“The compound effect has been the operating system that has been running your life whether you know it or not.”

“Small, consistent action over a long period of time has greater pay offs than intensely large, but short changes.” 

Darren Hardy, Author of The Compound Effect

I’m listening to this audio book right now and highly recommend this book to anyone who has an ‘all or nothing’ tendency.

Using weight loss as an analogy, I have gained and lost 40# at least 4 times in my life.  While I’m ‘in it’ I hit it hard and it works... until I either get bored with the routine, I have a life event, or I get to maintenance... then somehow it just starts creeping back.  This is not because my eating plan was flawed, it was because I did not have a consistent healthy lifestyle that would allow me to maintain what I lost.

I am a very ‘all or nothing’ kind of person, but I am working on changing this.  I also have always felt like ‘go big or go home’ was the only way to make gains... that is not true.  Slow and steady can win the race, and it might just make us happier too 😊

Here are some pointers I have gotten from this book so far:

🔹 Small, seemingly insignificant actions add up

“Consistency is the ultimate key to success.  Success is doing a half dozen things really well, repeated five thousand times.  You don’t need more knowledge; you need a new plan of action and then be consistent.”

🔹 You can’t improve something unless you measure it

This doesn’t necessarily mean tracking every morsal of food you put into your mouth, but if you are ‘winging it’ and not seeing results, you need to be real with yourself.  Even tracking for one week per month, or planning out your days in advance and then following that meal plan will make a huge difference in your progress.

🔹 Always take 100% responsibility

So many times I have blamed the circumstance for something that didn’t go right for me, but the truth is that there will always be bumps in the road.  It’s how we show up and what we do during those times that make all the difference in the outcome.

❓  Does this resonate with you?  Please share any thoughts you have 👇

You got this!

💗 Leta

~ Intentionally Bare