The second section of The Compound Effect our team pulled out the key principles of gratitude and money. Darren Hardy is a self-made millionaire that shared the secrets of his success. His daily disciplines compounded over time got him to where his is today. 

Last week we talked about how making small choices can greatly affect the outcome over a long period of time. Being grateful is another one of the small, daily choices that can make a tremendous difference. Expressing gratitude daily will keep you focused on the positive aspects of your life. Gratitude is acknowledging the people and things you have in your life that you couldn’t do for yourself. Another principle is to bookend your days both in the morning and the evening with gratitude. Start and end your day with greatness. 

“What you appreciate, appreciates.”

Challenge: Create a daily thanksgiving journal for your spouse. Focus on one thing he/she did each day that you appreciate and write it down. Give them the book as a gift one year later. 

You are 100% responsible for everything. By what you do, what you don’t do, and how you RESPOND to what happens to you. When you change how you look at a situation, the situation changes. To be successful you need to be willing to give 100% without the exception to get anything back.

Awareness is the key to all our choices, behavior, habits, and situations. It also is the key to how we spend and handle money. Start taking your progress and steps to make sure you are in line with your long-term goals. Making every choice a conscious action is when you can begin to change the outcome. You must be aware. 

You can be in control of your finances, but you must be conscious of when, where, and how much you are spending. Think about how much time you buy a cup of coffee for just $5 a day, after a week you have spent $35, one month $150. After one year you would have spent $1,825 dollars. Be conscious in your financial behaviors. 

Dave Ramsey, known for personal finance and getting out of debt, says that 80% of finance is all behavior. Start with small steps to make the behaviors into a habit. The earlier you start making changes the more the compound effect will work. 

Every choice ignited the compound effect. They are subtle at the time but will adjust where you will end up. Stay the path. Are your choices going to be positive or negative?