Day 228 of 365
Sitting on the beach yesterday getting bit by horse flies I had a moment of clarity.
Everything around me zoned out as I observed my brain breathing for a second.
I thought back to a book I read The Compound Effect it's about a very basic principle. Making good choices compound into better choices and more success and making bad choices compounds into more bad choices.
It's so simple but it's funny how I can so easily ignore this as I feel most people do.
Simple things like not exercising for a day, not eating a vegetable, having an extra piece of cake.
These are just the start of things that have a longer effect on our lives.
I have a friend that loves to do 30-day challenges. Not really my thing but I think they are great.
I have some other friends that love to bash these they think it's a weak-willed excuse for taking control of your life.
What I see from my friends that disagree with these 30-day challenges is that they drink every weekend with no end in sight, they're okay with the extra piece of cake etc. They still have a great physique but none of us have seen the effects of drinking, or shitty eating on our bodies when they are done for 20 years consistently.
This baffles me.
It also scares the shit out of me. Imagine a cigarette a day for 20 years. It's like taking a block of concrete and taking a chip out of it every day for 20 years. In the end, you are going to be left with nothing instead if you added a block of concrete to it every day for 20 years you'd be left with a house.
This is the essence of compounding for me.
This book kicked my ass into gear.
I now exercise regularly and have been seriously changing my eating habits.
Although I may not be fit now or where I want to be.
I know that if I keep it up, if I send that extra email every day, if I take pictures for an extra 30 minutes, if I have one less beer that in a year, 2, 3 from now things will be exactly where I want them to be.
I won't have to join a weight watchers club, won't have to worry about being laid off, I will have avoided a ton of issues that come from the seemingly meaningless piece of cake.
Yes, you have to find a balance and be able to be able to enjoy the fruits of life but everything in life is 80-20 not the other way around.
