Humans have the distinct ability to place ourselves in the future and think about how our short-term actions will affect us in the long-term.
Yet, so many of us rarely do.
Similar to other animals on the African savannah, our ancestors spent their days responding to grave threats, securing the next meal, and taking shelter from a storm. It made sense to place a high value on instant gratification. The future was less of a concern. And after thousands of generations in an immediate-return environment, our brains evolved to prefer quick payoffs to long-term ones. — James Clear
Like my Labradoodle at home, we are really good at identifying and worrying about short-term dangers and challenges.
But if we focus on long-term thinking and make changes now to affect our long-term goals, our lives would be much easier. You can apply compounding returns to any area of your life.
The best example of this is compound interest when investing.
The basic gist is to get a job, spend less than you earn, and do something productive with the difference, like invest in an index fund. Do it each pay…
