You already know about earning compound interest on your money, right? The earlier you start putting money away, and the more consistently you do it, the more you will have when you retire. Exponentially more.

Have you considered that the same may be true for your approach to personal growth and the payoffs it can have for you?

I came across this concept reading an old post about earning compound interest on your knowledge, by Colin Wright. Here’s what he said:

Consider this: making connections between a new concepts and tidbits of knowledge that you already posses increases recall (that is, you are more likely to store it in your long-term memory if you have some context to put it in). The chances that you will know something that relates to a new concept are increased with every new bit of knowledge you already posses. It would seem, then, that it is in your best interest to learn as much as possible about as many topics as possible in order to achieve an optimal learning situation.

– Colin Wright

Extrapolating from that, it makes sense that the more you connect what you learn about yourself with new personal growth information, the more likely you are to retain it. As you do more and more of this, consistently and over time, the greater the awareness and personal insights grow, and theoretically at least, the more likely you are to apply what you know. This, in turn, produces more self-learning, followed by deeper insights, etc. As this compounds, and you know yourself better and better, the more you will come to appreciate yourself, acknowledging the gifts and talents you have, as well as the inherent greatness within you.

What suggestions does Colin make for compounding your knowledge?

He gives three:

• Be Reading
• Be Referencing
• Be Studying

Since one of the characteristics of personal growth princesses is that we are a bit on the book-junkie end of the spectrum, this fits right in with our natural tendencies.

In other words, it ought to be easy for us to do this.

But it’s not always easy, right? Life is busy. We have a lot on our plates. We might still buy the books, with all the best intentions of reading them, or at least skimming them, but if we’re honest, we’ve spent thousands of dollars over our lifetime on un-read and un-helpful self-help books.

That’s actually why I have such a passion for providing the self-help book summaries via PersonalGrowthPrincess.com. I just had not thought of it in terms of “compounding knowledge” before.

What do you think about that idea? How do you compound your personal growth knowledge and experiences? Or do you?
Leave a comment below and let us know!