Trickle Down Mindset: The Missing Element in Your Personal Success (5 page)

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“Failure is a few errors in judgment repeated every day.

Success is a few simple disciplines practiced every day.”

― Jim Rohn

There are laws of nature, but we are able to overstep the universe’s boundaries. We are not birds, but we can fly. We are not fish, but we can travel through the oceans. We are not polar bears, but we can live in the North.

However, it’s not enough to want to overcome nature. We need to spend an incredible amount of conscious effort to achieve it. It may be very easy to buy a plane ticket, pack several things, sit on the plane, and fly to another place, but there are thousands, if not millions of man-hours supporting this simple act. The hours inventors spent on figuring out the concept of putting man in the air; the hours engineers spent developing the technical details; the hours workers spent in the manufacturing plants; the hours the pilot spent on learning his craft; the hours the technical crew spent on maintaining the plane etc.

And all a bird needs to do is flap its wings.

This reveals another law of nature: Whatever you do, whatever you spend your time on, you excel at it. This law applies to animals too and even plants. But they just do what they were created to do. They excel at survival, finding food, seeking a mate, cooperating in a pack and so on. Fish excel at swimming and birds at flying. I don’t know if they chose to do this because they are best suited for those tasks or they just followed their instincts blindly. The fact is that they spent their time doing those activities and they excel at them.

You can choose what you will excel at by choosing how you spend your time. If you spend it griping and complaining you will become a master griper and complainer. If you spend it writing, you will become an excellent writer. It’s as simple as that.

The definition of the law of nature is “a generalization that describes recurring facts or events in nature.”

For example, the laws of thermodynamics are the laws of nature. Have you ever seen an object whose temperature was raised on its own without the energy input from an external source? I don’t think so.

Have you seen someone who repeatedly made small errors in judgment and became successful in that particular area? I don’t think so.

You might have observed something like this because we can defy the laws of nature. However, we usually achieve this by utilizing other laws. Human cannot fly on their own, but the use of aerodynamic laws means we can soar into the sky.

There are serious testimonials from people who claim to have levitated. The Catholic Church reports that saints were able to do so. Does it mean the laws of gravity didn’t apply to them? I don’t think so. We just cannot explain right now how it happened. I’m quite sure that there is some underlying “law of sainthood,” which allowed them to soar nonetheless.

The law of errors and disciplines in normal circumstances applies to everybody. CEOs and the unemployed, fathers and kids, saints and sinners. What does this have to do with the subject at hand? Simply put, I think you should take this into account when developing your personal philosophy. It would not be sensible to forget about it any more than it would be sensible to forget about gravity.

You are of course free to construct your own philosophy in any way you wish. For example, your financial management may come down to, “I’ll keep buying lottery tickets and someday I’ll get lucky.” Savings and earnings may not be included in such a philosophy. However, the chances of actually making such a strategy a success are easy to count. It’s one in many millions. Your personal philosophy may ignore the law of errors and disciplines and still bring you to the point you desire. The chances for that are just very, very tiny. Minuscule.

Any personal philosophy that doesn’t take this law into account is flawed. That’s why it’s important to develop the right habits. They determine how you spend your time, your life. They drive your actions. And in the end, they culminate in your life’s achievements.

Small errors repeated over time become our bad habits. Tiny disciplines repeated over time become good ones.

Small errors and disciplines determine
everything
in life. They are applicable to every single area of life—health, wealth, spiritual life, relationships, happiness, education. You won’t find a single exception. Jeff Olson made those two statements the core of
The Slight Edge.

What is so special about this book is that Jeff framed its core message into a practical life philosophy. It made his book a bestseller. It is one of the personal development books that focus on foundations not on pep talks or fancy techniques. He didn’t start a marketing campaign. He just passed it on to a few close friends. They in turn did the same to their friends. And more people kept asking to read it.
The Slight Edge
turned out to hold a solution for many people because it helped common people improve their lives.

The first edition was available for purchase only via a 1-800 line, and people kept calling and ordering it. So Jeff kept improving the book. The most recent edition (November 2013) includes the stories of readers who transformed their lives thanks to upgrading their personal philosophies with
The Slight Edge
philosophy elements. These testimonials confirm that this is not a fancy theory presented by millionaires to explain their success. Average, common folks who live in accordance with this law are getting results. Your action doesn’t have to be perfect or grand to help you achieve what you want. It just needs to lead you in the right direction and be consistent.

I’m one of those “average Joes” whose stories are included in
The Slight Edge
. Reading it
,
I realized that this law is true and I can use it to my advantage. Or rather, I can work in accordance to this law.

