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My Personal Guide to The Slight Edge Philosophy – My notes from the book.



  1. I didn’t change who I was – I changed what I DID

  2. For things to be different I had to DO something different.

  3. Nothing ever stays the same. Everything is in motion – ALWAYS. Everything changes….

  4. Secret to success = The simple actions you take everyday. You need to keep on doing them.

  5. You already know how to do everything it takes to make you an outrageous success

  6. If you can survive you can succeed.

  7. Simple daily disciplines: simple productive actions: repeated consistently over time.

  8. You have complete control over the direction the rest of your life takes you

  9. Your philosophy – changing the way you think about small everyday things. Your philosophy creates – Your Attitude: Your Actions: Your results = Creates Your LIFE

  10. Positive philosophy = Positive Attitude = Positive Actions = Positive Results = Positive Lifestyle

  11. “Do the thing and you shall have the POWER” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

  12. Your philosophy is what you know, how you hold what you know, and how it affects what you do.

  13. Key to success = Double the rate of failure. Successful people fail their way to the top.

  14. Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.

  15. There is no quick fix path to success

  16. Easy to do – Easy not to do

  17. “Get BUSY LIVING or Get BUSY DYING” – Andy Dufresne – The Shawshank Redemption

  18. The 8th wonder of the world = COMPOUND INTEREST and it can be applied to life

  19. Its never to late to start – Its always too late to wait.

  20. Patience – little steps compounded DO make a difference.

  21. Having FAITH in the process of simple positive actions repeated over time. TRUST in the PROCESS

  22. Perseverance is a great substitute for talent.

  23. Whatever you’re after, whatever you want to create in your life or whatever kind of life you most passionately want to live, the slight edge is the way to get it.

  24. “Always live below your means”

  25. Master the mundane! You will achieve those aims, goals and dreams by doing mundane everyday, simple things. You have to master the mundane and those actions will create your success. Those things are simple and easy to do.

  26. Work expands to fill in the time available for its completion

  27. The slight edge is always working – whether for you or against you

  28. Everything you need to do to transform your life is easy to do.

  29. Mastering the mundane of repeating simple little disciplines that done consistently over time, will add up to the very biggest accomplishments.

  30. A simple Positive Action, repeated over time: so easy to do & so easy not to do

  31. The things that create success in the long run don’t look like they’re having any impact at all in the short run.

  32. Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Progressive means success is a PROCESS, not a destination.

  33. The difference between success & failure is not dramatic. The difference between success & failure is so subtle and so mundane most people miss it.

  34. What I DO NOW – DOES MATTER. WHAT I DO MATTERS. What I do today matters. What I do everyday matters. LITTLE CHOICES MATTER

  35. Keep doing them over and over again until the compound effect kicks in.

  36. Things that seem so insignificant they couldn’t possibly matter, but they do. Things that, when you look at them as single occurrences, don’t seem like they have any impact at all. But when compounded overtime they add up to OUTRAGEOUS SUCCESS

  37. The power of TIME = Consistently repeated daily Actions + TIME = INCONQUERABLE RESULTS.

  38. You supply the actions the universe will supply the time.

  39. Plant --> cultivate (TIME) --> Harvest

  40. The slight edge is boring at first. The slight edge can do anything. But you have to give it enough time for the power of time to kick in.

  41. You need to have FAITH in the process as you wont see it happening at first. Base your choices on what you KNOW not what you see.

  42. BREAKTHROUGH = The momentum kicks in

  43. Successful people do whatever it takes to get the job done, whether they feel like it. Successful people form habits that feed their success. They choose to have the slight edge working for them…. I choose to have the slight edge working for me.

  44. You just need to stay in the process long enough to give it a chance to win.

  45. It starts with a choice - Have FAITH at the start. – Be PATIENT. Have COURAGE – have a purpose and have heart.

  46. Think 3 – 5 years to get on the right track.

  47. Go about your business calmly and quietly – DOUBLING.

  48. The slight edge is all about living in the moment. You can’t find it in the past and you can’t find it in the future – only right HERE, right NOW. Your life exists only in the moment.

  49. The slight edge is about your awareness. It’s about making the right choices, the choices that serve and empower you. Starting right now and continuing for the rest of your life and learning to make them effortlessly.

  50. If I stay on this road long enough, I’ll get the result I’m seeking. I know it will happen – you just know.

  51. Impossible just takes a little longer!

  52. Success takes time – more time than people are willing to wait. But not as much as you think.

  53. Once the momentum of the slight edge starts to kick in it becomes unstoppable, and you reach a point where results to indeed start to happen very fast indeed.

  54. Be REAL, Be DETERMINED. Pursue constant self development. DREAM BIG. ACT on it daily.

  55. Slow down to go fast.

  56. You want big results – then do the little things. Just do them consistently & persistently.

  57. Pay attention to your daily habits and it will pay off.

  58. LUCK = constancy of preparedness eventually creates opportunities.

  59. Overnight success = where the final breakthrough results of a long, patient process of edge upon edge, upon edge.

  60. Stop looking for the quantum leap to success and start building it. Stop looking for the miracle and start being the miracle.


