Better choices compound

We all have choice in life. Many people give away their control in life because they don’t like the options available to them. But we all have the ability to choose.

Many times, we have a choice between happiness and pleasure now or happiness and pleasure later. Staring at the bacon cheeseburger, we know eating it will be delicious but won’t help us get healthy. Seeing the nice new car at the dealership could mean driving around in it now, or keeping our old car running to save money. It could be taking courses at the local college to better your career.

Whatever it is, we have choices. But most people disregard those choices because they want the advantages of both options. They want to eat whatever makes them happy in the moment. But they also want the benefits of being healthy in the future.

But life isn’t about getting everything we want. We often have to find ways to sacrifice now for the future. It doesn’t mean you have to be miserable. But you do have to be smart and think through the options to keep control of your life.

One thing that I have learned is that when you made good choices, they start to provide a better experience in the future. As you move through life, you start to gain more and more success and happiness.

Or, you make short-sighted choices and the future becomes bleak. The more you jump to the quickest high now, the more likely you will pay the price in the future. The more you put in the work now, the more you enjoy the rewards later.

You reap what you sow. This means you have to make sure you aren’t constantly shorting your future self. If you do, it will turn into a downward spiral making it harder and harder each day to be happy and successful.

In How I Invest My Money – Finance Experts Reveal How They Save, Spend, and Invest, the book says, “Like compound interest, success is sequential. It takes time for good choices to add up before exploding exponentially.”

In order to get the advantages of compounding, we have to start with something. We have to find a way to sacrifice a little today for a better tomorrow. Do this enough and it will start to build. Then, down the road when you sacrifice a little for the future, it will be easier because you have more of it to pull from. But sacrifice the future for now, you will keep starting at the bottom. You don’t grow. You don’t improve. You keep struggling with the same problems.

The systems and habits approach to improvement relies on this concept. It allows us to start small and build up momentum. It sacrifices a tiny bit today for a better tomorrow. Each day that this happens the future value grows. Once we build up the right systems and habits we do this automatically and don’t have to feel the pain associated with sacrificing for the future. We just do it.