The compound effect for your health
Megan Miller
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As we are headed into summer, I’ll share a little secret with you. The grass is greener where you water it.
Imagine that you head to the lake for the entire summer and stop paying the bills for your house so your utilities get shut off, you stop taking care of your yard, and you don’t do any home maintenance for the entire summer. It’s easy to imagine that many parts of your house would be in a poor state when you finally returned home in the fall. Yet, when it comes to our health, we let our exercise and nutrition take a backseat for months without thinking much about it. The upkeep required to maintain a good home is similar to what is needed for good health. And much like any homeowner knows, the work is never done. Just like the saying “if you don’t use it, you lose it”, if you don’t take care of your home or your health regularly, it can fall apart quickly. This summer, we have two options when it comes to our health: 1) Take the summer off and wonder why we haven’t met our goals come September. 2) Prioritize our health starting today, and continue to deposit into our health daily over the next three months.
This is where the compound effect comes into play.
Compound Effect
You might be most familiar with the term “compound” in the realm of finances (think compound interest). While compound interest really shows off over the long term, the compound effect can easily be seen in short term financial growth, as well. For example, if you were to start saving your money and continually added another dollar each week for one year, you would be amazed at what you could save. If you saved 5 dollars on week one, 6 dollars on week two, 7 dollars on week three, and so on for 52 weeks, in just one year, you would have saved a total of $1,568. The same goes for our health. If you continue to make small deposits each day into your health, you will inch closer to your goals. It really is that simple.
The two reasons we see people not achieving their goals is they 1) aren’t following the right plan or 2) they aren’t following the right plan long enough, meaning they haven’t been consistent with their new plan for enough days in a row. If you aren’t where you want to be, the reason is likely because you keep doing what you have always done.
If you are ready to commit to the next 3 months, we are here and excited to help you.
A great first step is to take a lifestyle audit of where you are currently at. From there, you can commit to making small, incremental changes to your days. For example, adding in a 15 minute walk each day, drinking 50 more ounces of water each day, getting an extra hour of sleep every day, and strength training three times a week are going to be small changes that can add up to something huge over time. Some of the biggest health factors that we prioritize as a lifestyle at Rise are mindset, eating clean, training smart, recovery, and movement. This summer, look at taking one step up the health staircase. I can guarantee that if you keep these small daily promises to yourself, you will build confidence.
Commit to the long term process and you will be surprised at its compound effect. The alternative is to continue to do what you have always done, and to see no progress. I challenge you to keep the daily promises to yourself, and you’ll build something amazing. Day by day. Brick by brick.