What if there was a 21st Century solution to our age old problems? If you could get your hands on the latest technology to efforless change yourlife would you be interested?
Personal development has become big business in the 21st Century. It is a billion dollar industry that offers the promise of a better life free from pain and suffering. With hypnosis, visualization aids and affirmation computer programs constantly being developed you would think there would be an easier way to make change. In fact you would think in this age of technology we would have a technological way of creating self improvement changes without the effort or time needed to learn age-old techniques. Well there is!
An insightful review of Jeff Olson’s book, “The Slight Edge” and how it struck the author of this article. This book will have an impact on your life and cause you to examine your “stinkin thinkin” and “attitudinal sclerosis.” This review is light hearted and touches on many of the concepts presented in the book. Hopefully this review will entice you to buy and read the book. It’s well worth the time and investment.
Because of what Jeff has written, this review a very “biased review” since it strictly deals with my reactions, assumptions, and opinions.
Beliefs make the difference between a lifetime of joyous contribution and one of misery and devastation. These same beliefs cause some individuals to become heroes while others lead lives of quiet desperation. So. . . what are beliefs designed for? they are the guiding force to tell us what will lead to pain and pleasure. Whenever something happens in our life. . . our brain asks us two questions:What will this mean, pleasure or pain? and What must I do now to avoid pain or to gain pleasure? . The answer to these questions are based on our beliefs and our beliefs are driven by our generalizations about what we have learned could lead to pain and pleasure. These generalizations guide all of our actions and thus the direction and quality of our lives.
Have you ever thought? What makes a person with good upbringing and good background makes him behave very well, where as a person with a disturbed background or traumatic past behaves very violently. Which force makes us a hero, a criminal or a contributor? Why there is so much difference in human actions? We should know that human beings are not dull creatures who will do some thing without a reason. Even creatures do some thing for a reason! Whatever we do, there is always a reason for it. We may not be consciously aware of that reason, but there is undoubtedly a single driving force behind all human behaviors. This very force impacts every phase of our life, relationships, finances, body or our brain. So what is this force which is even controlling us now and will continue to do so till the rest of our life? PAIN AND PLEASURE! Whatever we do in life, is to either avoid pain or to gain pleasure.
We know that every thing we do in life is only for two reasons - either to avoid pain or to gain pleasure. Have you thought - what keeps you from approaching that man or woman of your dreams? What keeps us away from starting a new business, we have been planning for years? Why do we keep putting off the diet? Why do not we take complete control of our financial situation? What prevents us from doing whatever it takes to make our life exactly the way we wanted it to be or the way we had imagined? We fail to act simply because in that moment, we associate more pain to doing what is needed, rather than missing the opportunity. Our mind thinks like - What if we approach that person and we get rejected. What if the new business we started fails and we lose even the secure job we have. Like these many more things we think about. So we do not even TRY!
Persist… persist… and more persist…
If you know you want something? and you’re sure it’s what you want more than anything? then you just keep going after it right? You do everything you can to make sure you have it in your life. You commit yourself to the cause everyday? day after day? with the constant purpose of achieving your goal. A month goes by, a year goes by, 5 years, then 10? you haven’t done what you set out to do, you still don’t have what it is you set out to get.. It’s not how you thought it would be.
If you could ever become fully aware of how you talk to yourself and talk about yourself to the world, you’d be shocked. We’re all guilty of this to some small degree, but for many their self-talk is debilitating. Take this personal growth quiz to see what you believe about yourself. What you find out may change your life in an instant.
Every day I hear people from all walks of life saying things that literally cut them off from their own personal growth and total abundance. Things like, “I just can’t seem to get ahead,? or “I can’t believe I always do such stupid things.? Hearing those things is such a shame because it’s so unnecessary.