Don’t Break the Chain

The following is a great little article from my friend, Suzie Price, of Priceless Professional Consulting … pricelessprofessionalconsulting.com It shows you the incredible impact the small, but important, things you do consistently … every day … can have on the results you achieve in your life and business. Thanks Suzie.

Let’s play a little game. Imagine you have a choice of: $3 million in cash this very instant OR a single penny that doubles in value every day for 31 days. Which would you choose?

If you chose the penny, you’re going to be very pleased with yourself, because on Day 31, you’d have $10,737,418.24!

It’s the ‘magic’ of compounding and what I call The Exponential Growth Principle, which, when applied to training and development, is a reminder that consistent action toward personal or professional goals, nets big rewards. Spend 1% a day (15 minutes) taking action and in 70 days you’re twice improved.

Here’s how Comedian Jerry Seinfeld used this principle to improve his comedic skills. As a young comic, he knew he needed to develop better jokes, and the best way to do that is to write every day. To stay focused on his goal, he placed a large calendar where he’d see it several times a day. Every day he met his writing goal he placed a big red X on the calendar.

Seinfeld explained how this helped, “After a few days you have a red chain as you move from day to day. Just keep at it and the chain grows longer. You start to like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Then your only job is to not break the chain. Don’t Break the Chain!”

I used this to create my habit of daily Tune In Time, which for me is a minimum of 15 minutes of ‘quiet’ time every day, something I wanted to do but I never seemed to get around to actually doing!

I placed a simple index card on my bedside table and marked it every time I met my goal. When I’d get distracted, the index card would pull me back to my commitment. Today, many years after that experiment, daily Tune In Time is like brushing my teeth and hair; I never have a day where I don’t do it!

Bottom Line: To improve in any area of your life do a ‘little something’ every day, and track it.

The Exponential Growth Principle is a reminder that small efforts add up, result in big movement and new habits. Remember the penny? It’s simple and it works. Try it and net big rewards!

“Life rewards effort, exponentially. No matter how small the effort, nor how daunting the odds.” – The Universe

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