What I Learned This Week: What Are You Compounding?
The What If Journal: Reflections from a leader in progress
I read a book recently called The Art of Spending Money, and it caught me a little off guard. I’ve always been a stewardship guy. Financial literacy, wise planning, generosity — all of that matters deeply to me. I understand compounding interest. Dollars that make dollars. Time and patience doing their quiet work in the background.
But the author applied the idea of compounding to something beyond money — to memories, experiences, and the way we live our lives. And that’s where it really stuck with me.
What if compounding isn’t just a financial concept? What if it’s a life concept?
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that almost everything we do compounds — whether we’re intentional about it or not. The habits we form. The conversations we have. The way we spend our evenings. The tone we bring into our homes. None of it is neutral. It’s all adding up to something.
The Leadership Reflection
We tend to think about compounding when it comes to money because the math makes it obvious (and its been beat through our heads since middle school it feels like!). But compounding is happening everywhere else too — just more quietly.
Memories compound. A single family dinner doesn’t feel like much, but years of them shape a culture. A yearly trip might feel expensive in the moment, but the stories and shared laughter echo long after the credit card bill is paid. Experiences stack on top of each other and slowly become identity.
So do emotions. Joy compounds. Gratitude compounds. Generosity compounds. A small act of kindness today makes the next one easier tomorrow. Humility practiced regularly softens us over time.
But the opposite is also true. Bitterness compounds. Anger compounds. Jealousy compounds. Cynicism compounds. A small grievance left unattended rarely stays small. A critical spirit, repeated often enough, starts to feel normal — even justified.
That’s what’s been sobering for me. I don’t just wake up one day bitter or joyful. I arrive there through thousands of small, repeated choices. Through what I dwell on. Through what I celebrate. Through what I rehearse in my mind.
And when I zoom out, I realize something else: money is just one form of compound. It’s not even the most important one. I can accumulate wealth and still slowly compound resentment. I can save aggressively and still compound distance in my relationships.
I’m learning to ask a different question: What am I intentionally compounding?
Because if I’m honest, I’d much rather compound joy than money. I’d rather compound generosity than status. I’d rather compound humility than success. Those returns show up in places spreadsheets can’t measure — in relationships, in peace, in the kind of person I’m becoming.
Life is already compounding something. The only real choice we have is what.
The What If
What if you lived with the same intentionality about compounding joy, generosity, and humility as you do about compounding money — and shaped your daily habits around the return you actually want?