The Law of Compound Effort - James Clear (Entrepreneur, Weightlifter, Travel Photographer)
James Clear is an entrepreneur, a weightlifter, and travel photographer. Recently, he’s been implementing a new model to live by and it’s that model that he shares with us in his Paper Napkin: Systems are greater than goals.
We live in an achievement focused society, says James, but we neglect the system that leads us to that achievement. Why is that? In our day to day lives, we spend all of our time in the systems we use but the only thing we ever talk about is the event that results from it. It’s the daily habit that leads to big achievement; Goals set direction for us but, once we decide on a goal, it doesn’t really matter if you try to predict the outcome. Goals are excellent for planning your progress but it is the systems themselves that make that progress happen.
To start building a system that works, James advises us to determine what’s important to us. What do we value? How can we align our system with those things we deem important? What is the simplest solution? James says simplicity and alignment are the keys to building a system that works, but they’re not the most important factors. The most important part of a system that works is actually implementing it.
It’s easy to feel like you’re not prepared and don’t have enough information to start, but you have to start anyway. Little improvements add up to cumulative success, says James. If you break a larger goal down into small tasks or areas and simply work to improve a different aspect by 1% each week, it creates a cumulative success. Think of it as the law of compound interest on your efforts - or "The Law of Compound Effort."
James says you have to use the “Inertia of Life”, meaning that when you start a task, you often end up finishing it. The trick is to actually start the task. He recommends starting with something easy, so easy that you can’t say no to it. Start with something you can do in less than 2 minutes, something small; it’s easy to build on that foundation. Successful people, he says, find a way to get started even when they’re not ready. What are you not ready to do?
Listen to the conversation with James here:
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