Nick Hutchison explains Darren Hardy's "Run a Vice Check" concept: pick one habit and abstain for 30 days to prove you control it, not the other way around. A 1% daily deviation compounds like a plane's nose shifting 1 degree, landing 150 miles off course after a long flight.
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Hello, Book Thinkers family! Stop real quick. I want everybody to think about their worst habit. What is something that you know you indulge in, but it's doing bad for your body, or maybe your mind, or your spirituality? What is that habit? What is that vice that you need in your life? Is it smoking cigarettes? Is it drinking alcohol? Is it eating junk food? Is it watching Netflix? Think about it. Really think about it. Now, could you give up that vice for 30 days? Today's book tip is going to come from The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. This is my second or third time through this book. It's one of my favorite books of all time, and Darren Hardy touches on a million different things that have changed my life. But the one that I want to focus on today has to do with vices. About halfway through the book, he has a little section called Run a Vice Check, and I'm going to read directly from the book here. He says, "I'm not suggesting that you cut out every bad thing in your life. Most everything is good in moderation. But how can you tell whether a bad habit is becoming the boss of you? I believe in testing my vices. Every so often, I go on a vice fast. I pick one vice and check to be sure that I'm still the alpha dog in my relationship. That's something that I think about a lot. Yes, I know that something might be bad for me, like." having wine on a Wednesday evening or something like that, but could I really cut that out for a month? Those are things that you need to test. He says, my vices are coffee, ice cream, wine, and movies. I already told you about my ice cream obsession. When it comes to wine, I want to be sure I'm enjoying a glass and celebrating, not drowning my bad mood. About every 3 months, I pick one vice and abstain for 30 days. I love proving to myself that I'm still in charge. That is something that we all need to do, because if you try and fail at cutting something out for 30 days, you are not in charge. That bad habit has control of you. Momentum works in both ways. It can go up, but it can also go down. And so letting a bad habit compound over time, over time, over time, building momentum— if you don't vice check it every once in a while, Then it might become impossible for you to vice check it in the future. So back to my first question, what bad habits do you think you're in control of, but you're really not? Vice check them. That's one thing that you can learn about in The Compound Effect. The Compound Effect is about taking small steps in the right direction over a long period of time, right? If a plane is taking off from LA to New York City, but the nose of the plane is off by just 1%, As that 1% compounds, the plane ends up about 150 miles off from its intended destination. You don't want that to be you. You don't want to have a 1% bad choice in your life that compounds over the next 20 years and leaves you unhealthy or unhappy or unfulfilled or in a bad relationship or whatever the case may be. So check your vices. That's today's book tip. Bye.
