Quick question for you –
What if I told you I would give you $1,000,000…
– Or –
A penny doubled every day for a month?
This is by far my favorite story to teach my kids about the power of habits but we’ll get to that in a minute.
If you picked the million bucks keep on reading.
Let’s take a look at the math to get a better understanding of what difference.
If you took the penny doubled every day for thirty days, by the 30th day, you would have $5,368,709.
In our example, we’re doubling a penny, a 100% growth rate, for 29 days since we do not double it on the first day.
A Penny Doubled Every Day For 29 Days
| Day | Amount |
| 1 | $0.01 |
| 2 | $0.02 |
| 3 | $0.04 |
| 4 | $0.08 |
| 5 | $0.16 |
| 6 | $0.32 |
| 7 | $0.64 |
| 8 | $1.28 |
| 9 | $2.56 |
| 10 | $5.12 |
| 11 | $10.24 |
| 12 | $20.48 |
| 13 | $40.96 |
| 14 | $81.92 |
| 15 | $163.84 |
| 16 | $327.68 |
| 17 | $655.36 |
| 18 | $1,310.72 |
| 19 | $2,621.44 |
| 20 | $5,242.88 |
| 21 | $10,485.76 |
| 22 | $20,971.52 |
| 23 | $41,943.04 |
| 24 | $83,886.08 |
| 25 | $167,772.16 |
| 26 | $335,544.32 |
| 27 | $671,088.64 |
| 28 | $1,342,177.28 |
| 29 | $2,684,354.56 |
| 30 | $5,368,709.12 |
Here we have the numbers laid out day by day. As you can see, it takes a while to get going. On day 15, the halfway point, we’ve only reached $163.84. But three days later, we’ve exceeded a thousand dollars. Three days after that, we’ve exceeded ten thousand dollars. By the 28th day, we’re already over a million.
The penny doubled every day for thirty days is a much better deal than the million dollars.
This is good to know if the offer ever arises, doubtful, you’ll ever be in this fortuitous situation, why is this worth knowing?
Suppose you plan to retire, invest in the stock market, pay off credit card debt, take out a mortgage, or do other financial activities that make up daily life. In that case, you’ll need to understand the power of compounding.
The power of compounding also applies to our actions in the form of habits. And it works for both good habits and bad.
No one sets out to destroy their life, it’s the little decisions and habits that compound over time.
And while millions of people set out to QUIT a bad habit, the reality is that we can’t quit a habit, we can only replace it with another … hopefully a healthy one.
The best way I have found to “Quit” a bad habit is to replace it with a positive one and keep a scorecard on my progress.
Actually, I turned my habits around when my life went to SHEET!
Google Sheets that is!
I created a Google Sheet to track my habits on a daily basis and things started finally clicking in my life. My wife thought something happened, she stopped reminding me about things, I started getting in shape, I started eating better, and I was calmer than ever because I was meditating every day.
Tracking my habits totally transformed my life at home, at work, and with my family.
Now, I originally priced my Google Sheet habit tracker around $50 because it was so effective.
But I’ve gotten such great feedback and want to make this an absolute no-brainer I’m offering it right now for just $7!!!!
Want to discover what compounding your habits can do for you check out the On Purpose Habit Tracker here.
