It’s been a long while since I last wrote a post. Momentum is all there is to keep something going. If you’d like to build a habit, don’t think, just keep putting in the action. As soon as you pause, you’re doomed. You’ll have to start all over again.
I promised myself that I’d write an article. I told myself that last week, and the few weeks prior to that, and I never got round to doing it. Now, as I’m sitting on the plane with about an hour left until I reach Beijing for a week-long holiday, I knew I just had to do it – instead of staring at the TV screen in front of me, showing some meaningless film I knew I would not regret missing.
But writing means something different. The momentum, the skill, and the joy of thinking through and organising my thoughts would all compound. In fact, the concept of compounding really gets to me these days, and I’m increasingly feeling its importance. It’s really an evil thing. The moment you stop paying attention, anything, good or bad, will compound without you even realising it. If you aren’t deliberate about managing it, you might end up with something you didn’t want after a certain period of time.
This was even more obvious during the process of packing my bag for the trip. I’m not the kind of person who packs light. I like to have everything I need habitually with me wherever I go, and I usually repack products into small containers with the exact quantities I need. And this whole packing ritual is a great reminder of how things compound. Take skincare, for example. Day to day, it’s just a pea-sized blob, so it feels like you’re using almost nothing. But when you try to pack for a trip, and you start decanting everything, you suddenly see the truth in volume. If it can compound in your toiletry bag, it had better be compounding on your face, too.
Or think about the flip side. If you’re a sugary drinks lover and you consume at least a can a day, your body can probably manage for a few days. But it’s not just the calories that add up. It’s what the habit does to you over time. The weight creeps on, and with it comes lower energy, less motivation to exercise, leading to more weight gain. Before you know it, you might be dealing with obesity, clothes that don’t fit, mental and physical health that takes a hit, and a lifestyle that keeps reinforcing the same cycle. That’s negative compounding. A downward spiral, not just a pile-up.
What is compounding anyway?
Your bank manager might have told you about that fixed deposit option when you started thinking about growing your money. Well, compounding in anything is exactly the same thing – returns generating further returns, effects building on effects.
The economist John Maynard Keynes put it brilliantly back in 1930, in his essay Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren:
The power of compound interest over two hundred years is such as to stagger the imagination.
Don’t worry if you’re not sure who Keynes is – he’s one big – shot economist we can’t possibly miss. I did a search to show you more if you are interested.
I also have a quote pinned at the top of my Notion workspace as a daily reminder. I can’t recall where it came from, but it stuck:
Anything above zero compounds positively!
I won’t bore you with a literature review, but know that compounding doesn’t just apply to money. It applies to everything. If you’re curious, read The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. He defines compounding as the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices, and puts it in a formula:
Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE
If you want compounding to take effect, you need to do it consistently, and time is the determining factor. All of this just means one thing: build the right habits and let time do the heavy lifting.
Build good habits
I’ve been aware of the compounding effect for a long time, so whenever I dread doing something that’s good for me, I just try to shut down my “thinking” and do it robotically. Even if it’s something I absolutely hate, I’d still try to do a little. Anything above zero compounds, right? And the effect is just exponential when you do more.
Start small
That’s why the self-help authors are always trying to get you started on the absolute minimum. You might think to yourself, since I’ve already got changed and taken out my dumbbells, I might as well work out for 15 minutes instead of 5. The bare minimum is never intimidating. Like reading – if you read 10 pages a day, you’d eventually learn something you never knew you could, even if it’s only 5% of the book’s ideas. But hey, it genuinely doesn’t matter. When something sticks, it means it resonated, and it’s helpful to you. (I sometimes re-read books because I will always pick up some useful 5% every time.)
And these ideas, when you eventually connect the dots, theory with practicality, you’d have them imprinted in your head and naturally apply them when you most need them. Your knowledge just keeps building. That’s compounding at work again. Each new idea connects with what you already know and makes the whole network more valuable.
Make it meaningful
You need to think about the goal, the tactics, and the process. If you design meanings and values as a by-product of your process, things stick much more easily.
During my decade-long career in the fitness industry, we always tried to design programmes that help new members stick with it for at least 3 months. Research (and practical experience) proves that if you keep to a routine for over 3 months, it has a higher probability of becoming habitual. So we’d design welcome packages that give you free personal training sessions (so you meet somebody caring and knowledgeable), introduce you to group exercises (so you make friends), invite you to weekend activities and small gatherings, offer free supplement samples and special classes you can bring friends to. Sometimes we’d throw in spa sessions too. So there you have it – your 3-month routine is built, and every benefit compounds. Work hard, and you might even see noticeable results.
The by-products? You enjoy the time, build your network, and see results. I know the programme design sounds commercial, but you can absolutely design something like this for yourself when you want to achieve other goals. Getting to a goal is usually painful, so you might as well find ways to gain additional emotional, social, or physical satisfaction during the process.
Act the outcome
This is along the lines of ‘fake it until you make it’, and sometimes it does the magic.
Say you want to build wealth by automating a small portion of your income into an index fund ETF. (Pretty effective, by the way. Start small, automate it, and just forget about it. After a few years, you’d be amazed at how that coffee money accumulates.) At the start, you might feel miserable. Something belonging to you has been removed, and the amount looks pathetic.
But here’s the reframe: what would a wealthy person think? They’d see an investment. They’d see money working to grow more money. And you are doing exactly that.
Act like that person now. You have the ability and discipline to make your money compound. This is what matters. (And if this particular example doesn’t resonate with you, find one that does. The principle works across any domain.)
Adjustments are part of the plan
I’ve tested all the ideas here and found them pretty practical. Everything starts with the mind. We’re all pretty rational, but somehow you need to find ways to trick yourself into doing something when the natural instinct says no.
I do procrastinate from time to time, but I always believe that if the goal is important enough, you should still try to hit a 90% success rate of sticking to a regime.
That said, don’t feel obliged to stick with the original plan if it needs changing. We form a habit to achieve the goal, but you should always evaluate whether your tactic is effective and make adjustments along the way. It’s miserable trying to keep doing something that doesn’t yield results, especially when you know it could be improved. We humans are made to think, to make better choices that fit our individual self. Not your family, your friends, or your colleagues, but yourself. So test, figure out what works, be flexible, and get help along the way.
Coming full circle
So here I am, finishing this article somewhere over northern China. An hour ago, I could have started a mindless in-flight movie. But instead, I chose to write. It wasn’t a dramatic decision, but that’s exactly the point, isn’t it? This article exists because of the same principle it describes. One small action, compounding into something real.
More to read
There are lots of proven ideas out there to help you build a compounding system. If you’re looking for additional resources, focus on the ones that fill the missing pieces for you. Here are some popular books to get started. And they are all really accessible, both in availability and language.
- Understand compounding more thoroughly: The Compound Effect – Darren Hardy
- Ways to build (or unbuild) habits: Atomic Habits – James Clear
- Understand why habits work: The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg
- The science of starting small: Tiny Habits – BJ Fogg
- Making good decisions (so you know what to compound): Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
That’s it! Welcome to the club. Anything above zero compounds positively!
