You Can Compound Your Results IF...

Now that we’ve looked at how important it is for us to Control What We Can Control, we’ve started identifying What We Can Control, and we know the role Our Attitude and Our Actions play in all that, let’s get serious about what I believe can provide one of the most significant returns on any investment we could ever make!

About 20 years ago, I read Robert Kiyosaki’s books Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Cashflow Quadrant. I’ve since heard a number of people question whether or not his stories in those books were real… My response to that has always been, “Who cares if they were real, the points he made with them were amazing!” One of the points he made that I thought was amazing was tied to how he explained an investment. He shared how many people considered their home to be their largest investment, then he challenged that idea by explaining why he really believed our homes should be considered an expense. He said an investment should make money. Even if our homes appreciate while we live in them, and we sell them for far more than we paid for them, it’s very rare to truly make money - especially after we consider the interest we’ve paid, upkeep and maintenance, etc… He wasn’t suggesting that investing in real estate wasn’t a good idea, just that the home we live in wasn’t necessarily an investment. Again, an investment should yield a profit…

So with regards to controlling the things we can control, I closed the last post with a promise to share an area of my life where consistency has yielded an exponential return on investment. And truth be told, while being ridiculously consistent in making that investment, any single one of the investments I’ve made would likely be considered as relatively insignificant in the big picture…

Over the last twenty years, I’ve been very intentional about using the majority of the time I’m alone in my car to grow personally and professionally. On average, that typically meant between 20 and 40 minutes each day where I listened to an audio book or a lesson from someone I could learn from instead of music from one of the 80’s hair bands I still enjoy so much.

I couldn’t control how many hours I had in the day. I usually had little control over the hours I was scheduled to work at my job in any given week, but I could absolutely control how I used that time alone in my car! As it relates to controlling the things we can control, and doing that consistently, that one simple decision has been worth more than any other thing I can point to in my career to this point! In The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, John Maxwell says that “the sooner you make the transition to becoming intentional about your personal growth, the better it will be for you, because growth COMPOUNDS and accelerates IF you remain intentional about it!”

My consistent, but seemingly simple on any given day, approach to growing personally and professionally has proven John’s statement to be true - at least for me... That said, consistency may have very little impact if you’re not intentional about the things you’re consistent with. Putting on your shoes consistently every day may not be enough to yield the compounding effect I’m referring to here. Showing up to work on time consistently will certainly help you keep your job, but it may not yield the compounding or accelerating results John mentions…

What’s one thing that you have complete control of where you can become more consistent that will fuel your growth and provide you with a visible return on investment?