I'm currently reading the book "Zero To One" By Peter Thiel. For those of you who haven't heard of Peter, he is the co-founder of Paypal , a venture capitalist, author and much more.
One of the lessons Peter just covered was something called "The Power Law" in which he uses Venture Funds as an analogy to convey how this law works in the real world.
He explains the development of a venture fund over time and how 1–2 of the start ups that each venture fund invests in usually yields a ROI that outweighs the rest of the funds returns combined. He then goes on to quote Albert Einstein in saying "compound Interest is the 8th wonder of the world" and "the greatest mathematical discovery of all time" and even "the most powerful force in the universe". There's some debate whether or not Albert Einstein actually said this or not but the takeaway is this. The message behind these quote is that you should never underestimate exponential growth. The sum of consistent progress repeated over a significant period of time far outweighs acutely significant progress in a short period of time.
Whenever you are looking to accomplish something, whether it be financial, personal, or a healthy transformation (you know I always come back to this). You can very easily try a bunch of things all at once thinking if you give 110% effort every single day you will see amazing results, to which you will most likely burn out, or get bogged down by pure overwhelm or decision fatigue. Instead, you can analyze what you are currently doing each day, writing down exactly what you want to accomplish and your timeline to get there, and then identify the most powerful ways you can get there with minimal effort.
When I told my dad about this concept in relation to weight loss he immediately said "Going for daily walks" and "watching the beer count". You know why? Because that's what he did to lose north of 30+ lbs in one year. He didn't do anything drastic, he didn't even realize he had lost the weight until family members asked him what I had done to him since last Christmas. To be honest I didn't even notice, it was a very gradual process…But a powerful process it was. He did it just by focusing on doing 2 things that require about a 10–20 minute time commitment each day, so it was..here it is..the moment you've been waiting for…ding! ding! ding!…sustainable! He could do these two things each day without feeling like he was completely overhauling his daily routine and even more importantly, he could build additional healthy adjustments on this foundation to compound his results. See how the Power Law is all coming full circle now?
Compound interest applies to weight loss as well, but only if we're able to lay that initial foundational investment of say 10 minutes, or one seemingly insignificant healthy switch a day such as subtracting one Oreo from your nightly Netflix snacking routine. Once this becomes the new normal, we will now be living a healthier lifestyle which is a victory in and of itself. Also, when your lifestyle routine changes (move more, eat less) so does your body composition, making your wins two fold. We can then build on this momentum with additional healthy investments of say 30 minute HIIT workouts or making one more dietary adjustment, and these adjustments lead to exponential progress even if they're maintained for as little as a month!
Compounded progress always begins with a foundational investment.
1)Become Crystal Clear on exactly what you want, then set huge, massively idealistic goals that almost seem way too big to ever accomplish.
I hope you enjoyed this short story. As a Personal Trainer I greatly enjoy reading books by some of the most daring and intelligent individuals of our time so I can re purpose these lessons for my clients.
If you would like to inquire about training with me feel free to email me at ethan@panaceafit.com or head on over to my website www.panaceafit.com.
I can also be reached on Instagram @bigeasydoesit5.