SUMMARY ATTEMPT | SLIGHT EDGE | JEFF OLSON | CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER FIVE

SLOW DOWN TO GO FAST

“Rome ne s’est pas faite en un jour. (Rome wasn’t built in a day.)” 

— ancient French proverb

If you want to direct your life on a path of continual positive change, then you need to tap into the most powerful force for change in the universe. Fortunately for you, that force is always with you, ready to lend a hand if you just ask. That force is time.

One of the amazing things about the slight edge is that it’s a very generous process. It requires only a minuscule contribution from you, and yet it offers you a gigantic return. It demands of you only a penny, and gives you back a million dollars. Starting with a penny is your part of the deal. The universe around you supplies the rest of the equation. And the force it uses to do that is time.

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.

consistently repeated daily actions + time = inconquerable results.

You supply the actions; the universe will supply the time. The trick is to choose the actions that, when multiplied by this universal amplifier, will yield the result you want. Position your everyday actions so time works for you, and not against you.

There is a natural progression in life: you plant, then you cultivate, and finally you harvest. In today’s world, everyone wants to go directly from plant to harvest.

The step we’ve lost touch with, the one where the real (though invisible) power lies, is the step of cultivating. And that step, unlike planting and harvesting, takes place only through the patient dimension of time.

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.

“Time is like water: it gives life to everything, and flows in places most people just don’t get.”

The slight edge looks boring at first, when you’re oblivious to the results that are coming down the road apiece.

If making the right slight edge choices were a dramatic thing, you’d get immediate feedback. An entire movie theater audience applauding, cheering, or screaming. But that doesn’t happen. And that’s the big challenge of it: no immediate feedback.

The slight edge can carve the Grand Canyon. It can do anything. But you have to give it enough time for the power of time to kick in.

The right choices and wrong choices you make at the moment will have little or no noticeable impact on how your day goes for you. Nor tomorrow, nor the next day. No applause, no cheers, no screams, no life-or-death results played out on the big screen. But it is exactly those same undramatic, seemingly insignificant actions that, when compounded over time, will dramatically affect how your life turns out.

Making the right choices, taking the right actions. It’s truly easy to do. Ridiculously easy. But it’s just as easy not to do. And if you don’t do them, there won’t be any big drama about it. It won’t kill you; it won’t hurt you; in fact, it won’t make any difference at all … not today, anyway. Not tomorrow. But over time?

If you want to understand and apply the slight edge to create the life of your dreams, you can’t make your everyday choices based on the evidence of your eyes. You need to make them based on what you know. You have to see through the eyes of time. You need to base your choices on your philosophy — on what you know, not what you see.

Successful people do whatever it takes to get the job done, whether or not they feel like it. They understand that it is not any one single push on the flywheel but the cumulative total of all their sequential, unfailingly consistent pushes that eventually creates movement of such astonishing momentum in their lives.

Successful people form habits that feed their success, instead of habits that feed their failure. They choose to have the slight edge working for them, not against them. They build their own dreams, rather than spend their lives building other people’s dreams, and they achieve these dramatic results in their lives through making choices that are the very antithesis of drama — mundane, simple, seemingly insignificant choices.

Every decision you make is a slight edge decision. What you’re going to do, how you’re going to act, what you’re going to read, who you’re going to chat with on the phone, what you’re going to eat for lunch, who you’re going to associate with. How you’re going to treat your fellow workers. What you’re going to get done today.

But by putting time on your side, you’ve marshaled the forces of the slight edge. Your success becomes inevitable. You just need to stay in the process long enough to give it a chance to win. It starts with a choice.

In my experience, in three to five years you can put virtually anything in your life solidly onto the right track. Think of what you were doing three years ago: it seems like yesterday, doesn’t it? Well, three years from now, the things you’re doing right now will seem like only yesterday, too. Yet this brief little period of time can change your life. How long will it take? Chances are it will take longer than you want it to — and that when the time arrives, you’ll be astonished at how quick it seemed.

The Slight Edge is all about living in the moment. For me, this is perhaps the hardest lesson to learn about the slight edge: you can’t find it in the past or the future, only right here, right now.

The Slight Edge is about your awareness. It is about you making the right choices, the choices that serve you and empower you, starting right now and continuing for the rest of your life, and learning to make them effortlessly.

The difficult is what takes a little time; the impossible is what takes a little longer.

