Exponential (personal) growth
Maybe one of the most interesting ways to see habits?
"Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement" (James Clear)
Compound interest is the money you get by not taking the interest gained out of your account, but leaving it to get interest on that interest. Say you had £100 to start, that gave you £5 interest in a year (5%) and the next year you get 5% on £105, the next year you get £110.25 (instead of £110) . This is called exponential growth, that doesn’t look much with small numbers, but adds up hugely over time (a concept that’s quite tricky to get your head around).
The power of compounding is the most powerful forces in finance.
The concept of compounding and exponential growth applied to your habits
Imagine the small increase would be by making changes to your habits, no matter how small. If you would change 5 habits at a time and you would improve your well-being by just 1% each, if everything else would stay the same, your life would be hugely improved!
It’s the 1% on the 1% that adds up to an incredible amount. It’s also the reason to keep on going (once you know it’s the right direction).
Which habits does this work for?
This works for all habits that have to do with getting a skill. Let’s use an example. Instead of watching television, you want to learn a language for 5 minutes. You swap some of your telly time for just 5 minutes of learning.
Tomorrow you won’t see any results, in 2 weeks you won’t see any results, but maybe in 2 month, you start seeing it, because every day into your routine you’ve built on the knowledge of what you have already done, it gets easier and your 5 minutes become more efficient!