About Us : “Together i Can” Methodology

“Together i Can” Methodology

by Michael McCright

 

Slight Edge

Slight Edge is that thin line that separates the invisible from the visible. It is not big, bold and brash. It is so far from perfection that you would hardly recognize it as change at all. However, for life to change, we must change - and to move from where we are to where we want to go will require growth.

Growth does not occur overnight.

It is a process, a journey, sometimes with no ultimate destination. You can have a goal, such as Optimal Health, which has no end, no destination, and continue in that direction forever. In other words, we continue the journey and continue to improve, getting better and better over time.

Do you think you could improve yourself – your health, your knowledge, your skills, your diet, your relationships, all or whatever part of life you feel is just not quite right – just 3/10 of 1% every day?

That's a .003 improvement – a very thin line - a very slight edge – but the question becomes, could you allow yourself to do that every day? 1st day - just a thin line

Because if you could, at the end of the second day your improvement would be .006 and the next day .009 – almost 1%. Not much, and you probably wouldn’t even recognize that you had changed at all. 3rd day - 3 thin lines = 1 thick line

However, by the end of the year, you will have improved by 100%. Be aware of the fact that you had to continue the process for a full year.

You will be twice what you are today – twice as fit, twice as wealthy, twice as skilled, twice as happy, twice as thin.

There are 365 days in a year. Presume that you practiced Simple Disciplines for 300 days out of the year and practiced Slight Errors in Judgment the other 65. 300 – 65 would equal 245 days of improvement - so much better than if you had done nothing.

How could you possibly accomplish this? By trying twice as hard? Working twice as many hours? Having twice as positive an attitude, stating twice as many affirmations?

No – by making a decision, adding in some commitment and then by just continuing to take the actions required and improve 3/10 of 1% at a time, each and every day.

Greatness is not something predetermined, predestined, or carved into your fate by forces beyond your control. Nor is your unworthiness, determined by others.

Greatness is always in the moment of decision and decisions happen in the moment - not in the past or in the future, only in the NOW.

You can use the past as a reference so you don’t continue to make the same mistakes. You can make plans for the future as long as you don’t plan the expectations (exactly how thing must work out) for the future.

Good health isn't an accident and poor health isn't a stroke of bad luck. Most often they can be traced back to the lifestyle we live and those Slight Errors in Judgment we make.

 

The power of daily actions, compounded over time - that is the magic of the slight edge.

Time - the amount you spend on Simple Disciplines - can make it your friend or if you continue to make Slight Errors in Judgment, it will become your enemy. Time will promote you or expose you. It depends upon which side of the curve you decide to spend your life. The choice is entirely up to you.

A predominant state of mind displayed by people on the road to dis-ease is the downward curve and is called blame.

The predominant state of mind displayed by people on the way to success, (no comma) is the upward curve and is called responsibility.

Taking responsibility for everything that happens in your life will liberate you. When you refuse to take responsibility, you give away your power, you allow others to control your life.

People living on the upper half of the slight edge curve by taking responsibility for their lives, are the cause of what happens in their lives.

People who live on the downward, dis-ease portion of the curve, use the past as a weapon. They live life’s (lives) full of regret, recrimination, remorse, and retribution. Never forgiving, always blaming, they bludgeon themselves and the people around them with the negative aspects of living.

We are all constantly and continually bombarded with promises of immediate gratification, instant success, and fast, temporary relief, all of which leads us in exactly the wrong direction, the lower curve.

Your philosophy concerning life determines how you approach life and how you handle situations that arise.

A certain philosophy or life view will in many cases define the answers you see as truths.

Your attitude is derived from your philosophy, which in turn will determine your actions, and therefore the results you experience.

 

Note where your habits really come from. (Your Philosophy) (What you truly believe in your gut, how you act when someone pushes your triggers, not just in your head intellectually.)

Many people have the belief, the philosophy, that what they think, that how they act, that what they do “really doesn’t matter.”

A basic truth is: “What you do, does matter.” It shows up in results (the Yet’s) long after the action/s are past.

The margin between failure and success is no more than a thin line, possibly one Simple Discipline practiced over a long period of time. The difference is so subtle that the moment is gone before a person even realizes that they should have made a decision. Mindfulness and awareness are the keys to overcoming, the overlooking of triggers and emotions, when they first arise.

When the journey seems daunting, "easy not to do" can be a lot more appealing than "easy to do"!

Remember, everything is constantly changing. Either you let go of where you are and get to where you could be, or you hang on to where you are and give up where you could be.

The majority of folks (95%) live where it’s “easy not to do”.

Something that should be remembered, those two Slight Edge curves, the Success Curve and the Dis-ease Curve, both run parallel to each other for a long, long time. Many times you won’t experience the result until much later.

