Skip to content
BrassBalls TenderHeart
  • Home
  • About
    • Men’s Group
    • For Men
    • For Dads
    • For Couples
  • Blog
  • Reviews
  • Contact
    • Free 30-Min Phone Consultation

The Slight Edge: How Small Improvements Help in Reaching…

So much of our struggle in reaching goals we set for ourselves is having the consistent discipline to make it a reality.

The slight edge philosophy solves that problem by reducing the long-term goal to a very small commitment each day. By doing something small each day and multiplying it over time you can accomplish anything. 

Consistency Plus Time

For many people, the difficulty of getting what they want in life is that they lose steam in meeting their goals. When you start out wanting to make a change or add a new skill it can feel really daunting. The slight edge philosophy helps by breaking it down into small daily choices.

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

In Olson’s book, he says that you can only be achieving your goals, or, not achieving them.  There is no middle ground. He also makes the claim that it is easy to go towards your goals because what you are doing each day is not a major effort (15 mins of playing the guitar). 

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.  

 

 
Oftentimes we can’t anticipate the big gains we are going to make down the line (the point where the curve starts to move upward).  As we trudge along each day we start to lose energy and give up on our goal.  We begin to doubt ourselves.  However, the slight edge philosophy can help motivate us by showing that our small decisions can help us get there.  

Responsibility Vs. Blame

One of the other important elements of the slight edge is taking full responsibility for our lives.  When we decide to move forward and commit to making our goals a reality we can stop making any excuses of why we are or are not making our goals happen.  We don’t need to blame anyone else but ourselves for doing the thing that will help us get closer to our goals. 

 

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. 

 

If you need help moving towards your life goals schedule a free 30 minute consult.  

 Wishing You The Day You Need To Have!

Olson, Jeff. (2018) The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines Into Massive Happiness And Success. 

Photo by Alan Tang – Unsplash

Radical Downtime: Unplugging and Living
Why Hiding Your Emotions From Your Partner Isn’t Actually Possible.

Related articles

platonic touch, healing touch, touch, brass balls tender heart, bryce mathern lpc
Platonic Touch
post-traumatic growth, post traumatic growth, ptsd, counseling, therapy, mens counseling
Post Traumatic Growth: How Suffering…
the goal is joy, blog, mental health, joy, brassballs tenderheart
The Goal Is Joy: Positive…
remove the but, blog, the but, men counselor, brassballs tenderheart, men's health
Remove the “but…”
intimzcy, relationchips, couples, men's health, brassballs tenderheart
The Dance Of Intimacy
attribution error, error, men's health, men counselor, brassballs tenderheart
Give Your Partner A Break:…
masculinity, masculine, how to find your true masculine, brass balls tender heart, mens counseling in denver, denver mens counseling, mens coaching
Head, Heart and Guts, Finding…
four burners theory, theory, four burners, brass balls tender heart, men counselor
The Four Burners Theory
men and shame, how to raise boys, men counselor, brassballs tenderheart, men issues
Men And Shame: How To…
men and shame, how to get out of it, men counselor, brassballs tenderheart
Men And Shame: How To…

Get in the conversation Cancel reply

Recent Posts

  • Platonic Touch
  • Post Traumatic Growth: How Suffering Can Improve Our Lives
  • Men’s Issues During COVID-19 Pandemic
  • E-Counseling and Telehealth for Men and Women During COVID-19
  • The Goal Is Joy: Positive Psychology and Your Intrinsic Self

Tour the Office

DSC_0153
DSC_0314
DSC_0360
DSC_0341
DSC_0344
DSC_0323
DSC_0154
DSC_0170
DSC_0364
DSC_0169
DSC_0342
DSC_0155
DSC_0157
DSC_0166
DSC_0335

Disclosure

The contents of this site are for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing found on this website is intended to be a substitute for professional, psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or mental disorder. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.

Address

50 S Steele St STE: 950, Denver, CO 80209

Click For Directions

Call For Info

(303) 835-6886

brassballs tenderheart, relationship coaching in Denver, relationship counseling, counseling for couples, couples counseling in Denver. Denver couples counseling
BrassBalls TenderHeart
50 S Steele St STE: 950, ,Denver,CO,80209,USA bryce@brassballstenderheart.com.
Rated 5 / 5 based on 5 reviews. | Click to See Reviews
Theme by Colorlib Powered by WordPress