Compound Interest
The word “compound interest” runs throughout this entire book. We can say it is the eighth wonder of the world, and that would be no exaggeration.
- If you improve by just 1% every day for a year (1.01 ^ 365 = 37.78), you will become 37 times better.
- If you decline by 1% every day for a year (0.99 ^ 365 = 0.03), you will decline to nearly zero.
So habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.
The Fastest Way to Change a Habit Is to Change Your Identity
My explanation here may differ slightly from the book, but the concept is essentially the same. I’ll use the Golden Circle theory to explain. Change occurs at three levels:
- Identity: Who do you want to become?
- Process: How should we do it?
- Outcome: What do we do?
There are two key points to focus on:
- You must be specific about who you want to become — the more specific, the better. Otherwise, you may not even know which direction you’re heading.
- The process must be achieved through many small victories in life. For example, if a massive task needs to be completed within a short period, it can be overwhelming. You need to break the task into many smaller tasks, making each one manageable. Through daily effort, you will eventually achieve your big goal.
Four Steps to Building Good Habits
The four steps that form the habit loop:
- Cue
- Craving
- Response
- Reward
Cue
Make it obvious: The process of behavior change begins with awareness. We must be conscious of our habits — only through feeling and awareness can we recognize the cue. Finding the behavior that triggers the cue is the first step to building a good habit.
We can write down the next day’s schedule the night before, keeping it visible so it can remind you at any time. By following this step-by-step approach, you’ll develop good habits.
Craving
Make it attractive: We can tie habits to rewards, so that every time you complete a good habit, you receive a reward.
Response
Make it easy: If you need to participate in a stair-climbing race a year from now, break down the preparation into many small tasks (habits). Then, just improve a little every day, letting yourself get used to the habit and allowing your body to automate the process. This way, you can accomplish the entire big action effortlessly.
Reward
Make it satisfying: This is my most frequently used strategy. Set a goal along with a reward — when you achieve the goal, you get to buy something you want. By tying craving and reward together, the process won’t feel so painful. Instead, you’ll enjoy both the journey and the reward.
Breaking Bad Habits
We’ve discussed how to build good habits, but of course we also need to break bad habits to maximize the impact of our good ones. Simply put, you can just invert each of the four steps above!
Conclusion
Looking back, I remember not knowing how to type on a keyboard as a kid. Gradually, my Chinese typing speed got faster and faster — simply because the habit had formed, allowing me to communicate with others. I also remember when I first entered the workforce, my English typing was incredibly slow. I occasionally had to look at the keyboard to find where the letters were. Gradually, through the habit of typing in English, I can now write code fluently. So when habits and deliberate practice are combined, and you make them happen as often as possible every day, the compound effect you create over six months or even years will be tremendous. I walked this path myself. If I can do it, what about you?
Feel free to leave a comment on my blog. Your feedback motivates me to keep writing. Thank you for reading, and let’s grow together to become better versions of ourselves.