A key to moving in the right direction is to identify things that are going to become self-evident before they become self-evident!

Be honest, what is your health like today? Be honest, what is your financial situation today? Be honest, what is your mental and emotional state today?

If you keep doing what you are doing, what results can you expect in the future?

The Slight Edge is simple and constantly working in everyone’s lives. It is either working for you or working against you.

Habits are the result of choices you make in the moment, compounded over time.

Each choice you make is like a link of steel wire. By itself, it's not that big of deal, but when braided together, when compounded with all the other choices you make, these links of wire form a thick cable of awesome strength and power.

Those cables woven from your right choices uphold and support you. Those made from wrong choices imprison and restrain you.

It's only by bringing a habit into your conscious awareness that you can observe what its doing, how it empowers and serves you or imprisons and restrains you.

The way to accomplish overcoming a habit is to replace the unwanted habit with another habit that you do want.

That is why it is so important to choose what you do want in life, not dwell on what you don't want.

Here's a powerful exercise: instead of writing down (one or the other: writing down or journaling) journaling what you're going to do –write down at the end of the day what you did today. What actions did you take today that made you a better person?

More and more people are choosing to achieve a higher level of productivity and health through reflection by working with a coach.

 

What does a coach do?

More than anything else, a coach holds up a mirror and shows you what you're doing, day in and day out. A coach keeps the Slight Edge in your face. A coach helps you harness the power of reflection.

The greatest gift you could ever give yourself is Optimal Health so you can continue to enhance your own personal development.

Investing in your own improvement, your own health, personal growth and betterment, is the way to give yourself those gifts. Your Philosophy comes first; your Results come last.

 

If you desire different results, change your Philosophy!

 

The force that drives the whole process of living the slight edge is the power of continuous learning.

Learning comes from discernment of knowledge with which you build your awareness. You gain the wisdom required to make critical decisions and not just knowledge.

Remember that wisdom can't be given, it can only be gained.

It's not the quantity of knowledge, the quality of knowledge that sets and keeps you on your course.

Book smarts is not enough; all true success is built from a foundation of study plus Common Sense (Street Smarts).

Book smarts, plus Street Smarts - Learning by study, learning by doing.

It's a never ending cycle, each aspect of learning feeding the next.

Learn – Do – Review – Correct and Re-Do!

If you want to raise the quality of your life, hang out with people who have been there and done that.

You can define a person by the heroes he or she keeps.

Who are you modeling yourself after?

If your relationship with someone has a theme of blame and feeds on the past, it's dis-empowering.

If that relationship has a theme of responsibility, self – reflection and change and feels like something moving into the future, it's empowering.

We’re either building our dreams or building our nightmares.

Leadership - As you learn - you gradually lower your level of anxiety by raising your level of mastery.

With slight edge persistence, in time your level of mastery rises to the point where you turn around and realize others are modeling you!

If and when you have acquired Optimal Health, then this might be the time when you consider possibly moving on to Health Coaching and assisting others do what you have learned to do.

Many individuals develop something called the mastermind, "No two lives ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible, intangible force." This concept is what some of the Together i Can philosophy is based on.

 

"The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work towards a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony will lead to powerful results.

 

It’s very important to remember:

Whatever price you pay, there's a bigger price to pay for not doing it than the price for doing it. The price of neglect (making Slight Errors in Judgment) is much worse than the price of Simple Disciplines.

Make a note of this and place it on your mirror.

 

Let go of the HOW's - you can never blueprint the specific sequence of events that need to happen, because circumstances are always different. Develop your Why’s (Your Philosophy)

With the right philosophy, you'll find the plan. Be ready for the detours.

Until one is committed there is always hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always leading to ineffectiveness.

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves, also. All sorts of things occur to help one, which would never otherwise occurred. Everything you do, every decision you make, is either building your dream or building someone else's dream. Every single thing you do is either leading you away from the masses – or leading you away with the masses!

 

Every single thing you do is a slight edge decision.

Slight Edge is always built of small, simple steps. “Easy to do – easy not to do.” Your health, your personal development, your relationships, your finance, and your life itself are all built through Slight Edge!

Health is one of the great riddles of existence. Everyone knows that "if you don't have your health, you have nothing." Let your eating and physical activity build your fondest dreams, or you will dig your grave with your teeth.

You will become as small as you're controlling desire (taste buds), or as great as your dominant aspiration (Optimal Health).

Over the long-term, the limiting factor is never circumstance or fate; the limiting factor is always you.

 

Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

 

Start Slight Edging your life in a positive direction today.

 

The size of the problem that a person deals with and overcomes, determines the size of the person.

Michael McCright – TogetheriCan.com