I just finished reading the Compound Principle by Darren Hardy. The nutshell of this book is the little habits you have in your life will create incredible things over time! The compound principle is always at work – either with your bad habits or with your good habits.
Here are three ideas you can incorporate into your life to make an impact:
Beat The Expectations
It may not be as sensational as Oprah giving everyone in the audience a new car, but you can beat the expectations in lots of areas of life. It always makes an impact. It’s helpful in growing a business, it’s needed in rebooting a relationship and it’s powerful when you’re creating a hospitable church culture. When you beat the expectations, you’re making an impact on the lives of people. They assume small, standard, basic, and you come with larger, more, and expanded. It creates a moment. Becoming a person who strives to beat the expectations – even the small ones – is a habit that can be cultivated.
Do The Unexpected
Most people get by – but what if you did better than that?! It begins in childhood when you do just barely enough homework to count. And a person begins to learn that you can do just what’s expected and be ok. As you get older, you tip just barely enough. You work just enough. You get by with the standard. But what if you changed your way of operating? What if you did the unexpected and worked harder on a project? What if you brought a gift to that person anyway? What if you tipped generously. Those are things that may make an impact. Think of a small way to do the unexpected today.
Do Better Than Expected
Jesus described this one best when said walk an extra mile. Do better than expected. People may be satisfied with the standard because they don’t know any different. But once you’ve walked the extra mile for them, now they are impressed, curious and intrigued. What caused the difference? When we do better than expected there are questions. It opens up possibilities that wouldn’t have been there before.
This habit of beating expectations not only makes an impact in the lives of others and in the organizations we lead but in us. As we experience the simplicity of taking one more step past what is already expected, we open the door to so much more impact.
How do these invitations to go over the top motivate you? It may be just a small tweak to move toward these habits of doing the unexpected. It’s one small example of how small things, done over time, can be life changing.