  1. HAPPINESS is the key to SUCCESS

  2. Life/Liberty & the Pursuit of HAPPINESS

  3. LIFE = HEALTH – The healthier you are the more life you experience. Better health = lets you live more life in each and everyone of those days.

  4. LIBERTY = FINANCES – Financial health = FREEDOM. Freedom to follow your passions. Chase your pursuits. Develop your skills & talents and gifts to fulfil the promises of life itself.

  5. Happiness is not something you purse it’s something you DO!

  6. Happiness comes first!! Doing things that make you happy doesn’t just make you happier. It also makes your life work better. Once you do what it takes to raise your everyday level of happiness, then you will become more successful, then you’ll become healthier, then you’ll find that relationship.

  7. The more you raise your own happiness level, the more likely you’ll start achieving all those things you want to achieve.

  8. “Be happy and the reason will appear”

  9. Success is not the key to happiness – happiness is the key to success.

  10. The right philosophy à the right attitude/emotions à the right actions

  11. The slight edge + Happy habits = SUCCESS

  12. Happy Habits – Every morning write down 3 things your grateful for (3 different things every day) Journal for 2 mins about 1 positive experience. Meditate – 2 mins. Random Act of Kindness – e.g. E-mail to someone praising them, or thanking them for something they’ve done. Exercise 15 mins daily. Start with 1 and keep repeating.

  13. Anything is attainable as long as I’m CONSISTENT about working on it everyday.

  14. I want the world to be better because I was here. I want my life, my work, my family to mean something. If I’m not making someone else’s life better, I’m wasting my time. My life will only become better by helping to make other lives better.

  15. Never doubt that a single thoughtful, committed person can change the world. Because one person by committing consistent, persistent actions, will have a ripple effect that will in time create a thoughtful, committed group of thousands or millions.

  16. Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do – even when it doesn’t look like it makes any difference and they do it long enough for the compounding effect to start to kick in.

  17. Every day, in every moment you get to exercise choices that will determine whether or not you will become a great person, living a great life.

  18. Greatness is not something predetermined, predestined, or carved into you fate by forces beyond your control. GREATNESS is always in the moment of DECISION.

  19. What you do MATTERS.

  20. For things to change, you’ve got to change. For things to get better, you’re got to get better. Its easy to do, but then it’s just as easy not to do.

  21. People on the success curve live a life of responsibility. They take full responsibility for who they are, where they are, and everything that happens to them.

  22. “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me.”

  23. Set your own standards and set them HIGH.

  24. The only limitations are self imposed.

  25. I take full responsibility for all the choices I make in my life and in my work.

  26. I’m too busy moving forward in my life towards my future to be gazing into the rear view mirror.

  27. You can’t change the past – but you can change the future.

  28. Success in one area breeds success in every area. The key – START somewhere. Wherever you can take action, and begin creating little successes, do it. DON’T WAIT.

  29. You cannot change the past, but you can change the future. The past does not equal the future.

  30. You’re already doing the actions. All you need to do is choose to have them serve and empower you & keep on choosing.

  31. No matter where you are, at any moment you can choose to step onto the success curve.

  32. Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.

  33. TRY, TRY & TRY AGAIN.

  34. The size of your income will be determined by the size of the problems you solve.

  35. You are either going for your dreams or giving up on your dreams.

  36. Stretching for what you could be, or settling for what you are.

  37. “I don’t give a dame what anyone things of what I’m doing anymore”

  38. Don’t live your entire life worrying about what other people think.

  39. Move from a life of entitlement to a life of responsibility.

  40. In the last 20% of the time we invest in a discipline that’s when all the rewards come.

  41. I applied LONG TERM VISION and DELAYED GRATIFICATION

  42. When I become a success it will be because of me.

  43. There are two ways to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be . 1) You can let go of where you are and be drawn to your goal. 2) You can let go of your own goal hit the snooze button and stay where you are

  44. Changes are good that when you step out into the path of mastery, you will step out alone.

  45. INVEST IN YOUR OWN PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

  46. INVEST IN YOUR OWN IMPROVEMENT

  47. INVEST IN YOUR OWN PERSONAL GROWTH & BETTERMENT.

  48. HARNESS THE POWER OF TIME.

  49. Just do it – Learn by doing


  1. You can’t build your dream by what you’ve going to do or planning to do or intending to do. You can only build your dream by building it.

  2. Life is doing – if you aren’t doing, your dying.

  3. Formulae for success = Double your rate of failure

  4. You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success, but it isn’t at all.

  5. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn form it.

  6. So go ahead and make mistakes – make all you can.

  7. Remember – that’s where you’ll find success on the other side of failure.

  8. You read good books. You listen to motivational audios. You hang around success people who empower you. You’re a 5%, a winner, a success.

