The Slight Edge

I just came across the cliché adage, ‘easy come easy go’ and I’m going over and over it in my mind. I never realised how true that statement is, what comes easy, goes easy! A lot of people say to me that I am a typical example of an overnight success. In other words, I sprung out of nowhere. This may seem true, but truth is nothing comes out of nowhere and that is why I need to introduce you to the Slight edge philosophy by Jeff Olson, which I have been living but never realised it and once you are conscious of it, you can make decisions regarding your time that will change your life forever. The slight edge is simply about the simple disciplines that if done consistently over time will yield the biggest accomplishments. So what you do on a daily basis, on an hourly basis have a direct impact on the outcome of your future. So what does that mean? If I slack today it will reflect tomorrow and the reverse is true. Olson also talks about how your philosophy creates your attitude, your actions, your results and therefore creates your life. So I thought to myself, What is my philosophy and how will that create my life? I also came to the realisation that success is a process not a destination. There are things that you have to do consistently in order to arrive to that destination of success, if at all it is ever there, because if you are a normal human being, nomatter how successful you may seem, you just feel you can do better, at least that’s how I feel. Napoleon Hill, in ‘Think and Grow Rich’ says “there is one quality which one must possess to win and that is the definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants and a burning desire to possess it.” Many of us underestimate the importance of a purpose but that will define your life in a big way. It will define what you are doing right now and whether you should keep doing it. It will define the friends you keep and who you associate with. It will define every intrinsic detail about your life. What is also key to Napoleon’s statement is that one must have a burning desire to fulfil that purpose!! HAAA! Do you know how painful a burn is? When you have a burning desire to do something, nothing can stop you! Do you know what you want and are you burning to win? So you have decided what you want out of life and have mapped the way forward in how to fulfil your purpose. Great, now we are moving. Harness the power of habit. Ovid says nothing is stronger than habit. Do things consistently over time to get results. If you want to lose weight, jogging once a week won’t help, but if you do it daily and over a long period of time, you yield results and keeping fit becomes a habit. Sow and act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny. Harness the power of completion. Don’t start things you don’t finish. Once you are in motion, remain in motion. There is an old Chinese proverb that says ‘be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid of standing still.’ BUT…also realise that all these can also be negative, sow bad habits reap bad results, so watch the kind of habits that you are taking up. I will conclude with some more profound knowledge that I got from this book. Your habits come from your daily activities compounded over time and your activities are a result of the choices you make in the moment. Your choices come from your habit of thought which are the product of your thinking which comes from the view you have of the world and your place in it which is…YOUR PHILOSOPHY!