The-Slight-Edge

68 The Slight Edge
those simple, little, constructive, positive actions, over and over. Luck is
preparedness that eventually creates opportunity!
That’s the truth of big breaks, lucky breaks and breakthroughs: they do
happen—just not out of thin air.
Have you ever suddenly understood something in a “flash of recognition”?
Have you ever known of someone who became an “overnight success”? Here is
a secret: both that “sudden flash” and that “overnight success” were the final,
breakthrough results of a lengthy process of edge upon edge upon edge. You may
completely and absolutely trust in the truth that it is always the little things, done
consistently over time, which bring about the “breakthroughs” that you see.
No success is immediate. Nor is any failure
instantaneous. They are both products of the
Slight Edge.
The truth of quantum leaps is that they are not larger than life: they’re
submicroscopic. The actual term “quantum leap” comes from particle physics,
where it does not refer to a huge, epic jump. It refers to the fact that energy, after
a period of time, will suddenly appear at another level, without our having been
able to observe how it got there.
It is an exact description of how the water hyacinth moves from day twentynine
to day thirty. An exact description of how the frog’s certain death by
drowning was suddenly transformed into salvation by butter.
A real-life quantum leap is not Superman leaping a tall building. A real
quantum leap is Edison perfecting the electric light bulb—and transforming the
world with it.
The “Magic Bullet”
Every single January in every gym in America, hundreds of thousands
of people start over in a process that they will soon quit—only because they
haven’t set themselves up with the right expectation. They aren’t looking for
incremental progress; they’re looking for results they can feel. They’re looking
for a breakthrough. They never had a chance.
Easy to do, easy not to do ... and in that tiny, seemingly insignificant little
choice not to do, so many people needlessly live out lives of quiet desperation.
Believing in the “big break” is worse than simply
being futile. It’s actually dangerous, because it can
keep you from taking the actions you need to take to