The Slight Edge: How Small Improvements Help in Reaching Goals
So much of our struggle in reaching goals we set for ourselves is having the consistent discipline to make it a reality.
Consistency Plus Time
If you wanted to play the guitar for example, how is it that you are going to learn to play a new instrument? The better question is what can you commit to on a daily basis to learning the guitar?
If you can commit to 15 minutes of playing time each day, you can learn to play. The problem is that those 15 minutes don’t feel like much is happening. You struggle each day learning chords and it seems like no progress is happening. But the slight edge philosophy says something else. Something really important is happening in those 15 minutes.
In his book, The Slight Edge, Jeff Olson explains how this works.
“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.” (Olson, 2018).
By creating small adjustments we begin to gain incredible gains over the long haul. A few days in nothing changes. But several months, years or decades and suddenly everything has changed.
You’re Either Going Towards Your Goals Or Away
However, it is also easy to not go towards your goals. He claims that most people don’t make the consistent effort to do this. As you can see in the graphic below you are either doing the small thing you need to reach your goal everyday or you are not.
Responsibility Vs. Blame
Olson makes this point quite clear.
“The predominant state of mind displayed by those people on the failure curve is blame. The predominant state of mind displayed by those people on the success curve is responsibility.” (Olson, 2018).
When we decide to take responsibility we have total control over the outcome. We also don’t blame others when things come up and we don’t do our daily work. We come back to responsibility and refocus our efforts.
“Taking responsibility liberates you; in fact, it is perhaps the single most liberating thing there is. Even when it hurts, even when it doesn’t seem fair. When you don’t take responsibility, when you blame others, circumstances, fate, or chance, you give away your power. When you take and retain full responsibility—even when others are wrong or the situation is genuinely unfair—you keep your life’s reins in your own hands.” (Olson, 2018).
How This Shows Up In My Life
I have been committing to elements of the slight edge in my own life. Currently my life feels really packed, but, committing time to doing a few small things each day is helping to reach my goals. I have committed to learning Spanish. The way to do this for me is to spend 10 mins a day on a Spanish app learning the nuances of the language. Doing this each day gets me a few small steps towards becoming fluent. I also want to learn to play the guitar. I haven’t found the level of commitment to get this going. I take full responsibility for this. I am going to start carving out 15 mins at night to playing chords and practicing one song.
The one thing I have noticed is that learning anything at the beginning makes it really difficult to stay focused. If you keep going, through the early stages, it starts to get easier. With Spanish, I have started to to put things together and it feels like I’m actually learning the language. This motivates me to do more to learn the language and I may do other things in order to accomplish this goal.
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Wishing You The Day You Need To Have!
Olson, Jeff. (2018) The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines Into Massive Happiness And Success.
