The other day a friend of mine told me I just HAD to watch the movie “Click” starring Adam Sandler. Seeing that I was, as he put it, “into all that personal development stuff” he said he thought I would like it. Well, since Adam Sandler has never struck me as a “personal development guru”, this was enough to intrigue me enough to watch the movie.

The show is actually quite good, and has a great moral to it (although let me be quick to point out that it’s delivered with plenty of Sandler’s usual vulgar bathroom humor…so don’t say I didn’t warn you). Long story short - it’s a modern-day “It’s a Wonderful Life” where the main character realizes that his career is not worth the price of his family…good feel-good kind of stuff.

However, this was not the part of the movie that stuck most in my mind.

It was actually just one little line in the script that came and went so fast that it wouldn’t register with most people. But it was profound…

It goes like this…

Sandler’s character, Michael, it seems, has a penchant for Twinkies and other junk food. His strange new friend named “Morty” (Christopher Walken - the one who gives him the magic remote control that can “fast forward” to the future), makes a simple, yet powerful observation about his eating habits…

He says, “Michael, THAT FOOD (speaking of the junk food) is contributing to your DEATH, not your LIFE”.

What’s especially poignant about this statement is that later in the movie, it’s revealed that Michael’s new friend “Morty” is a really an Angel…

…He’s the Angel of DEATH.

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NOT A LECTURE ON JUNK FOOD

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Now don’t get me wrong. This isn’t the beginning of a lecture about the dangers of eating junk food. It goes deeper than that, I hope. The reason that this statement from Morty, the Angel of Death, hit me (other than the fact that I was eating popcorn and drinking a soda when I heard it) was that earlier that day I had just started listening to an incredibly profound, and slightly disturbing book called, “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson.

You see, Olson points out in this book that there is a “Slight Edge” to EVERYTHING in life – that can either work for you or against you. There is NO neutral middle ground or “coasting”. Every small thing that we do either takes us closer to the life that we really want – or closer to destruction.

The fact is - all food that you take into your mouth has either a positive effect or a damaging effect. Fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods help the body, while junk food destroys it – slowly.

However, the reason so many people fall victim to “the Slight Edge” is that it takes so long to notice, that most of us think that nothing bad is happening. Since we can’t see the plaque lining up in our arteries, or since we don’t feel bad, we figure we’ve got “good genes” (or some other lie that we tell ourselves) and we’re somehow going to cheat the truth. But that’s not how it works. By the time we realize what we’ve done, it’s often too late. We can end up 50 lbs overweight with a heart condition, cancer, diabetes, etc.

The same “Slight Edge” can work against us in ALL other key parts of our lives, if we let it happen:

• Like when we hang around “toxic” negative people. Little by little, we take on their attitudes and before we know it – we’re one of them.
• When we yell our kids for the 10,000^th time, and withhold our praise for the good things they do. Slowly but surely, the “Slight Edge” turns them into the “nightmare” teenagers that we feared…yet created.
• When we simply TALK about achieving higher financial success, but never get around to DOING anything about it. We spend our lives working to make someone else’s dreams happen, only to end up bitter and resentful and on a fixed retirement income.

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IT’S EASY TO BE SUCCESSFUL – BUT IT’S ALSO EASY NOT TO

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The GOOD NEWS is that “the Slight Edge” can be harnessed to work as the undeniably greatest force that will lead to inevitable success.

How? By consciously making the small, seemingly insignificant right decisions day-in-and-day-out. This is what the successful minority DO and unsuccessful majority WON’T DO.

The truth is, there is enough “how-to” information in the world RIGHT NOW for anyone to be wildly successful in every part of life. People don’t need more “How-To”. They need more “DO”. Unfortunately, the reason that only 5% of people actually get this is that not only is it EASY to do the things day in-day out that it takes be successful – it’s also EASY not to do them.

You CAN make the changes necessary to turn “the Slight Edge” in your favor:

· By choosing to hang around positive, successful people who will “rub off on you” in a good way

· By ACTING on the decision to stop dreaming, and start doing when it comes to improving your work life and taking control of your finances

· By investing small amounts of quality time and positive energy into your relationships with your children, your spouse and your friends

· By “just doing it” when it comes to exercise and eating right – daily.

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Read This Book NOW to Get “the Slight Edge” Working in Your Favor – Instead of Against You

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If you’re like a lot of people (including me), you’ve probably listened to a ton of great personal development books, financial books on CD, etc., only to walk away and not apply a SINGLE thing that I’ve heard to your actual life or business. Don’t let that happen to you again.

I sincerely believe that this is THE book that should be read before reading to ANY book on personal development, dieting/health, financial success, child rearing – you name it. It will empower you to apply the “little things” that you learn from any book and help you to remember that this is what it takes to put “the Slight Edge” in your favor.