Compound Interest
A few years ago I was diagnosed with shoulder tendinitis due to my return to hockey after a decades long absence.
When my physical therapist gave me exercises and said it would take approximately 1 year to heal, I assumed I could just increase the frequency and recover faster.
It still took 1 year to be injury free!
When this pandemic hit us in March we all similarly rushed to recover quickly. Two week lock downs and we would be fine.
Each month that passed it seemed we improved and now many of us now reflect on 2020 as a year where we learned something new about our own character.
Personally, I learned that consistent habits such as daily meditation and writing what I was grateful for each day were keys to lowering my stress.
Yet it didn’t happen because I tried to meditate 5x per day. It happened because of daily consistency. That is the beauty of tiny improvements.
The cumulative impact works the same as compound interest!
Here's a short audio clip that highlights this point from Naval Ravikant as a guest on a podcast:
https://www.kapwing.com/videos/5fe3c55795026d01082eade4
Many of us also had more time to really think about our priorities this year. In reflecting on my priorities I realized how time was really my friend.
Just like my injury, I recognized that my priorities needed attention every day.
I can’t think of any priorities where taking a short term approach beats the long term approach.
As such I created a list of small daily consistent actions knowing that they will bring even more success and improvements to my life in 2021:
- Saying “no” to more things
- Not making excuses
- Going to bed earlier
- Not working more to fix being busy
When you are always improving it means your best days are always ahead!
The bridge between what you have and what you want is action (over the long term).
With what you have learned about yourself this year, what consistent daily actions are you going to take in 2021?
Make choices for 2021 that will move you in a direction that matches your priorities and your purpose. When progress feels slow or unnoticeable, think of how nature works. The most beautiful aspects of nature took time!
All the best for 2021,
Karl
The nature of success is that it takes consistency to get anywhere. "What Owen Didn't Know"
All returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships or knowledge, come from compound interest. Naval Ravikant