WHAT IS THE SLIGHT EDGE? (AND HOW TO GET IT.)

“The things that take you out of failure and up toward survival and success are simple. So simple, in fact, that it’s easy to overlook them. Extremely easy to overlook them. It’s easy to overlook them because when you look at them, they seem insignificant. They’re not big, sweeping things that take huge effort. They’re not heroic or dramatic. Mostly they’re just little things you do every day and that nobody else even notices. They are things that are so simple to do—yet successful people actually do them, while unsuccessful people only look at them and don’t take action.

Things like taking a few dollars out of a paycheck, putting it into savings, and leaving it there. Or doing a few minutes of exercise every day—and not skipping it. Or reading ten pages of an inspiring, educational, life-changing book every day. Or taking a moment to tell someone how much you appreciate them, and doing that consistently, every day, for months and years. Little things that seem insignificant in the doing, yet when compounded over time yield very big results.

You could call these ‘little virtues’ or ‘success habits.’ I call them simple daily disciplines. Simple productive actions, repeated consistently over time.

That, in a nut shell, is the slight edge.”

In search of metaphor 

The best way to learn a complex idea is to find it living inside something else you already understand.
“This,” is like, “that.”
An amateur memorizes. A professional looks for metaphors.
It’s not a talent, it’s a practice. When you see a story, an example, a wonderment, take a moment to look for the metaphor inside.
Lessons are often found where we look for them.

Beethoven to his “Immortal Beloved”

Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, Be calm — love me — today — yesterday — what tearful longings for you — you — you — my life — my all — farewell. Oh continue to love me — never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.

FALLING ON YOUR BUTT 20,000 TIMES

“A study of figure skaters found that sub-elite skaters spent lots of time working on the jumps they could already do, while skaters at the highest levels spent more time on the jumps they couldn’t do, the kind that ultimately win Olympic medals and that involve lots of falling down before they’re mastered.”~ Geoff Colvin from Talent is Overrated
Colvin brilliantly tells the story of Shizuka Arakawa, who won the gold medal in figure skating at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Apparently she rocked some crazy move called “a layback Ina Bauer”—which basically required her to bend backward “almost double with the feet pointing in opposite directions—leading into a three-jump combination.”
Now, when most of us watch something like that it simply looks IMPOSSIBLE to do. (And, for most of us, it pretty much is. 🙂 But Shizuka, who won the gold at twenty-four, had been training for NINETEEN years—consistently pushing her edges. Falling down again and again and again…
Colvin calculated the number of times she probably fell and says: “Landing on your butt twenty thousand times is where great performance comes from.” 
So, back to you. Are you playing it safe and doing what you’re already good at? Or, are you pushing your edges—willing to fall on your butt 20,000 times en route to your own personal greatness?

JUST DO THE NEXT RIGHT THING

“Whether you are struggling to overcome a pattern of defeat, yearning for inner peace, trying to create lasting happiness, wishing to succeed in your career, desperately trying to overcome procrastination, or are battling with an addiction, this lesson holds the key for you. Just do the next right thing. In each moment, just keep doing the next right thing. . .
Whether you get into a funk, just do the next right thing. And keep doing the next right thing. You will be amazed at how quickly you work yourself out of the funk if you approach it this way. Don’t worry about next week or next month or next year. Just do the next right thing and keep doing the next right thing, and gradually you will act your way out of destructive patterns. You cannot think or pray or wish or hope yourself out of the pattern that is holding you back. You must act your way out of it, one moment at a time.
One moment at a time, by simply doing the next right thing, you will move from confusion to clarity, from misunderstanding to insight, from despair to hope, from darkness to light, and discover your truest self.” 

~ Matthew Kelly

“Perfection is what you are striving for, but perfection is an impossibility. However, striving for perfection is not an impossibility. Do the best you can under the conditions that exist. That is what counts.” 

 “If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.”