"The Slight Edge" in HMP Pentonville
By recognising that we have choices, we can feel more in control. But how does this work for someone in prison? Amy, one of our Lead Coaches, recalls a recent conversation with StandOut participants at HMP Pentonville about what it means to have "the slight edge".
The question of whether someone in prison has choice is an interesting one, and it’s something we explore in our three-week course when thinking about responsibility, agency, and influence.
After the course, we continue to offer one-to-one support and group work, allowing for further reflection on some of the themes we touched upon. As a StandOut Lead Coach I’ve found these sessions particularly illuminating as participants expand on how our content is applicable to their everyday realities. In a recent session, I used an extract from Jeff Olsen’s The Slight Edge as a basis for a group discussion around the importance of mindset, building on how moving from a victim to a power mentality can make a difference to our choices.
The book explains how our mundane, seemingly insignificant daily choices propel us towards success or failure. Those who understand and choose how to make the "slight edge" work for them will witness their actions and choices accumulating positively over time, resulting in life satisfaction, goal achievement and fulfilment.
I printed off a pertinent chapter for our participants at HMP Pentonville to read before the session (alongside some discussion questions) and prepared to facilitate a group first thing on a dreary Wednesday morning in February.
Olson writes that the repetition of "simple little disciplines…will add up to the very biggest accomplishments." Our participants agreed with Olsen’s theory, one detailing Islamic prayer as an example of an action, repeated every day in their cells, that results in increased cleanliness, routine, motivation and ultimately peace of mind.
One participant explained how the slight edge has at times worked against progress in his life, musing on a time when he decided to go to sleep later and later. He told us that this action, when compounded over months, resulted in migraines, loss of appetite, lack of motivation and mental health difficulties.
I prompted discussion around the quote "by the time you get the feedback, the real work is already done", reflecting on how celebratory occasions sometimes don’t reveal the days, weeks, months, and years of work chipping away towards a goal. One participant compared this to being released from prison. He shared how release day can feel climactic, with friends and family energised at the gate to welcome them. The reality, he explained, is that the success of that moment is contained within the choices made every day of the sentence served before the finish line. Who you choose to associate with, if you do cell workouts, whether you prioritise purposeful activity, if you positively affirm yourself, the list goes on.
Prison may seem like an environment where freedom of choice is stripped away, and in many ways, this is the case. Despite this overwhelming reality, the men left the session focused on the ways in which they can seize opportunities to claim back choice and regain agency over the direction of their lives.
One participant wrote in a reflection piece
"To be the best version of yourself you need to stay positive and strive every day, challenging yourself to be a better human, family man, athlete. Whatever it is you want to be, think back to how you would define that person, what makes them. Do those step-by-step things frequently."
Olson’s motivating take-away is that ultimately, "you don’t need to be born with exceptional abilities to enter into mastery, nor is it reserved for the super-talented. You don’t even need to have gotten an early start. The upward journey of success on the slight edge curve is available to anyone who is willing to get on the path and stay on it. But it’s only by being immersed in the process – the day-by-day progression – that you will come to know the road."