Do you remember learning compund interest in Maths class in school.
At first it seemed very complex and then you got it that it was just one thing piling onto another and another: how the pile kept getting bigger and bigger. It made total sense (to me anyway).
Recently though, I got it in a whole other way that has nothing to do with Maths.
Our lives are the compound interest of our daily practices.
We become what we think everyday.
We become who we are everyday.
what we do every day, what we say about everyday.
Think about it for a moment.
You don’t become lumpy or grumpy overnight.
You don’t become an expert on, for example, the mating habits of paradise ducks in one day or the formation of lichen on willow trees.
You don’t become a good cook with one great meal, a writer with one article, an artist with one painting, a sought after accountant by completing one tax return.
You don’t get to be a great Father, Mother,
boyfriend, worker, friend by rocking up for just one day, remembering one birthday.
You don’t become a smoker with one cigarette, a drinker from one night of excess,
a greenie by just recycling your plastics.
It takes dedication.
It takes a series of sustained thoughts and actions.
What we practice we become.
We reap the benefits of our good habits (for me yoga, cooking, design, writing, learning) and feel the pain of those not so admirable ones
(inconsistency, scratching, distraction). There’s so much evidence in our lives of this.
My desk is messy, my wardrobe is neat. My accounts need doing,
My app is almost ready to launch.
This is not about getting the whip out (that in itself might be a regular if unproductive practice:-).
It’s just about noticing, observing;
What do you do? What do you get? Happy with this, or could be happier?
As they say Do what you have always done,
get what you have always got.
I’m from the school of add rather subtract which goes like this: Add something you want, love, desire
that squeezes out something you’d be happy to lose.
My adding early morning yoga, has pushed out sleeping too late.
I get to start the day feeling energised and all zen like
(and a little pleased with myself as I am so not a morning person)
Add in morning ritual of intention setting, pushes out dilly dallying. I get to start the day with intention and focus
(and I get what I need to do, done and done earlier)
When I don’t do this the day can fritter away (where’s that whip?)
What and who do you wish to become?
What do you practice?
What will you add? What does it displace?
Join in the discussion below in the comments. Afterall we’re all in this together and the conversation gets richer when we share. And you might just give me some ideas for ‘displacing’ some aspects of oneself that needs a little kick.
x.