Strong positions are not an accident. Weak positions aren’t bad luck.

The position you find yourself in today is the accumulation of the small choices that you’ve been making for years.

Not doing the obvious thing you know you should do — the thing that positions you for future success — rarely hurts you right away.

For your choices to compound, you need to be consistent. Intensity will only carry you in the short term but if you want compounding results you need consistency. In the absence of immediate rewards, we can keep up the intensity for a while but most of us become intermittent.

Excelling at the small choices that compound over time perpetually leaves you in favorable circumstances. No matter what happens in the world, you’re never in a position where you are forced into a bad decision.

When you look below the surface, giant leaps aren’t really giant leaps at all. They’re a series of ordinary choices that suddenly become noticeable. If you look for the magic moment, you’ll miss how ordinary becomes extraordinary.