If I could recommend just one book, it would be "The Slight Edge" by Jeff Olson. This book's principles apply to every aspect of life—health, education, exams, self-growth, and more. The concepts are simple yet profoundly effective. If you feel stuck or hopeless in your self-improvement journey, start reading this book. You'll find yourself taking action even before you finish it. "The Slight Edge" offers a deep understanding of self-improvement and prepares you for a long-term commitment to growth.
Here are a few lines from the book that resonate deeply with me every time I read them:
- "The difference between success and failure is not dramatic. In fact, the difference between success and failure is so subtle, so mundane, that most people miss it."
- "Those little things that will make you successful in life, that will secure your health, your happiness, your fulfillment, your dreams, are simple, subtle, mundane things that nobody will see, nobody will applaud, nobody will even notice. They are those things that, at the time you do them, often feel like they make absolutely no difference. Things that are ridiculously easy to do—but just as easy not to do. Things that don’t seem to bring you any visible results at first. Things that seem so insignificant, they could not possibly matter. But they do. Things that, when you look at them as single occurrences, don’t seem like they would have any impact at all—yet when compounded over time they add up to outrageous success."
- "'Some Day' does not exist, never has, and never will. There is no 'someday.' There is only today. When tomorrow comes, it will be another today; so will the next day. They all will. There is never anything but today."
- "No success is immediate or instantaneous; no collapse is sudden or precipitous."
- "Success does not lead to happiness—it’s the other way around."
- "In life, there is no such thing as staying in the same place. If you are not increasing, you are decreasing."
- "The Slight Edge is always working. Whether for you or against you, the slight edge is already at work in your life and always will be, every day and every moment."
Let me know what you guys think about this book.
P.S. While gathering these lines for this post, I decided to reread the book myself.