A personal development book. The main takeaway message is that small, simple daily routines (slight edges) can have a drastic impact on your life if you wait long enough for their changes to gradually compound.
The Recipe for success: do things that are easy to do. And also easy not to do!
Olson claims that success stems from these simple daily actions that are easy to do, but also easy not to do, such that most people will neglect them, underestimating their importance. And indeed, a bad habit won’t kill you in one day, nor will it kill you in two days. But after a few years these tiny negative impacts on your life will compound and make your life miserable without you realizing what lead to your failure in the first place.
“Do it and you shall have the power”
Most people live either in the past, or far in the future, but never in the present, waiting for something to happen and hoping that their dreams will come true by themselves. Olson suggests that we should instead act in the present, and start acting now. Start with a penny, increase its value every day and patiently wait for the compound effect!
The up/down curves
For Jeff Olson, there exists no state of equilibrium in life: either you’re on an increasing curve, either on a decreasing one. Both these curves grow or decrease exponentially. As a consequence of that, you need to self-improve everyday to maintain yourself on the “up” curve. I think this is an interesting idea: either improve yourself everyday, or die slowly. The dangerous thing about these curves is that they are - as all exponential curves - quite flat and similar at the beginning, which means it is quite difficult to know at first on which curve you are currently standing on.
Responsibility and optimist
Successful people always take responsibility for what happens to them and never find someone or something to blame. Successful people are always optimistic and have a burning desire to make something happen.
Four powerful allies in the past of mastery
- The power of momentum: steady wins the race.
- The power of completion: clear out your undones and incompletes.
- The power of reflection: facing the man or woman in the mirror.
- The power of celebration: catch yourself doing something right.
The different areas where one can improve
- health
- happiness
- relationships
- personal development
- finances
- career
- your positive impact on the world
The slight edge in practice
- Write down what your dreams (“vivid and clear”) are, in each of the areas
- Make a simple plan: choose a daily routine (~10 min) that you will do everyday for each area
- Every day, look back on your accomplishments with respect to each task and self-congratulate yourself for what has been done correctly