Summary: Significant life changes require consistency over long periods of time. Rather than being consistent with small changes, most people make large changes for a week and revert back to their old ways.

Body

Our Conditioning

In our post-industrial Western lives today, most of our desires are met instantly. Bored? Go on the Internet. Hungry? Order a pizza. Horny? Watch porn. Patience has become a scarce trait among men. When we desire something, we have been conditioned for instant results. And when we do not see instant results, we quickly forget why we had these desires in the first place.

We see a picture of Arnold, decide that we also want the body of a god, and go workout. When we don't see the results we were hoping for after a week of working out, we quit. We felt motivation in the beginning, but all of that initial motivation has now faded. Going from a dad bod to shredded is not something you do over the summer. It's a long term goal, with long term net benefits.

The Compound Effect

The Compound Effect is the idea that small choices applied consistently over time have huge results. Small changes to your lifestyle, such as eating healthy or meditating every day, have huge effects on your life in the long run. One way to think of it is two cars driving parallel. If one of the cars turns by 5 degrees, the two cars will be hundreds of miles apart a day later. A hundred mile gap, created by 5 degree turn, that's the Compound Effect.

The Compound Effect is why consistency is so much more important than intensity. It's these small changes, done consistently over long periods of time, that are required to achieve our long term goals. Life goals such as becoming ripped, famous, or rich.

"That's how you devour a whale, one bite at a time."

-Frank Underwood

If you are an ambitious person (as you should be), than it's likely your goal is similar to a whale. After making that initial change/improvement, you have to take it one bite at a time. I call this a long term perspective. Thinking about each day of work as a bite into that whale. When you take it one day at a time, that goal doesn't seem so large anymore.

Relevant Reading: The Compound Effect

Reality

People want reality to be like a Rocky montage. You decide you want to achieve something, you work hard for a few minutes with Eye of the Tiger playing in the background, and you're done. When they face the reality (if they ever even do) that it takes years to make significant life changes, they give up on their aspirations. That's what the Red Pill is, accepting reality. While this realization is bitter at first, life is clearer after.

For me, life is change. Those life goals are worth every day of grind, because when you look back at how much you're life has changed over the years, it's pure bliss.

Lessons

  1. We are conditioned for instant results, not long term goals.

  2. Small choices applied consistently over time have huge results.

  3. The reality is that significant life changes require years of consistency

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