You wouldn’t be reading this book if not for that realization. Before my life transformation, a good chunk of my personal philosophy was the belief that not much depends on my actions. I was afraid that my efforts to get more out of life would be in vain. I would work my ass off just to get exhausted. My dreams couldn’t come true.

But I reminded myself of the instances where I did something consistently and got the results. It wasn’t a massive action, but it was focused and stretched over a long period of time. I studied during the whole holiday break one year before finishing high school and was able to pass all the final exams without breaking a sweat. I showed up to every university lecture and received a scholarship. I did one series of pushups every day for a few years and I extended my limits. I was eventually able to do more than 120 consecutive pushups.

This realization has shaken my small world. Something clicked in my head. My personal philosophy shifted into “time plus effort equals results.”

I developed tiny disciplines, which I practiced consistently: tracking my expenses, tracking my calorie intake, writing, speed-reading. I observed some results almost immediately. Within a month, I was reading almost 50 percent faster. In seven months, I reached my dream weight. Those rapid results kept me going with the disciplines I couldn’t have believed would have ever brought me results. Like making money on my own.

I’m a lifelong employee. I started working during my university studies to support my family. I worked in a factory on a production line. I worked as a warehouse man. I did small IT gigs including websites or movie pre-production. After I completed my studies, I was employed as an IT specialist. I’d had five full-time employers since beginning my career. No one ever complained about the quality of my work. In 2008, the project I was working on was stolen from us by the Belgian part of the company. My team was dissolved, most of the guys were laid off, but they kept me to the very end until they could no longer afford to pay me. I’m far from the picture of an ideal employee, but I’m a good enough worker. I could imagine myself pursuing a corporate career.

But my personal philosophy didn’t include an ounce of belief that I could make money on my own. In my teenage years, I was involved in multi-level marketing and it finished fast and hard. I dreamed about millions, but I didn’t earn a dime. For me that was proof that I was unable to generate an income on my own. It was set in my mind as firmly as the knowledge that sun rises in the east.

So I didn’t believe I could have a writing career. But results in other areas of my life caused me to give the law of errors and disciplines a try in this regard, too. I wrote and wrote. I published my first book, then a second. I wasn’t breaking even. I published a third book and refined my marketing a bit. The sales grew a bit. After publishing my fourth book, my royalties reached 2 percent of my 9 to 5 job’s salary. I started to earn money. It was chicken feed compared with my payroll, but it was enough to crush my belief that I “absolutely cannot earn a dime on my own.” Royalties exceeded the cost of covers, blog hosting, and mailing list software. I was like, “Well, at this rate, I’ll be able to support myself on my retirement.”

Then I published my fifth book,
Master Your Time in 10 Minutes a Day
and the sky has fallen. It became an Amazon bestseller. I earned half of my yearly salary in February 2014.

This law works. I experienced it firsthand. You don’t need to believe it to make it work in your life. You don’t need to believe in the law of gravity to be grounded either. I stormed the top 80 percent ranks of
bestselling indie authors
within less than a year because I purposefully adjusted my actions to the law of errors and disciplines.

So, if the law of gravity is applicable in your case, embrace this truth: the universal law of errors and disciplines is applicable to you too. You are probably “using” it now in the same way you use the law of gravity to function. Where you stand in life right now is the effect of compounded errors in judgment or consistent disciplines you performed in your past.

It is very easy to confirm my claim. Take a pen and paper and do a quick five minute self-analysis session. You may check out both sides of the equation. Choose at least one area you are not satisfied with in your life and one in which you feel confident and successful. Ask yourself, “What am I doing on daily basis to deserve such output? What do I do every day that determines this effect?”

For example if you are overweight or obese, examine your eating habits. If you are fit and proud of your body shape, do the same. There are very rare individual cases where the lack of hormonal equilibrium may be blamed, but usually what you eat regulates your weight. Those who eat fast food or sweets and do it consistently over a long period of time are chubby. Those who enjoy salads and cottage cheese are fit. If you enjoy binge eating four times a week, it’s not enough to work out at the gym like crazy for four hours once a week. What you consistently do, even in tiny amounts, determine your results.

That’s the choice that now stands in front of you. It’s a choice you have to make every day. Do you choose what’s easy and comfortable right now? Then the chances are that you will be uneasy and uncomfortable in the future. And you will stay much longer in that unpleasant state than if you chose the uncomfortable way today.

