Part of what excites me most about this book is the timing. You've seen me write posts in the past on developing consistent daily habits. You can check out of few of them here, here, and here. My mind has been obsessed with the idea of maintaining daily habits yet my body (& my self discipline) wouldn't allow it. Over and over again I would start a new routine, do it consistently for a period of time, then find myself falling back into my old behaviors.
Then came a turning point moment when I conducted my first 7 day challenge. Having committed myself to working out for 7 days was extremely powerful. It taught me that it could be done. It taught me how to overcome resistance. From there, the doors were opened and the soil was prepared for this amazing seed (in the form of a book) to take root. So what is the Slight Edge all about?
The Slight Edge teaches us a very important message. The lesson is that the daily actions that we chose to do (or not do) makes little or no difference today or even tomorrow. Nothing bad happens if I have a second piece of pie today. I don't gain 3 lbs the minute that last bite goes down. Because of this, I continue to make choices that seem to have no obvious, immediate consequence. What happens if this type of behavior continues? The negative consequences begin to appear. But not only that, they are amplified because I've been consistent with my poor choices.
Think about your decisions like deposits you are making into an interest bearing account. Even though you put a certain amount in, you will receive more in return. Make poor decisions day after day, and you experience a greater negative impact. Make good decisions consistently and the rewards of your choices multiply. The author of the Slight Edge reminds us that we're making decisions on a daily basis anyway. We are already making deposits into our future through the actions we take today. Knowing this, it only makes sense for us to make the right decisions so we can adequately fund our success.
What I love most about the book is how Jeff talks about how easy it is for us to do and, not to do, the right things. That's when my mindset shift occurred. I began to look at good choices as being easy to make. When I started thinking this way, my actions quickly followed. Since starting to read this book, I've been able to maintain consistency with my workouts, with my daily meditation, personal development reading, etc. Not only that, I find myself wanting to do a little more each day to compound my efforts (and my results). Another change I've noticed is letting go of the need to see an immediate result from the actions I take. This, I believe, was the culprit whenever I started something new and gave up soon afterwards. Now, I move forward knowing that my actions will create my intended result if I just keep going. If I continue to operate for the remainder of the year, 2014 will be phenomenal.
May have to check it out. I'm stuck in a weird loop myself.
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