There is only a fraction of a difference between failure and success. And it doesn’t happen over a day or two, but rather over months and years. At least, this is what Jeff Olson points out in his book ‘The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness ‘.
There are really no new ideas or philosophies introduced in this book, however what is uncovered by Olson are the simple truths about failure and success. And by knowing these truths and by choosing to apply them, you are giving yourself a ‘slight edge’; hence the book’s title. In a time where we are looking for that one magic button to success or thinking that we can manifest our goals magically just through thinking positively, this book reveals to us that it is through our small, routines, habits or rituals (either good or bad) compounded over time that produces our results.
Not Difficult to Implement
The philosophy behind ‘The Slight Edge’ is not difficult or complicated to implement. In fact, putting it to work in various ways is simple.
It’s All about the Small Choices we Make
The philosophy behind this book is built around all the little choices we make each day. These choices can be positive or negative, but will still have an impact on our lives tremendously over the long run. For instance, you can make the choice to read a few chapters of a personal or self-development book each day to better yourself. That’s a positive choice that would have a great impact over the long run. You can also choose to eat that big bowl of chocolate ice-cream. Now, eating that ice-cream today won’t probably have too much of an effect right now, but if you ate that same bowl of ice-creamevery day, it would impact you in a negative way over time; you would likely gain weight, increase your cholesterol level, etc. Every choice we make and implement compounds over months and years. These choices are what determine our results whether achieving our goals or experiencing disappointment.
Once a Beach Bum…Now a Millionaire
At the time before Jeff came out with this book, he was just a beach bum. However, at that time, he also had his tremendous breakthrough. He recognized this compound ‘secret’ and knew that he could use the slight edge to continue being a beach bum or he could use it to become a millionaire by taking the actions each necessary for fulfilling his goal.
What he also realized is that most of us, if not all, do what it takes to reach to high levels in our lives. However, once we get up to those high levels, we have a natural tendency to become complacent and stop. This is where we begin to start seeing failures. This wavy course of going up and down does not allow us to push forward to success. So, what do we have to do to keep pushing forward? It’s simple. We just need to make those positive choices and implement those positive actions, although small, every day. And as we do this, over time, success becomes ours.
Let’s take one more example. Let’s say you are a novel writer. You can make the positive choice to write a few chapters each day and push forward until your book is written. Then you can click here to buy the AdvancedWriters – book review writing service to have your book reviewed so you can eventually go out and have it published and sold, or you can go through the stop, start process and procrastinate because you would rather do something else that day and not get the book written. The choice is yours and either way, your choices will give you results. But, are they the results you want?