  9. It matters what you think. Because what you think, X ACTION + TIME, will create what you get.

  10. The wisest investment you can make is to invest in your own personal learning & development.

  11. On the path to a goal you will be off course most of the time which means the only way to reach a goal is through constant and continuous course correction.

  12. Knowledge through modelling--> Find someone else who has already achieved mastery in the area you’re looking at, and model your behaviour bbased on their experience.--> STUDY --> DO -->MODEL-->

  13. Start handing out with people who have been there and done that.

  14. The Law of Association -->You’re known by the company you keep. You are the combined average of the 5 people you associate with most. Look at the people around you. Are they more successful than you are? Are they the kind of lives you aspire to live? Your association with each person you know is either empowering you or its not.

  15. I want to spend my time with people who have an infectious positive attitude. Who bring energy and vitality to the table, who brighten the room. Are the relationships you have empowering you and helping to support your purpose and realise your dreams?

  16. “Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still”

  17. ** MOMENTUM **COMPLETION**REFLECTION**CELEBRATION**

  18. Find your own intrinsically optimal rate of growth – and it sis always served best by a step-by-step approach of constant, never ending improvement, which lays solid foundations and builds upon them over and over.

  19. The slight edge is your optimal rate of growth.

  20. STEADY wins the race -->STEADY taps into the power of the slight edge

  21. A body at rest – stays are rest – a body in motion tends to remain in motion. That’s why activity is so important. Once you’re in motion its’ easy to keep on going. Once you stop its hard to change from stop to go. Once a day for a week, is better than 7X in one day.

  22. When you’re in motion, its also easier to make positive changes in your direction. The slight edge is a flow and it moves at its own pace.

  23. Give yourself something to work towards constantly.

  24. Being productive and being busy are not the same thing.

  25. Doing things won’t create your success, doing the RIGHT things will.

  26. Everybody’s busy. Everyone does the actions. But are they the right actions? Were those actions productive? Did you take a step forward?

  27. Whose dream did you build today?

  28. Keep your progress or the lack of it in your face.

  29. What actions did you take today that make you successful?

  30. A coach keeps the single edge in your face. A coach helps you harness the power of reflection. The power of reflection also points out to you all the positive steps you’re taking.

  31. “People who feel good about themselves produce good results”

  32. TRUST THE PROCESS --> Acknowledge those steps, no matter how small or instinctual they may seem at the time.

  33. Make each successful right choice a celebration. Nothing breeds success like more success.

  34. The creation of a habit is a pure slight edge; simple little actions, repeated over time. The compounding effect of these habit over time will work either for you or against you. Depending on whether they’re habits that serve you or habits that don’t. Your habits are what will propel you up the success curve or down the failure curve.


  1. Habit 1 – SHOW UP!!!! – “Do the thing and you shall have the power”

  2. Habit 2 – BE CONSISTENT!!! - 80% of success is showing up every day. If you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end.

  3. Habit 3 – Have a POSITIVE Outlook – Approaching the events of everyday life with a consistency positive outlook moves you towards your goals.

  4. Habit 4 – Be COMMITTED for the LONG HAUL.

  5. Habit 5 – Cultivate a burning desire backed by FAITH – A burning desire is a powerful force. The few who achieve great things are those who not only passionately wanted to achieve them but also clearly see themselves achieving them. A burning desire backed by faith simply means deeply, passionately wanted to get somewhere and knowing – not hoping, not wishing, but knowing that you’re going to get there. Successful people look at problems and see opportunity.

  6. Habit 6 – Be willing to pay the price – The steps to achieve your BIG DREAMS are always small steps. Whatever the dream, whatever the goals, there’s a price you’ll need to pay, and yes that does mean giving up something. Whatever price you pay, there’s a bigger price to pay for not doing it than the price for doing it.

  7. Habit 7 – Practice slight edge INTEGRITY – What you do, when no one is watching. Do all the things you’ve committed to doing even when no one else is watching.

  8. Keep things as simple as possible because simple is far more effective for a goal to come true. Make it specific, give it a deadline and write it down. You must look at it everyday. You must have a plan to start with.

  9. ENVISIONING = Ability to create a vivid picture of something that hasn’t actually happened yet and to make that picture so vivid that it feels real. Make it real – Make Pictures (DREAM BOARD/VISION BOARD) Write it down and tell someone else.

  10. AUTO SUGGESTION = The power of regularly, consistently telling and retelling yourself what your goals are. (2X a day)

  11. Surround ourselves with our own yeses surround yourself with messages that tell you that your dreams are real, your dreams are reals, your dreams are real. Not only are they possible they are inevitable.

  12. When you clearly, tangibly set your goals, life has a way of rearranging itself, setting in motion a series of events that you could neve have predicted or planned, to get you there.

  13. A plan to get you out the starting gate. You have to start with a plan, but the plan you start with will not be the plan that gets you there.

  14. Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy goals.

  15. Whatever you can do or dream you can. Begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic.

  16. Winning is a habit.

  17. Everything you do it important.



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