Compound your Interests
Compound Interest is a finance reference on how to grow your money, or how money works for you instead of the other way around.
“Simply stated, compound interest is the principle by which the interest you earn also earns interest, and the interest on that interest earns interest, ad infinitum. The larger your balance gets, the bigger those interest numbers become, thanks to exponential growth.” -What is compound interest? | Wealthsimple
A play on words, adding interest to what you are interested in / hobbies. When you build on the joys of your life, you compound your happiness. You are already interested in your hobbies. Digging deeper into your interests can compound the payout of your time spent.
How does that work?
Practice dancing.
Workout improves the body to dance.
Eating healthy improves wellbeing to dance.
Writing, reading, deep thinking improves creativity to dance.
Tying things to your hobby builds a web of aspects of your life that tie dance in the middle of the life you weave.
No direct line in everything, having the mentality how to tie everything to your main interest, exponentially grows your focus by adding other hobbies to your main goal. Connecting the dots.
Placing a puzzle together, one piece does not reveal what the whole picture is. At the same time missing some pieces continues to keep the picture hidden from plain view.
Finding those parts is how you build your web in life. Being okay in everything is nice, being great at what interest you is better. The quality in life is the time spent on what you find value in. That is the compound effect. Spend your time in the things that hold heavier meaning to nurture and grow them over time.
The average lifespan of human beings currently is, at most, in the late 80s. A mistake I learned is that I cannot be the best at everything; there is not enough time. Some of the most focused individuals are either renowned or the best in their field of expertise. Sports players, who are fortunate to discover their interest at a young age, dedicate their lives to the pursuit of greatness in that activity.
The concept of compound interest in life breaks down into 3 pillars: Daily, Time, and Discipline.
Daily
Every day is an opportunity to move closer to life goals, achievements, and accolades you strive for. Having daily tasks that relate to your life goals are the single steps in your journey. Performing something each day for more extended periods will yield higher results.
For example, each year, if you want to be a better dancer, it is a possible growth rate of 10%. After that first year, you can decide to stop or take a break; however, with time passing, you can lose what you have learned. If you choose to commit, continue your growth, and maintain the following year, you now have additional growth when you started plus the first year you started. After ten years of investing in yourself, your skill level jumps.
Time
Seconds, minutes, years are fighting against all humans. We are not the masters of time. No matter the daily task, or the career we choose in life, time does not halt for no person. Improving or follow through to your overarching goals is not a linear process. Using time to develop is a process. Beginning your journey always starts slow. We are never immediately good at anything worth our interest. After one year, 5 years, we become proficient, and all of a sudden, time seems to be flying by us.
Remember the first time you learn to ride a bike. It seems trivial to think how difficult it was to learn now, but at the time, how many hours, and day, or weeks it felt like forever to balance on two wheels. The start is always the time where we build the courage to endure to become better.
Discipline
Being successful requires the patience to take the time and the daily tasks to becoming better. When we are older, we tend to have a difficult time learning new things. That is because we have previous disciplines that we have ingrained in ourselves. Our history can have us so stuck in our ways to the point of stubbornness. Overcoming this can reveal massive results over time. Create new goals one month at a time.
When we think about saving, it is always in regards to money. There are also savings of your time, energy, etc. If you want to lost weight, you don’t lose 20 lbs in one day. It is a process where you take the daily tasks, the value of your time and evaluate each month. You start with 5 pushups, then 10, to the point where 50 pushups are a regular routine.
The Rule of 72
The end of your journey, keeping the interest in what you are interested in, has a way of seeming so far away. In the finance world, The Rule of 72 is a method of estimating how many years it will take to double your investments. Take the same concept of your hobbies and interests. How long will it take for you to increase your investment into yourself? Take those steps, compound your interests and build towards your aspirations.
