Ep 348 | All Benefits in Life Come From Compound Interest

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. I want to talk about compound interest, a subject we've certainly covered a handful of times here at No Days Off, but oftentimes when we talk around compound interest, we're really just talking about how it pertains to money. However, Naval Ravikant, thought leader that I am a huge fan of, you guys have all probably heard of his book or the book written about him, I'm sorry, called The Almanack of Naval. If you haven't read that one yet, I would put that top of the list. It's probably my favorite book over the past, call it 24 months. But The Almanack of Naval talks about all of these thoughts that Naval in fact has or thinks he's put into practice. And there's one thing that he said that I've been thinking about over the past week and how it, how it in fact applies in my life. And the quote he shared is that all benefits in life come from compound interest, whether in money, relationships, love, health, activities, or habits. So all benefits in life come from compound interest, whether in money, relationships, love, health activities or habits. I've been thinking about this quote quite a bit because I know what it means to say that there is great benefit as it pertains to money with respect to compound interest. We know how compound interest works with investments, with your money. Put money into something, allow time to play out. If there's in fact an interest rate or a gain on that investment, if you allow it to play out over time, it compounds over the course of that time and it ends up being something significantly larger than what you started with. But it takes time in order for that to in fact happen. And there has to be gain that is compounded over time. Now, how does that though apply to your relationships and love and health and activities and habits? That's what I've been thinking around when we talk about relationships. I think investing time and effort into building and nurturing our relationships ends up leading to deeper connections and stronger networks, of course, over time. Small acts, small acts of kindness, uh, regular communication, supporting one another— these things create lasting bonds And these bonds grow and they provide greater benefit, of course, over time. And in love, in the context of love, compound interest I think might refer to just growing depth and strength of a, of a loving relationship, of a romantic relationship. And that takes consistent effort, it takes understanding, it takes affection. These things lead to a stronger, more fulfilling partnership over the years. Health, of course, exercise, and then diet, and then tack on sleeping habits and other things that you can do to in fact be healthier. Just like saving money, taking these small, making these small steps, these healthy choices, and doing it consistently over time can compound into substantial improvements in your physical health and in your mental health and your mental wellbeing. Activities. Whether it's hobbies or it's professional skills, goes without saying that with regular practice and dedication, and again, these small consistent efforts, you get better at these respective activities, maybe even become an expert in these certain things. And then lastly, as it pertains to habits, developing positive habits like reading or meditating or practicing gratitude, whatever it may be, can lead to personal growth and it can lead to an improved quality of life. So these small positive action steps build on the previous steps you were taking, and this creates momentum. Momentum is critical, is crucial, and that leads to significant overall improvement. So that's how compound interest may play out in these respective areas. But let's talk around action steps. What action steps should I take in each one of the areas that I was describing other than money? Money we've talked about, right? But let's talk about these other areas, starting with relationships. If we believe that what Naval is saying is accurate, that all benefits in life come from compound interest. And we talk about relationships. How does that apply? What are my action steps? Here's what I'm thinking about. Stay connected. Like, schedule regular check-ins with people that you want to deepen relationships with. It's your friends, it's your family, whatever it may be. Maybe it's a quick call, maybe it's a text, whatever it is to maintain and strengthen your relationships. Staying connected would be a baseline activity. Now compound onto that being present, which is difficult, I think, for a lot of us in terms of our relationships. Making an effort to be fully, fully present during, uh, during your interactions, listening actively, showing genuine interest. I also think around compound interest in relationships, maybe offering help, like like regularly offering assistance or offering support, creating trust. And then lastly, actually attending physical, like, like events or meetups or gatherings to where you could meet new people and where you could expand your network. So when you think about compound interest in terms of relationships, if we stay connected and build on that by being a bit more present, and build on that by offering some assistance or support and creating a bit more trust. And then lastly, attending social gatherings or social events together. That is the compound effect that improves your relationships. How about love? Very similar, but probably just a little bit deeper focus. Quality time again. Would be the start, would be the foundation. And then compounding on quality time would be small gestures like performing small acts of kindness or leaving notes or complimenting or doing something special, right? These small gestures compounded with the quality time would leave to lead to an improved loving relationship. But then of course you need to communicate. And then lastly I would say growing together, engaging in activities or hobbies that you both enjoy. So when you think about compound interest having an impact on love, it's your, your love, your love for a significant other. It's going to be quality time compounded with small gestures, plus communication, plus engaging in activities or hobbies you both enjoy, right? Helping you bond. We think about health, that's one we talk about a lot. Compound interest, how that applies in health. I mean, you've got a foundation of just move, be active, like exercise regularly, no matter the type of exercise, start somewhere. But you layer on to exercising regularly, you allow that to compound over time, and then you layer on to that making good food choices. Have a steady diet, one that's healthy and balanced for you. Then you layer on to that sleeping well. You know, get quality sleep, 7, 8, whatever it is, 7, 8 hours, whatever it is you need to have quality sleep. Have a bedtime routine to improve your sleep quality. And then lastly, I think about, you know, in addition to movement and food and sleeping, I do think about hydration and all the other things that we could do to improve our health. But compound interest here, as it applies, take small steps. And chip away, taking no days off, get a little bit better each and every day in your health. And the greatest benefits, of course, come from that compound effect. The last two I mentioned, activities and habits. When you think around activities, it starts with baseline practice, like practicing consistently, showing up every single day, and then setting a goal and having a plan for that goal, then learning continuously and tracking that progress. Again, compounding over time, you get better at those activities. And then as it pertains to habits, referring back to Naval's quote, with habits, you gotta start small. Make these small, manageable changes to your routine. Develop these new habits without feeling overwhelmed, and then be consistent. Reward yourself, right? Like give yourself small rewards, and then make sure you reflect and you adjust. Reflect on your progress and make adjustments so that you stay on track. So taking these steps consistently What happens is things start to accumulate over time. You start to see the benefits accumulate over time. And this leads to significant improvements in all of the areas. So to summarize, the Valls quote again, "All benefits in life come from compound interest, whether in money, relationships, love, health, activities, or habits." We just went through a variety of things that you could think around in each one of these respective areas so that you can reap the benefits that come from this compound interest. So the focusing question then for you today is, what are the action steps you have to put in play in each one of those areas that I described? I gave you some things that I think around that I've been, you know, kind of thinking to myself, okay, where am I not taking advantage of compound interest? Where is my investment flatlined or even potentially gone backwards and how could I start chipping away, not overwhelming myself, but jumping into maybe step 1 and running that for a little while, then building on that with step 2, then building on that with step 3. So the focusing question for you: what area or areas that I described do you need to see improvement in, and how can you create the momentum that comes along with compound interest to reap the benefits of these sorts of things we're describing over time? What do you have to do to change course and take advantage of that compound interest? I think it's something we could all be thinking about today and just chip away. Remember, this No Days Off movement is about getting a little bit better every single day at something, whether that's a minute or 5 minutes or 10 minutes, whatever it takes to just get a little bit better every single day. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity. To get better.