Have you ever noticed how hard it is to clean an area of your house you’ve neglected for a long time? Or how easy it is to clean your house when you’ve tidied up after yourself all week? I remember growing up during the summers it felt like my dad was always weeding. The last few years I learned why when I attempted to weed long neglected gardens of his. It was an effort I couldn’t win, the weeds were too rooted in. By applying consistent effort my dad made weeding easy to maintain. 

I recently read a LinkedIn post about applying the law of compounding interest (used in investing) to other areas of life. The examples above show exactly what this author means. Do something consistently enough, refine your process, and keep going, a year later you’ll look back and have made great strides. This ties into the science of how our brains are wired too. Small steps done consistently are easier for our survival instincts to allow. 

The heart is in the process, and the universe tends to award brave souls who stick to a vision with daily commitment. That doesn’t mean there isn’t iteration and evolution, but it does mean daily and weekly action that builds towards your dreams. The author also shows how the beginning of any new process is a slog, you don’t believe it will ever lead to anything. But as things compound, the snowball grows and rolls down the hill with speed and velocity. His three keys to success in this process are: just start, embrace the suck (🙄), be consistent until you’re great. 

He uses the example of giving someone one billion dollars on January 1st or one dollar that doubles every day. At the end of the month which would be more? Yes, I did the math. One dollar doubled from January 1st to the 31st is more than one billion dollars! But you don’t really start to notice the momentum until week 3, 15 days in. You just have to trust the process.  

Link to post if you’re interested in taking a look yourself.

This is also why as a coach I often remind my clients that 5 minutes of a thing that empowers you as many days a week as possible done over the course of a year will create powerful shifts. 

Here are some additional examples of how you can employ the law of compounding interest:

• Self-care: walking just 10 minutes a day can exponentially increase your lifespan. While walking, the natural movement your eyes make also calms your nervous system. #winwin
• Home: tidy as you go and create a place for things that always just end up in a pile. I learned the importance of both of these when I worked retail and then again when I waited tables. If you have an extra hand, grab something and put it away or grab something and place it out. If you create tiny cleaning rituals throughout the week, the weekend and larger cleaning schedules don’t seem as daunting. 
• Business: as an entrepreneur your goal could be to grow and nurture your network, outreach to 5-10 people you’ve never met once a week. In corporate your goals could be different. Want to be faster at excel? Challenge yourself to learn a new keyboard shortcut a week. Want to be an expert at your business, what’s working and not? Study it daily. Soon you won’t even have to really prepare for meetings. 
• Food: set aside 30-60 minutes on Sunday to meal prep. Maybe it’s placing a simple recipe in a crockpot or maybe it’s hard boiling eggs and cleaning carrots for healthy snacks. This will save you time during the week, also money and you may even eat healthier. 

What habit goal will you set for yourself and commit to doing consistently to end the year closer to making one of your dreams real?

Below pictures of me (promise to be kind) showcase the visual impact made by the law of compounding interest. The changes are in the minute details. But more importantly I had a very hard time finding pictures of just ME. I hid behind everyone. The blessing this shows is that I have an amazing tribe and support group, but why couldn’t I embrace discomfort of standing out and shining my light just as me?

• 2017… with amazing Tory Sport coworkers supporting the Tory Burch Foundation (yes that was a super cool day).
  • But the elephant in the room, never wear such a busy pattern when you know many pictures and videos will be taken 🙄🫣.
  • My weight fluctuated often during those times due to undiagnosed PCOS and endometriosis, hormone imbalances, constant stress, and not enough healthy habits.
  • I always put work first.
  • I rarely invested in me (accept for occasional sessions with Joie and my amazing chiropractor which is evident on my really good days I did have amongst the bad) and was holding onto a lot of unconscious clutter that needed to be healed.
  • You can see this in my slightly hunched posture and that my smile doesn’t really reach my eyes. On the inside I felt so much discomfort but was just scratching the surface of releasing it. My old story of not being good enough, feeling ugly, and different was playing on repeat and it shows.
• 2019… with my aunt and dad in Vermont for a family funeral. About a year into investing in me, starting some deep healing, and changing my inner and outer habits.
  • My weight was still fluctuating, but not as often. Healing from decades of undiagnosed PCOS and endometriosis, hormone imbalances, constant stress, not enough healthy habits, and old stories takes years.
  • I was consistently investing in me and letting go of what no longer served me. That old story of not being good enough, feeling ugly, and different was still there though.
  • I’m less puffy (have less inflammation) thanks to the habit shifts I had started of regular meditation, consistent body movement, & meal prepping. I was also continuing to see holistic healers and energy healers regularly. I’ve tried many over the years, but Joie & Dr. Brayton have always helped me get the results I desire.
  • But still my smile seems forced and doesn’t reach my eyes. In energy medicine we call this not being in your body. And I still wasn’t.
• Today… 6 years in.
  • I continued the above but added therapy (EMDR), acupuncture, chiropractic care that focuses on the Atlas and nervous system, and additional inner work of coaching.
  • I would be lying to you if I told you I wasn’t still uncomfortable, but with the photographer we worked through it. I’m standing confident in me and it shows in my posture, my smile and that it reaches my eyes. If you see in enhanced detail like I do, you might say I’m more embodied and I’m shining brighter.
  • The best news of all, the old story is gone. And it shows. After 6 years of proving to myself through a series of tiny consistent actions that I am worthy, beautiful, and different is good and working diligently on correcting my inner dialog (that’s the hardest job of them all).