushing your teeth for two minutes in the morning and evening does very little in the grand scheme of things. Your mouth will taste better and your breath won’t smell. If you were to stop for the next five days, those benefits would vanish immediately. They are useless on their own, but that’s not why we brush our teeth. Doing it every day is what makes the difference.

Consider exercise as the best example. A lot of people find a single act of exercise unpleasant. This unpleasantness is then their reference point when deciding to do it again in future.

Here is the mistake people make — they ignore the long term gain and delayed gratification, only focusing on the single instance. This logic trap ensures they never benefit from the best reason to do exercise. Even just 15 minutes a day at high intensity will have big effects when you compound it day after day.

Repetition is key.

But this is not a revelation. People understand that if they commit to something day after day they will see the benefits. So why do so many people find it hard to maintain discipline?

A reasonable excuse is still an excuse.

Ultimately you can rationalise your way out of doing almost anything. Procrastination comes in many forms. Short of being held hostage, it’s still your choice to delay doing the things you need to do to see a major long term change.

Your favourite form of procrastination is unique to you, so instead let’s focus on how you can trick yourself to get out of your own way.

The answer is to take “little and often” to the extreme.

You need to start doing something tiny. It can be as small as putting your phone down and counting to 10 once a day. It doesn’t have to mean anything. The goal isn’t to achieve something big, it’s to develop a very basic habit.

A person who stops and does nothing else but breathe for 10 seconds just once a day will not need to exert any effort. You can do this right now. It would be very easy to do this 7 days in a row. It would take 70 seconds out of your week.

The result at the end of the week will be having effectively meditated for one week straight. Technically that is an accomplishment. You may feel some benefit from having paused for a fleeting moment once a day. More likely is that at the end of the 7 days you would have proven to yourself that habits can be made.

The trick is to stop building up habits or disciplined regimes as massive complex tasks requiring a lot of planning. People see the mountain ahead they want to climb but balk at the thought of all the preparation. It would be a hell of a lot easier if the mountain had thousands of tiny steps going right up to the top.

You need to start laying your own steps.

You only need to think one step at a time. You don’t need to focus on the mountain top all the time. Over time your small steps will grow into bigger more confident strides that allow you to tackle bigger goals.

Stop using the size of the challenge as an excuse not to try. Daily tiny steps will demolish any obstacle. Take your first steps today.