Success takes time, yes, more time than most people are willing to wait. But not as much as you’d think. And once the momentum of the slight edge starts to kick in it becomes unstoppable, and you reach a point where results do indeed start to happen very fast indeed.

You want big results? Good — then do the little things. Just do them consistently and persistently.

Sometimes you need to slow down to go fast.

Essential Points from Chapter Five

* Time is the force that magnifies those simple daily disciplines into massive success.

* There is a natural progression to success: plant, cultivate, harvest — and the central step, cultivate, can only happen over the course of time.

* No genuine success in life is instant. Life is not a clickable link.

* To grasp how the slight edge works, you have to view your actions through the eyes of time.

* Difficult takes a little time; impossible takes just a little longer.

Source: Slight Edge by Jeff Olson 

Slight Edge | Chapter 4

Slight Edge | Chapter 6

Read Bayor's Book | More Resources | Connect with Bayor

#22MinuteChallenge | Bible Project Reading Plan | Day 039 | The Covenant At Mount Sinai | Leviticus 26 – 27, Psalm 39

#22MinuteChallenge | Bible Project Reading Plan

Suggested Video

Overview: Leviticus

Day 039 | The Covenant At Mount Sinai

Leviticus 26 – 27, Psalm 39

Source: Bible Project Reading Plan

More Resources | Connect with Bayor

Adebayo Martins | #JustAThought | #iMuse | #2022 | #007 | SUN.10.20.2019

If you honor your head, you'll get ahead.

1 Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.

Romans 13:1 NLT

1 Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. 

2 “Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise: 3 If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”

Ephesians 6:1‭-‬3 NLT

Adebayo Martins | #JustAThought | #iMuse | #2022 | #007 | SUN.10.20.2019

Read Bayor's Book | More Resources | Connect with Bayor

SUMMARY ATTEMPT | SLIGHT EDGE | JEFF OLSON | CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER FOUR

MASTER THE MUNDANE

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” 

— Benjamin Franklin (attrib.) in Poor Richard’s Almanack

What’s the difference between the 5 percent and the 95 percent? What are the 5 percent doing that the other 95 percent are not?

The 5 percent all understand the power of the slight edge and how it is working for or against them. They may not use the words slight edge to describe it. They may not even see what they do as being guided by a “philosophy.” But that’s exactly what it is.

"perseverance is a great substitute for talent.”

The slight edge is the force behind the amazing power of compound interest. It is the steady, repeated action of water that can wear even the hardest rock to a smooth surface. Whatever you’re after, whatever you want to create in your life or whatever kind of life you most passionately want to live, the slight edge is the way to get it.

The difference between the 5 percent and everyone else: They know how to use the slight edge to get what they want in life. No, let’s amend that slightly: they know how to use the slight edge to get what they want in life — and they do it. They do the thing, and gain the power.

If you will learn to understand and apply the slight edge, I will guarantee you that in time — and chances are, less time than you would imagine — you will have what you desire. You will be among the 5 percent. You will be successful.

As I said above, if you apply the slight edge consistently in your life, you will find yourself among the 5 percent and see the goals and aspiration in your life coming to pass — and you will achieve those aims, goals, and dreams by doing mundane, everyday, simple things.

If you learn to understand and apply the slight edge, your life will become filled with hundreds of thousands of small, seemingly insignificant actions — all of them genuinely simple, none of them mysterious or complex. In other words, you have to master the mundane. And those actions will create your success.

Everyone thinks they know about the power of compound interest. But most people don’t, not really. If they did, they’d be using it. And clearly, most people are not.

Parkinson’s Law goes like this: “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” (or expenses rise to meet income)

How hard is it to put aside a few dollars a day, or a little each week? Ridiculously easy. Yet most of us don’t do it.

Most of us are literally digging our graves with our teeth. And we know all this — yet clearly the majority of us aren’t doing anything about it. Why not?

Reason #1: They’re Easy to Do

The simple things that lead to success are all easy to do. But they’re also just as easy not to do.

But here’s something that is easy: pick up an inspiring, educational, life-changing book like The Millionaire Next Door, or Think and Grow Rich, or The Magic of Thinking Big, and read ten pages a day. Just ten pages a day. So easy to do… and so easy not to do.

So while anyone could do these successful actions, most won’t, simply because it’s so easy to skip them. And the tragic irony of it is, that doesn’t actually end up making their lives any easier. We’re all doing simple things anyway. Unsuccessful people just choose what they think is the path of least resistance. But it really isn’t.

We each have twenty-four hours a day, 168 hours a week, and we each fill these hours one way or the other with a sequence of mundane little actions and tasks.

