"Slow down to go fast"
It's not about doing a bunch of things at once and rushing through them. Although everyone is guilty of this. We either try to multitask, or underestimate how long something will take, and so we rush through it.
Instead Jeff suggests doing little things consistently. This is the main theme throughout the book. Every single second of everyday we have a choice to choose progression or to choose regression. Take for instance writing a school essay for example. This is something we all had to do at least once in our lives. Lets say you are like I was and like most students are, you wait till the last day or 2 and write the essay then, in other words you procrastinate. You usually have a couple weeks to write about 10-paragraphs, so if you went slow and steady like Jeff suggests in the book you could do one paragraph a day for 14 days. But like most of us, we try to go fast at the end, and we end up rushing and not doing our best work, instead of working in small increments to do our best work.
Raise your happiness level.
In "The Slight Edge" Jeff states that by raising your happiness levels you will notice that every area of you life gets better. And I can say that this is very true. Think of it when you are happy are you doing your best or worst work? You are probably doing your best work or having the most fun right?
Being happy will radiate onto others as well as in what you do. As I am writing this section here I am feeling pretty happy about life today, and I can feel that I am able to share more than on days when I feel negative or pissed off. So if you are in a state of negativity, what are some things you can do to raise your level of happiness today and how could that help you in other areas of life?
What words are you constantly speaking.
What words are you using right now, or everyday? Are the words you are saying bringing you up or bringing you down? This is something that we all overlook and probably never even recognize, but it is huge to our success in every area of life. If you say words negatively that limit you, you will be limited by these words which also become beliefs. Tell yourself you "can't" do something enough, and you won't be able to do it. Tell yourself you "can" do something enough and you life will be limitless.
Take responsibility.
This is something everyone struggles with, and I have talked about this before in my own life but I will say it again. When I was younger I used to always blame. Lets say I accidentally knocked something over, I would say "it fell" instead of taking responsibility for knocking it over in the first place. This is a small example, but maybe you do this as well? It could be big or small but we must take responsibility for what we do.
This way we can start to recognize what we are doing wrong and what we are doing right, and by taking responsibility we can shift the things we do wrong into things we do right.
Book smarts, street smarts, and mentors.
Jeff says that successful people have three qualities in which they learn from, they have book smarts (knowledge), street smarts (action), and mentors (people that guide you). Having these all will save you drastic amounts of time while you are on your journey. Book smarts and street smarts are the easiest of the 3. For book smarts all you need to do is read a book or a course and find some nuggets of wisdom. Streets smarts although a little harder is still pretty easy. You can have all the book smarts but you must act on them. Acting on what you have learned is street smarts and will get you closer to your goals.
When I hear people talk about book smarts and street smarts, I rarely hear anyone talk about mentors being a part of it. Jeff suggests that having mentors to guide you will really propel you to reach your goals faster, since you will have someone "holding your hand" and guiding you along the way. They will help you put the street smarts and book smarts together to have the best life you possibly can.
Closing thoughts.
These are my top 5 nuggets of wisdom from the book "The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson". I hope they were a great guide into the book. If you would like to learn more from the book on your journey, click the link below to get your very own copy of the book delivered to your home today!
Make the best of today,
Brian
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