Ryan Holiday, outstanding businessman, New York Times Best Selling Author, and modern-day stoic, has amassed a large following by interpreting and demonstrating the everyday takeaways of wise and disciplined men such as Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius.
In involving myself closely with his work, there have been countless quotes worth tattooing into our daily mental routines, but the one I've most recently been wrestling with is this:
“Success Is A Lagging Indicator.”
Essentially, all good (and not-good) occurrences are downstream from other decisions made the day, week, or year before.
Therefore, measuring success or whether it has been a “good day” by the amount of accumulation within the past 24 hours is a flawed approach.
Simply put, instant Gratification does not exist within the world of meaningful change, and there is no “one size fits all’ method or microwaveable “ready in 5 min” strategy.
Instead, our plan of attack should shift and concern ourselves with the mundane and seemingly insignificant changes we implement. Those matter because they compound and “eventually” lead to that lagging indicator we all seem to crave.
And while Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist and one of the world's greatest scientists, his analysis of compound interest is heavily applicable here:
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn't, pays it.”
If you want to “feel” the highs of a win, then celebrate the small stuff. It's where the work is being put in, and it’s what will compound over time so that one day you find yourself with incredible peace for having stayed the course, surrounded by people you'd never thought you meet with opportunities you may have never thought you'd have. Take your daily peripheral decisions and use them to improve by just that much more.
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Whatever it may be, remember that “success” is a lagging indicator and, therefore, should not be the measure of choice.
That said, this methodology applies to both the mountains and the valleys, and as much as one should be intentional about the small things that bring them closer to their goals, we should perhaps be twice as vigilant about the misaligned “one-offs” or minuscule missteps we allow ourselves to take.
Yes, we all fall from time to time. But as King Solomon, renowned for being the wisest man to have lived, said, it's the “little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.”
Careful not to allow the little foxes in your living to ruin the beautiful blooming garden that is the story you are choosing to write.
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Success and failure don’t come all at once… they compound on what was done before.
They build upon themselves and incrementally increase returns on investment.
To embrace life at its fullest, make the most of the compounding principle.
Use the 8th wonder of the world to your advantage and see how far you can go.
-Making The Most Of Being Curious
Daniel J. Cuesta
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