Quotes from Jeff Olson

The slight edge can carve the Grand Canyon. It can do anything. But you have to give it enough time for the power of time to kick in. The right choices and wrong choices you make at the moment will have little or no noticeable impact on how your day goes for you. Nor tomorrow, nor the next day. No applause, no cheers, no screams, no life-or-death

No matter what you have done in your life up until today, no matter where you are and how far down you may have slid on the failure curve, you can start fresh, building a positive pattern of success, at any time. Including right now. But you need to have faith in the process, because you won't see it happening at first.

You know what you're supposed to eat. We all do. Fresh fruits and vegetables, complex carbs, salads, whole grains, lean meats, more fish and poultry and less beef.… You know it, I know it, we all know it. So why do so many of us still go out and chow down cheeseburgers and fries every day? I'll tell you why: because it won't kill us. Not today.

With just 30 minutes of physical activity a day you can: Reduce health risks (high blood pressure, stroke, osteoporosis, coronary disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers) Keep off excess weight Ward of viral illnesses Help keep your arteries clear Strengthen your heart

Here's a slight edge action guaranteed to change your life: read just ten pages of a good book, a book aimed at improving your life, every day.

Like Edison, you are an inventor; like Fritjof Nansen, an explorer; like Emerson, a philosopher; like Steve Martin, an entertainer; like Lincoln, a statesman; like Wilberforce, a patient liberator. You are all these things and more—and the fabric of the tapestry upon which you're assembling this story is made up of tiny threads that few will ever notice as you weave them.

I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have." —Coleman Cox

The single most important thing I can tell you about the Slight Edge is this: it's already working, right now, either for you or against you. So don't wait.

The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." —

If "how to do it" were the answer, it'd be done. It's how you do the "hows" that's most important.

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

make a simple roadmap for each one, consisting of three elements: 1) your dreams for that area, expressed as goals—specific, vivid, and with a timeline; 2) a simple plan to start (and when I say simple think: "find Germans"); and 3) one simple daily discipline that you will commit to doing each and every day from now on.

short list is a summary of what's right. The long list

Successful people fail their way to the top.

Don't try to figure out the whole race. Just figure out where to put your foot for the starting line. Just start.

No, this time I needed to sit down and start carefully, methodically, systematically sorting through the mixed up pieces of my shattered life.

You must hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anyone else says to you, don't let 'em get your goat. Try fightin' with your head for a change." —Atticus Finch, in To Kill a Mockingbird by

One of the most compelling, universal human drives is the desire to feel that we make a difference—that because we were here, the world is a better place. Human beings are social animals, and there's something hardwired into us that needs to know that we've had an impact on the world.

The difference that will make all the difference between success and failure, between achieving the quality of life you want and settling for less than you desire and deserve, lies one hundred percent in which of those little, "insignificant" actions you choose to do. This is why we are all capable of doing what it takes to be successful. We are all capable of being winners ... and yes, that includes you.

Being productive and being busy are not necessarily the same thing. Doing things won't create your success; doing the right things will.

by adding those little grams of success, one at a time (and by not adding more weight to the failure side), you will eventually and inevitably begin to shift the scales in your favor.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success." The

You are capable of great things. Show up. Show up consistently. Show up consistently with a positive outlook. Be prepared for and committed to the long haul. Cultivate a burning desire backed by faith. Be willing to pay the price. And do the things you've committed to doing-even when you don't feel like it, even when no one else is watching.

With children it is often so much easier to take the path of least resistance—to let them eat that fast food they love rather than cook something healthy, to let them watch TV rather than read to them, to let them play video games rather than interact with them.