The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success

by Darren Hardy

SUMMARY ACTION STEPS Go to DarrenDaily.com to join my free morning mentoring program. One big idea to kickstart your day, every workday, 260 days a year as you continue to pursue #BetterEveryDay. 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 in hard work and personal development to outcompete anyone—including your old self. Be Scott—Write out the half-dozen small, seemingly inconsequential steps you can take every day that can move your life in a completely new and positive direction. Don’t be Brad—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 not continuing to improve, which could lead to future failure.

The (Complete) Formula for Getting Lucky: Preparation (personal growth) + Attitude (belief/mindset) + Opportunity (a good thing coming your way) + Action (doing something about it) = Luck

To help you become aware of your choices, I want you to track every action that relates to the area of your life you want to improve.

Simply carry around a small notebook, something you’ll keep in your pocket or purse at all times, and a writing instrument.

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 yourself 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. Use Living Your Best Year Ever: A Proven System for Achieving BIG GOALS to guide you through the designing and tracking process all year long. Access at LivingYourBestYearEver.com

Jack would start out behind the ball and then pick out one or two intermediate spots between the ball and the target. As he walked around and approached the ball, the first thing he would do is line up his clubface to his intermediate target. He wouldn’t put his feet into position until he felt he had his clubface properly squared up. Then he would take his stance. From there, he would waggle the club and look out to his target, then back to his intermediate target and back to the golf club, with a repeat of the view. Then, and only then, would he strike the ball.

every morning at 7 a.m., I have what I call my calibration appointment, a recurring appointment set in my calendar, where I take fifteen minutes to calibrate my day. This is where I brush over my top three one-year and five-year goals, my key quarterly objectives, and my top goal for the week and month. Then, for the most important part of the calibration appointment, I review (or set) my top three MVPs (Most Valuable Priorities) for that day, asking myself, “If I only did three things today, what are the actions that will produce the greatest results in moving me closer to my big goals?” Then, and only then, do I open e-mail and send out a flurry of tasks

It’s important to cash out your day’s performance. Compared to your plan for the day, how did it go? What do you need to carry over to tomorrow’s plan? What else needs to be added, based on what showed up throughout the day? What’s no longer important and needs to be scratched out? Additionally, I like to log any new ideas, ah-has or insights I picked up throughout the day in my journal—this is how I’ve collected more than forty journals

Every Friday night is “date night.”

Every Saturday is FD (Family Day)—

Every Sunday night, also at 6 p.m., we have our RR (Relationship Review). This is a practice I picked up from relationship experts Linda and Richard Eyre. During this time, we discuss the previous week’s wins, losses, as well as the adjustments we need to make in our relationship. We start the conversation by telling each other a few things we have appreciated about the other during the previous week—

Everyone is affected by three kinds of influences: input (what you feed your mind), associations (the people you spend time with), and environment (your surroundings).

SUMMARY ACTION STEPS 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 with? 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.