The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness

by Jeff Olson

The first step to increasing your happiness is to understand what positive psychology research has been telling us for the past fifteen years: the most significant factors in your day-to-day, moment-to-moment level of happiness are not circumstantial. They’re not heredity. They’re not dictated by your genes or caused by outside events. The most significant factors in your happiness are your actions. What you do every day.

The future of every relationship you have, like that of your health, is a choice that is always in your hands, and it’s no bigger than a penny. The key is to make the choice—and keep making it.

You will become as small as your controlling desire, or as great as your dominant aspiration.

Everything you do is important. When you smile at a child and encourage him, or scold him and tell him he’s no good—in either case, you may see the splash it makes, and you may see the first or second ripple, but the impact goes far, far beyond what you see. You don’t see all the ripples.

Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do; they put the slight edge to work for them, rather than against them, every day. They refuse to let themselves be swayed by their feelings, moods, or attitudes; they rule their lives by their philosophies and do what it takes to get the job done, whether they feel like it or not.

Successful people don’t look for shortcuts, nor do they hope for the “big break.” They are always open to quantum leaps, knowing that such opportune moments do present themselves from time to time, but they focus on sticking to their knitting and doing what they’ve put in front of themselves to do. They step onto the path of mastery and, once having set foot there, they stay on that path for the rest of their lives.