Book Review: The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

I am in writing this article because of feedback I got after writing about the five must read books for any aspiring athlete. I got great feedback (Thanks to all those who have made comments or have personally reached out to me! That is what makes blogs like these fun!) about that article because it highlighted some powerful books that many were not aware of. So if you have not read that article I would definitely check it out. However, even though many people were intrigued by the books mentioned in that article,  right now adding reading a new book to their reading list was not a major priority, but they would love if I could summarize the main points of each book so that they could start applying the core themes of them to help improve their athletic performance and their lives.

So I am going to do a quick review about the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. I am going to continuously do book reviews, and if there is a book you would like me to summarize please let me know! Otherwise I am going to do book reviews of the five books I mentioned above and then whatever books I feel will best support you in becoming the best athlete and person you can be.

If someone put a gun to my head and they forced me to say what the main theme of this book is I would present the image below:

This should not be something new to you. If you have had any sort of decent mentor or coach during your athletic career or life I am sure they would have mentioned or alluded to the importance of the small tasks and attention to detail. However, knowledge not applied is useless. The rest of the book gives you plenty of examples to hammer this point into your head and delves into the nuances and mindsets that are necessary to maintain the discipline to consistently execute small positive behaviors that will lead to HUGE results. The thee major take-ways from the book other than to sweat the small things that may seem inconsequential in the moment because they compound over time is:

1. Keep Track of whatever you want to change (write it down!)  – To be able to make the positive small changes in your life you must be aware of how you are currently doing now! And keeping track does not mean just trying to take a mental note of it. You MUST get a notebook and write down everything related to what you want to change. For example he mentions how he began to turn his frivolous spending habits around. He began to write down every time he bought something. This drastically curtailed his spending and enabled him to be aware of his spending habits to see what small inconsequential daily purchases was costing to waste an insane amount of money.

2. Your choices determine your habits which determine your success – Making the right choices is the key to success once you are aware of your circumstances. If you are making poor choices, you will develop poor habits which will limit or prevent you from succeeding. So it is absolutely essential that you take aggressive action and make good choices which will develop good habits to override your previously poor habits which will empower you to succeed.

3. The power of being consistent – Consistency is key because the longer you are able to maintain positive disciplines, the more momentum is on your side. Just like in the mechanical world where it takes more energy to get an object moving, than it does to maintain movement, the same holds true in athletics and life. Every time you “relax” or “chill” on your disciplines you go back to ground zero and lose whatever momentum you accumulated. Therefore if you wish to maximize your success it is key that you are as consistent as possible.

I hope this brief book review of the compound effect was helpful and enabled you to understand the core themes of this book so you can apply its ideas to your life. If you have any questions please make a comment below, and if there is any specific book you would like me to discuss let me know. Lastly, always feel free to reach out to me on facebook or linkedIn (Pavan Mehat) or shoot me an email at pavanmehat12@gmail.com.