People who make lots of money read books. People who are broke read books, too —they just choose different books.

The slight edge is always working. Whether for you or against you, the slight edge is already at work in your life and always will be, every day, every moment. The purpose of this book is to help you become aware of it — how it is working in your life, every day, every hour, every moment, in every step you take and every choice you make.

Everything you need to do to transform your life is easy to do. It’s easy to become healthy, fit and vibrant. It’s easy to become financially independent. It’s easy to have a happy family and a life rich with meaningful friendships. It’s just a matter of mastering the mundane — of repeating simple little disciplines that, done consistently over time, will add up to the very biggest accomplishments.

Reason #2: The Results Are Invisible

The things that create success in the long run don’t look like they’re having any impact at all in the short run.

You know what you’re supposed to eat. We all do. Fresh fruits and vegetables, complex carbs, salads, whole grains, lean meats, more fish and poultry and less beef.…You know it, I know it, we all know it. So why do so many of us still go out and chow down cheeseburgers and fries every day? I’ll tell you why: because it won’t kill us. Not today.

It’s easy to eat well. But it’s also easy not to, and to go on eating the food that will eventually kill us, because it won’t kill us today. It’s not the one junk-food meal; it’s the thousands, over time. Eating the burger is just a simple error in judgment. Not eating it, a simple positive action.

Why do you walk past the exercise bike? Because it’s easy. If you don’t exercise today, will that kill you? No, of course not. You know what you need to do to stay healthy and feel fit and live a long life. Get your heart rate up, a little over normal, for twenty minutes, three times a week. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. And it’s easy to do. But it’s also easy not to do.

Here’s a slight edge action guaranteed to change your life: read just ten pages of a good book, a book aimed at improving your life, every day. If you read ten pages of a good book today, will your life change? Of course not. If you don’t read ten pages of a good book today, will your life fall apart? Obviously not.

I could tell you that if you would agree to read ten pages of one of these good books every single day, over time, you could not help but accumulate all the knowledge you’d ever need to be as successful as you could ever want to be. Like a penny over time, reading ten pages a day would compound, just like that, and create inside you a ten-million-dollar bank of knowledge. If you kept this up for a year, you would have read 3,650 pages — the equivalent of one or two dozen books of life-transforming material. Would your life have changed? Absolutely. No question. But here’s the problem: back here in the present, on day 1 of week 1, all of that is way in the future.

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. “Progressive” means success is a process, not a destination. It’s something you experience gradually, over time. Failure is just as gradual. In fact, the difference between success and failure is so subtle, you can’t even see it or recognize it during the process. And here’s how real success is built: by the time you get the feedback, the real work’s already done.

Reason #3: They Seem Insignificant

The difference between success and failure is not dramatic. In fact, the difference between success and failure is so subtle, so mundane, that most people miss it. They may not realize they have a philosophy, but they do, and it goes like this: What I do right now doesn’t really matter.

The truth is, what you do matters. 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.

Those little things that will make you successful in life, that will secure your health, your happiness, your fulfillment, your dreams, are simple, subtle, mundane things that nobody will see, nobody will applaud, nobody will even notice. They are those things that, at the time you do them, often feel like they make absolutely no difference.

Essential Points from Chapter Four

* Only 5 percent — 1 in 20 — achieve the level of success and fulfillment they hope for. The other percent either fail or fall short. The only difference is the slight edge.

* The secret to the 5 percent’s success is always in mundane, easy things that anyone could do. People don’t consistently do those simple things for three reasons:

1) while they’re easy to do, they are also easy not to do;

2) you don’t see any results at first;

3) they seem insignificant, like they don’t matter. But they do.

Source: Slight Edge by Jeff Olson 

Slight Edge | Chapter 3

Slight Edge | Chapter 5

Read Bayor's Book | More Resources | Connect with Bayor

#22MinuteChallenge | Bible Project Reading Plan | Day 038 | The Covenant At Mount Sinai | Leviticus 24 – 25, Psalm 38

#22MinuteChallenge | Bible Project Reading Plan

Day 038 | The Covenant At Mount Sinai

Leviticus 24 – 25, Psalm 38

Source: Bible Project Reading Plan

More Resources | Connect with Bayor

Adebayo Martins | #JustAThought | #iMuse | #2022 | #006 | WED.06.16.2021

Don't let your life slip away as you sleep away.