Or you can choose to feel the discomfort today and enjoy the comfort in the future. It’s just the way this world of ours operates. It’s true with money, with relationships, with getting fit, with everything. You can spend money or save it. You can listen attentively or ignore somebody. You can eat a burger or a carrot. Spending money, ignoring the other person, or eating a burger may look like a good idea right now, but you will have to pay the higher price for that in the future.

There is a mind trick involved in this: you will get a bit more comfortable with the uncomfortable with time and, in contrast, you will enjoy the periods of comfort and complacency even more. I seriously encourage you to take the uncomfortable route. Amend your personal philosophy accordingly.

Knowledge Items:

- One of the laws of nature is that failure is a few errors in judgment repeated every day. Success is a few simple disciplines practiced every day

- You are probably “using” it now in the same way you use the law of gravity to function.

Action Items:

- Perform a quick 5-minute self-analysis session as described in this chapter.

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“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”

― Woody Allen

There are plenty of implications to The Law for your life.

1.
You are here for the long term and that’s how the universe is pre-programmed.

A person’s life is measured in decades, not in minutes. Thus, what really counts in your life as a whole is what you do over decades. This power is far greater than what you do from time to time.

2.
Now matters.

The simple actions you perform in this exact moment in time have an enormous effect on your decades. Decades consist of the multitude of such moments. The moments compound into the decades of your life. That’s why you need to pay attention to your present. You should strive to make each action and each moment perfect. But it is very hard to be conscious every minute of your life. Here the disciplines and habits are very handy. If you develop good habits through simple disciplines, you can transfer big chunks of the control to your subconscious. It will take care of performing the disciplines and keeping you on track without much effort.

3.
You matter.

You can consciously build routines and subroutines in your life. You can always step into your
now
and decide to choose a different path. You can consciously avoid a small error in judgment time after time until it becomes automatic. You can consciously choose to act in accordance with your higher purpose and enforce the right discipline.

What’s more, you can always change your life’s destination by changing your beliefs, thoughts, and actions right here, right now.

4.
Everything matters.

You are not some kind of biological machinery. You can’t press a button and fix yourself for good. Human beings have the most complex system of anything we have discovered in the universe. And each part of your being depends on the other. When it comes to our bodies, we instinctively grasp that truth. You need all your body parts to work in unison to function to your maximum capabilities. When something hurts you physically, like a tooth, your whole body suffers. You can function or even thrive without a limb or some redundant internal organ (like a kidney). Nick Vujicic is the best example of this. But we also feel it’s wrong. It is possible to live more fully when your body is whole.

It’s the same with your mind. There is no area in your life that can be neglected without damaging your whole person. There is no improvement you can make in your life that won’t improve you as a whole.

Everything matters.

If you allow yourself to err in the case of the kind of food you eat, soon you’ll slip in the realm of relationships, productivity, or confidence. If you transform a single aspect of your life, like getting fit, you will soon transform other areas as well.

It’s unavoidable.

I didn’t believe I could earn a dime on my own. I felt beyond hopeless when dreaming about making a fortune or even making a living from my own ventures. But my level of doubt was much lower in the case of saving money. I struggled for years to keep a bigger chunk of my income, without spectacular results, but there were at least some results. When I changed my attitude and methods toward saving money and started getting results, my whole attitude towards money shifted a bit and I made an attempt to earn some money. In less than a year, my royalties exceeded $1,000, a magic ceiling in the case of indie authors.

And my transformation began with my weight loss attempt. I wanted to lose weight as part of the frustration I had at not being able to implement fully the Getting Things Done system in my life. I definitely failed at that, but this failed attempt left me with a desire to change something in my life. It was strong enough for me to take action.

Everything affects everything. Small, simple, successful disciplines that you stick with for a long time will point your whole being in the right direction. Each of the small errors in judgment may be your first step down the slippery slope of failure.

5.
Everyone matters.

We don’t really understand humanity. There is always the one in a billion whose deeds surprise scientists. One thing we do know for sure is that we are social creatures. We are interdependent. We affect each other.

Small errors in judgment or simple disciplines repeated over time in the life of a single person will affect everyone around her. The vast majority of personal development teachers use this as an argument for associating with positive and successful people. I invite you to think about it in terms of your personal responsibility. Your errors in judgment and disciplines will certainly affect those around you. The closer someone is to you, the stronger the influence of your errors and disciplines will be.

Knowledge Items:

- What really counts in your life as a whole is what you do over decades.

- Good habits can transfer the control over your present into your future.

- You can always step into your now and decide to choose a different path.

- There is no area in your life that can be neglected without damaging your whole person. There is no improvement you can make in your life that won’t improve you as a whole.

- People are interdependent.