Compounding — Good & Bad

I came across this text written by C. S. Lewis today —

I am aware of the significance of the compound effect when building good habits. I read about it in the book, The Slight Edge. It talks about how the small improvements you make day after day would add up and lead to exponential growth.

What I never thought about was that just like good actions, bad actions would have a similar compounding effect as well. And I think that is a really frightening reality.

We all make small bad decisions daily. We stay in bed for an extra 15 minutes. Or we watch a few YouTube videos instead of working. And just like small efforts towards good habits seem insignificant to us, similarly these small bad decisions look insignificant as well. One bit of chocolate is not going to make or break your diet right?

The snowball effect is real. Both in positive and negative ways. If we are not mindful of the small bad steps we take on a daily basis, they will soon grow exponentially and become huge problems.

Good decisions pay dividends. Bad decisions create debt.