“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. It’s that simple.”
– Darren Hardy, Author of The Compound Effect

So I’ve been reading this book lately, The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy.

In it, he talks about how consistent, small actions are going to have a much more profound effect on your life than any large, radical change.

Let me ask you a question- would you rather have:

  1. A) $3 Million right now

or

  1. B) One penny that doubles every day for 31 days?

You might feel silly choosing to start with a penny instead of $3 Million, and you might not feel any better about it on the 20th day when you are looking at just under $5,300.

In fact, it’s not until the 29th day that you just about break even, but then by the 31st day you’ve better than tripled option A.

In order to maximize your gains, you must have the planning and foresight to know how things will turn out in the future, and most of all you need to be consistent with your little decisions that add up huge over time.

And it makes sense, right? If I go to the gym and pound away for 15 hours tomorrow after not going for years, I’m not going to walk out of there in any better shape. But if I instead went every day for a year, the results would be unmistakable.

Then I got to thinking about the opposite- what if I didn’t go to the gym every day for a year, but instead went to a fast food restaurant for lunch every day?

I think we all know I’d need a new wardrobe by the end of the year!

Small, smart choices + consistency + time = Radical Difference

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

Look at the above formula and quote. They both have to do with the power of routines, but they only show you the good part.

What if instead of “small, smart choices”, we made “small, bad choices” consistently over time? The Compound Effect would still occur, and it would still yield a “radical difference”, except it would be negative.

Switch the word “good” for “bad” in the quote and the same point is illustrated.

And that’s the thing about the Compound Effect- it’s happening right now, today, whether you mean for it to happen or not.

You’re either getting better or getting worse, a little bit every day.

So which are you going to choose today?

It’s a no-brainer. Law firm owners fall victim to this all the time. They are so busy, so bogged down by the day to day managing of things that they don’t even realize the tiny, damaging decisions that are piling up and ready to blow.

Sometimes it takes an objective set of eyes. That’s what happened to me. I was lucky enough to meet a mentor who took one look at how I was doing things and set me straight. My only regret was not meeting him five years prior. He was able to see how I had stacked bad decision on top of bad decision. (FYI, NOT making any decisions at all and being in denial is a form of decision. And a bad one.)

Awareness is powerful tool for profit. And if you need that second set of eyes, you can schedule an appointment with my team anytime by clicking here. Prepare to be asked some tough but vital questions if you do talk to them. My guess is, like me, you’ll wish you had done it sooner.