Humans tend to believe in ‘quantum leap’.
Imagine when you want to sell something, what you’re gonna tell people? You’re gonna tell people that you have a slow way to success. No, you’re not gonna do that. You’ll tell that you have a quantum leap answer. What it really does is harness the natural harmony of how life works.
Plant, cultivate, harvest.
Most people will tell you that you plant your seeds and then you harvest. This isn’t the answer. You need to cultivate. It’s the small things done consistently and repeatedly over a period of time that makes a big difference.
Everything in life is easy to do and easy not to do.
As much as it’s easy to be successful, it’s easy not to be successful. Most people choose the latter path while successful people make simple litte decisions and disciplines over a long period of time and let the compound effect kicks in.
Do the thing and then have power.
Don’t wait until you have power to do the thing. Transfer learn knowledge to activity knowledge. You’ll fail your way to the top.
“The key to success is to double the rate of failure.” – Thomas J. Watson (CEO of IBM)
Find mentors and be a mentor.
It’s not enough you’re learning and you’re applying, you also must be modelling people who are successful. Learn from your mentors and pay it forward. In other words, learn and apply what you learnt until you’re worthy to be a model.
Every decision you make every single day matters.
If you read 10 pages of a good book today, will you be successful? Of course, not. If you don’t read 10 pages of a good book today, will your life fall apart? Again, the answer is no.
Remember every decision you make is easy to do and easy not to do. They’re either leading you positively or negatively. Little things seem to make no difference if you do them, but if you do them over and over and over and over, with consistency and consistency, the compound effect kicks in and make a huge difference.
“We dig our graves with our teeth. It’s easy to eat well and it’s easy not to. Slight edge is working for you or working against you, invisible results.” – Jeff Olson
There’s a bigger price to pay for not doing it than a price for doing it.
The price of neglect is much worse than the price for discipline. It may take a few years to put your success on track, but it takes your entire life to fail.
If you embrace slight edge philosophy and apply consistently, remember 10 pages of good book a day for a long enough period of time, you can be successful. But if you don’t do that, it can take the rest of your life to fail.
What if you can improve yourself today, just 0.33%?
That’s a very slight edge indeed. So slight in fact that you might have a hard time even knowing how to measure it. now what if you do that again? And then the next day? And kept it up? Every day for the next year. Here’s what you happen. The first day you’ll improve by 0.33%. So, little it’d be impossible to notice. The second day you improve would be 0.66%. The next day 0.99%. Almost one full percent. And by the end of the year, you’ll have improved by 100%, double, twice as fit, twice as healthy, twice as skilled, twice as what ever you’re working on.
Baby steps, one at a time and you’re walking.
In the process of learning to walk, did you spend more time falling down or standing up? If you’re like most babies, you failed far more than you succeeded. But did you ever have a thought of quitting? Did you ever say to yourself “You know I’m just not made for walking.”? Of course not, you’re on your way to mastery. Now it’s only a matter of your walking skills catching up.
Plan, do and review.
Rather than being sucked backward and downward, successful people plan, do and review to succeed and to lead.
What most people call a problem is simply a gap, an open space between point A and point B.
If you keep an open mind, it’s an open space you can bridge. The gap between A and B cannot last forever. It has to resolve, and it will, one way or the other.
To become less anxious, learn more and do more.
“If most people won’t cry at your funeral, why are you spending so much time worrying how they think of you?” – Jeff Olson
As you learn through studying and doing, information and experience, book smart and street smart, you gradually lower your level of anxiety by raising your level of mastery. As you continue climbing that ladder of knowledge, study – action, study – action, you’ll realize that others are modelling you, you’ll become worthy of emulating.