Dearest Readers, I hope your 2017 personal and professional projects are well under way. :) Today, I'd like to share with you my takeaway from a great book by Jeff Olson called The Slight Edge. If you've ever delayed things like improving your health or your financial situation because you're waiting for some sort of a big moment or a big break, or even a surge in motivation and ambition, please stop right now and consider what I'm about to share.
Let's say you have determined that you want to save more money and improve your health. Now, suppose that one of the ways for you to do this, incidentally, is to get rid of your third and last coffee of the day because it costs almost $2.50 (you like Starbucks), keeps you up late and makes you lose sleep, health and productivity. Fair enough. However, not that simple.
You see, many people tend to think that major improvements in health, finances and so on come suddenly, almost magically and with a boom. Others think that suddenly, for some reason, you become enlightened or gain a serious edge over your former self and that's it, you're on the fast track to success. If you're looking at amazing success through those glasses, you'll think that one coffee less and almost $2.50 more in your pocket in one day is inconsequential in terms of the major financial and health improvements you want to make. Looking at just that one day, you're absolutely right. So, even if you do try it for a few days, there will be a long day at work or a stressful day in general and you will go back to that coffee and spend money to get it, thinking that it's OK because it's just one day.
This, dearest readers, is worse than how it was initially observed. If you cut the coffee and saved the money every single day for a year, looking at it on an annual basis you put yourself in a position of amazing change. However, for every single day that you fail to see that incremental work is the real deal for making great changes, it'll take you that much longer to achieve those changes. You will have to wait longer. Depending on what you're trying to achieve, your failure to secure daily, incremental change can make the final result take days, weeks, months or even years longer to accomplish. Depending on where you're at in life and what you want to change, this delay can really hurt you.
My advice, dearest readers, is to look for ways to gain a slight edge over your current situation every single day. You do that, and it'll build up to success, which is what all of us want to experience.
Let's say you have determined that you want to save more money and improve your health. Now, suppose that one of the ways for you to do this, incidentally, is to get rid of your third and last coffee of the day because it costs almost $2.50 (you like Starbucks), keeps you up late and makes you lose sleep, health and productivity. Fair enough. However, not that simple.
You see, many people tend to think that major improvements in health, finances and so on come suddenly, almost magically and with a boom. Others think that suddenly, for some reason, you become enlightened or gain a serious edge over your former self and that's it, you're on the fast track to success. If you're looking at amazing success through those glasses, you'll think that one coffee less and almost $2.50 more in your pocket in one day is inconsequential in terms of the major financial and health improvements you want to make. Looking at just that one day, you're absolutely right. So, even if you do try it for a few days, there will be a long day at work or a stressful day in general and you will go back to that coffee and spend money to get it, thinking that it's OK because it's just one day.
This, dearest readers, is worse than how it was initially observed. If you cut the coffee and saved the money every single day for a year, looking at it on an annual basis you put yourself in a position of amazing change. However, for every single day that you fail to see that incremental work is the real deal for making great changes, it'll take you that much longer to achieve those changes. You will have to wait longer. Depending on what you're trying to achieve, your failure to secure daily, incremental change can make the final result take days, weeks, months or even years longer to accomplish. Depending on where you're at in life and what you want to change, this delay can really hurt you.
My advice, dearest readers, is to look for ways to gain a slight edge over your current situation every single day. You do that, and it'll build up to success, which is what all of us want to experience.