A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

Proverbs 24:33‭-‬34 NLT

You lazy fool, look at an ant. Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do. All summer it stores up food; at harvest it stockpiles provisions. So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing? How long before you get out of bed? A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there, sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, poverty your permanent houseguest!

Proverbs 6:6‭-‬11 MSG

Adebayo Martins | #JustAThought | #iMuse | #2022 | #006 | WED.06.16.2021

Read Bayor's Book | More Resources | Connect with Bayor

#22MinuteChallenge | Bible Project Reading Plan | Day 037 | The Covenant At Mount Sinai | Leviticus 21 – 23, Psalm 37

#22MinuteChallenge | Bible Project Reading Plan

Day 037 | The Covenant At Mount Sinai

Leviticus 21 – 23, Psalm 37

Source: Bible Project Reading Plan

More Resources | Connect with Bayor

#22MinuteChallenge | Bible Project Reading Plan | Day 036 | The Covenant At Mount Sinai | Leviticus 19 – 20, Psalm 36

#22MinuteChallenge | Bible Project Reading Plan

Day 036 | The Covenant At Mount Sinai

Leviticus 19 – 20, Psalm 36

Source: Bible Project Reading Plan

More Resources | Connect with Bayor

SUMMARY ATTEMPT | SLIGHT EDGE | JEFF OLSON | CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER THREE

THE CHOICE

“I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. 

You get busy living, or get busy dying.”

— Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption

In 1996 a book appeared titled The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko. A classic today, Stanley and Danko’s book is still the best description I’ve ever read of how real-life people have become wealthy by following slight edge principles. The millionaires featured in their book don’t inherit their wealth, or strike it rich by making outrageously lucky gambles. They don’t “live large,” drive flashy cars, or live in ostentatious homes. They live below their means and make sensible, smart choices in how they conduct their everyday lives.

After that book came out my friends would tell me, “Hey, Jeff, have you seen this book? It’s about you. It describes exactly what you do and how you act. You’re the millionaire next door guy!” Sure enough, the book described exactly how I approached my finances. For years I kept our family living on $4,000 a month, no matter how much my income increased, and I wouldn’t let us raise that monthly threshold until I had a million dollars (after taxes) in the bank. Then I raised it to $5,000.

The single most important thing I can tell you about the slight edge is this: it’s already working, right now, either for you or against you. So don’t wait.

Easy to do? Surprisingly so. Easy not to do? Tragically so.

You’re never too old, and it’s never too late, to start applying slight edge tactics to achieve your dreams, financial and otherwise.

During those times when I was slipping from survival back toward failure, I had stopped doing those simple daily disciplines. That was the reason — and the only reason — that I kept slipping back into failure. I was making little everyday choices that seemed harmless and innocent enough, but without my realizing it they were pulling me back down toward failure.

The slight edge is relentless, and it cuts both ways. Used productively, it carries you up toward success. Used carelessly, it pulls you down toward failure.

Simple productive actions, repeated consistently over time.

Simple errors in judgment, repeated consistently over time.

The choice is that simple.

Most people don’t stick with the simple daily disciplines it takes to get where they want to go, because they don’t know how to look ahead far enough along the curve to see the results they are creating. But see it or not, those results are coming, as surely as a million dollars in the bank — or a train coming down the tracks heading our way.

The simple little actions you take today can look very different when you see how they play out over time.

The things you do every single day, the things that don’t look dramatic, that don’t even look like they matter, do matter. That they not only make a difference — they make all the difference.

Have faith in the process of simple, positive actions repeated over time — the faith that miracles do happen.

Essential Points from Chapter Three

* Simple daily disciplines — little productive actions, repeated consistently over time— add up to the difference between failure and success.

* The slight edge is relentless and cuts both ways: simple daily disciplines or simple errors in judgment, repeated consistently over time, make you or break you.

* Without the slight edge, you can start with a million and lose it all. With the slight edge, you can start with a penny and accomplish anything you want.

Source: Slight Edge by Jeff Olson 

Slight Edge | Chapter 2

Slight Edge | Chapter 4

Read Bayor's Book | More Resources | Connect with Bayor

#22MinuteChallenge | Bible Project Reading Plan | Day 035 | The Covenant At Mount Sinai | Leviticus 16 – 18, Psalm 35

#22MinuteChallenge | Bible Project Reading Plan

Day 035 | The Covenant At Mount Sinai

Leviticus 16 – 18, Psalm 35

Source: Bible Project Reading Plan

More Resources | Connect with Bayor