The-Slight-Edge
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
174 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Slight</strong> <strong>Edge</strong><br />
a drive-time university! <strong>The</strong>re are hundreds of powerful, masterful<br />
men and women to choose from. But you do have to make the choice.<br />
I run with an iPod ® and a headset, so I’m listening to audios while I run,<br />
which doubles my improvement. I travel quite a bit; when I do, I always pack<br />
my running shoes and iPod—so my <strong>Slight</strong> <strong>Edge</strong> half-hour run goes with me no<br />
matter where I travel.<br />
Because I double my time by listening to audios while I run, I also get to<br />
work directly on my personal development. Like health, this is a fundamental<br />
area for me, and is so powerful that it influences everything else going on in my<br />
life. When I first added the iPod to my daily run (in those days it was a Walkman),<br />
I started noticing positive changes in every other area of my life within the first<br />
couple of months.<br />
Is it easy to do? Easy not to do? And if you don’t do it, what will happen<br />
today? But that simple error in judgment, compounded over time, will leave you<br />
a willing participant in the conspiracy of mediocrity that nibbles away at the<br />
hopes, dreams and aspirations of the ninety-five percent who live out their days<br />
under the curse of Thoreau’s famous epitaph for humanity (from Walden): “<strong>The</strong><br />
mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”<br />
Listening to audio CDs is an especially powerful <strong>Slight</strong> <strong>Edge</strong> tool because it<br />
can turn your “down time” into up time and double your productivity. You can<br />
drive to the store, or work or school; you can jog, roller-blade, bike or walk; sit<br />
on planes, stand in line, pedal, row, ski, stretch and lift weights—all the while<br />
feeding your mind through life-transforming information.<br />
And when you spend this time listening to true masters of the skills you seek<br />
to learn, you are using the third and most powerful method of learning: learning<br />
by modeling a mentor.<br />
Take a few moments to work out your own <strong>Slight</strong> <strong>Edge</strong> plan for your personal<br />
development. Again, you need not feel limited or constricted by this exercise; you<br />
can always change and modify what you write here. But don’t skip on to the next<br />
step: do yourself a favor and put down some initial thoughts. Use a pencil!<br />
My dreams for my personal development (specific, vivid and with<br />
a timeline):
Change language