The Slight Edge, a fantastic personal development book written by Jeff Olson, is all about how you can improve in life and reach your goals. The Slight Edge is all about doing a little bit each day and finding success through simple actions.
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
You have complete control over the direction that the rest of your life takes.
Humans are creatures of habit. Every day, we make simple decisions: what to eat, should we exercise, should I call my parents, should I read my book, etc.
With these decisions, there a few questions that come with them:
- Are the decisions you are making helping your life?
- Or are they detrimental to your life?
- Are they bringing you closer to your goals?
- Or are you still a long time away from achieving those goals?
The Slight Edge, by Jeff Olson, walks us through a strategy to achieve success in anything we want in life.
What do you want to achieve in your life? Well, first, you have to start. You have to be consistent. A positive attitude helps keep you going, and with consistent actions over time, you can achieve your goals and create the life you want to create.
The rest of this post includes a summary of The Slight Edge, takeaways from The Slight Edge, and a reading recommendation for you.
Your philosophy creates your attitudes, which create your actions, which create your results, which create your life.
Book Summary of The Slight Edge
The Slight Edge is a mindset and a way of living a life of success.
Having a slight edge in your life is your ticket to success and a life that you want.
With the Slight Edge, you can accomplish anything and everything you can dream of doing.
The best part of all of this is that The Slight Edge is actually a pretty simple concept.
What is the Slight Edge?
So, what is the Slight Edge?
Essentially, the slight edge is your philosophy of life.
The slight edge is your driving force; your philosophy creates your attitudes, which creates your actions, which creates your results, which create your life. You should live your philosophy each day.
By performing tasks which will are located on the path to your goals, you can achieve anything.
The following is a graphic of the Slight Edge:
The Slight Edge is a mindset and philosophy that is all about doing the little things. By be disciplined in the details, all of the bigger picture things and actions will be taken care of over time.
What are some examples of The Slight Edge?
One of the best examples of The Slight Edge comes from personal finance. The power of compounding and compound interest is such a great example of the Slight Edge.
You can see this from the following example and question:
Would you rather receive $1 million dollars today, or would you rather take a penny, but double it every day for a month?
The first day, you have 2 cents, the second day, you have 4 cents, the third day, you have 8 cents… two weeks in, you have $81.92. Well, guess what? At the end of the month, you end up with over $10 million dollars. You only started off with a penny, what happened?
That’s the power of time and the slight edge.
Yes, you started off with a small amount, and for a long time, you didn’t have much, but 30 days later, boom, $10 million bucks – much more than $1 million!!!
Another example of The Slight Edge is with working out. At first, you are weak, but over time, if you are consistent, you will get into shape, build your dream body and become strong.
It won’t happen overnight, but you will find success.
“Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid of standing still.” – Chinese Proverb
Powerful Quotes from The Slight Edge
Below are a number of powerful quotes from The Slight Edge.
These The Slight Edge quotes are all about self improvement and how you can become better as a person by applying the principles and concepts of The Slight Edge.
- What you do today matters. What you do every day matters. Successful people are those who understand that the little choices they make matter and because of that they choose to do things that seem to make no difference at all in the act of doing them, and they do them over and over and over until the compound effect kicks in.
- The secret of time is simply this: time is the force that magnifies those little, almost imperceptible, seemingly insignificant things you do every day into something titanic and unstoppable.
- In a world filled with instant coffee, instant breakfast, instant credit, instant shopping, instant information, and 24/7 news, we have come dangerously close to losing touch with reality and believing we have access to instant life. But life is not a clickable link.
- Successful people form habits that feed their success, instead of habits that feed their failure.
- Growth creates abundance, and that abundance in turn creates responsibility. The more success we have, the more greatness we step into and the more abundance we experience, the more responsibility we have to the world around us.
- Success doesn’t come out of nowhere. It can’t be conjured up out of thin air, brought to you by the genie from Aladdin’s lamp simply because you rubbed it and thought good thoughts. Success does come from a small beginning, often a beginning so tiny that it seems invisible and most people miss it. But there has to be a beginning.
- All true success is built from a foundation of study plus street smarts.
- “Knowledge without practice is useless and practice without knowledge is dangerous.” – Confucius
- You truly are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, in all aspects of your life.
- Show me where you fish and I’ll show you what you catch.
- Every decision you make is a slight edge decision.
Each of these Slight Edge quotes are fantastic and I use them in my life when I need motivation.
Takeaways from The Slight Edge
With all books you read, it’s important to have takeaways and action steps to apply in your life.
If you don’t apply what you’ve read, then what’s the point of reading a self help book?
For me, The Slight Edge taught me that I need to treat everyday with purpose and to live intentionally.
One of my favorite quotes from The Slight Edge is the following:
What you do today matters. What you do every day matters. Successful people are those who understand that the little choices they make matter and because of that they choose to do things that seem to make no difference at all in the act of doing them, and they do them over and over and over until the compound effect kicks in.
Every day, I try to apply The Slight Edge and do a little bit to get closer to my goals.
Each day, even if it’s just doing a little bit of work for fifteen minutes, going on a walk, or trying to learn something new, I know that as long as I do just a little bit, I can push myself along to on the path to success.
With this slight edge philosophy and slight edge mindset, I know that with my efforts, I can achieve anything I want in my life.
I can create a life which is the life I want.
The Slight Edge book has been life changing for me, and I hope it will be life changing for you as well.
The Mastermind Within Recommends The Slight Edge
The Slight Edge is a fantastic book and a great addition to my library. I plan to read it many times over in the coming years. It was a motivating, easy, and refreshing read.
For you, I definitely recommend The Slight Edge and think it would be a great addition to your library. Reading The Slight Edge will help you cultivate a winning mindset and a mindset towards taking action.
It’s all about taking small and simple disciplines and turning these into wild success. Focusing on the daily actions you can control will allow you to achieve your goals and dreams.
Start today and watch yourself grow into what you want.
Readers: What daily habits do you have which have been beneficial to your success? Do you have any bad habits you want to get rid of? Have you experienced the compound effect in your life?
Erik