Ed Mylett2022Wiley
The Ultimate Guide to Happiness and Success
When you want to stop, do one more. One more call, one more rep, one more try. Mylett's case is that most of the gap between people is made of those.
The core idea
Ed Mylett is an American entrepreneur, performance coach and the host of The Ed Mylett Show podcast, and this is his second book after #MAXOUT Your Life. He argues that the gap between ordinary and outstanding lives is rarely talent. It is the habit of doing one more: one more call, one more try, one more hour when you want to stop. Each chapter applies that idea to a different part of life, from identity, emotions and goals to habits, leadership, equanimity and prayer. A central image is the identity thermostat: your results keep drifting back to the level of who you believe you are, so lasting change means raising that setting. He draws on his own business career, his family and the people he has worked with and interviewed.
The book's claim is small on purpose. You don't need to double anything. You need to notice the moment you would normally stop, and go one past it. Done often enough, those extras stack into a different career, a different body, a different marriage.
Under the effort sits identity. If you see yourself as someone who quits at four, a good week won't last, because your results drift back to the setting. So the book works on both: the extra action today, and the belief about who you are that makes the extra action normal.
HourLife's illustration, not the book's figures. One extra on four is a quarter more. Repeat it every day for a year and the two people are no longer doing the same job.
01 · WHO YOU ARE
Your identity works like a thermostat. Lasting change means moving the setting, through what you believe, what you intend and who you spend time with.
02 · WHAT YOU DO
One more try when you want to quit, a standard you won't drop below, a habit that makes the extra automatic, and the inconvenience you choose on purpose.
03 · HOW YOU HOLD IT
Managing your emotions, lifting the people around you, staying steady through praise and blame, and the faith Mylett puts underneath all of it.
Interactive · the one-more log
Pick up to three parts of your life. Each day, write down the one extra thing you did in each. The log keeps your running count and your streak, so you can see the extras stack up.
Up to three.
Pick an area above to start logging.
Concept anatomy
Two images carry most of the book. Your identity sets the level your results return to. Your focus, which Mylett calls your matrix, decides what you notice and so what you act on.
A great month lifts you above your setting and a bad one drops you below it. Either way, you drift back. Raise the setting and the drift works for you.
Your brain filters what you see for what you have decided matters. The loop runs either way, up or down.
↺ Back to belief. One more step at any point turns the loop upward.
A selection of the book's chapter themes, each one applying the same idea to a new part of life. The one-line glosses are HourLife's.
Community insights
+01HourLife takeaway
Mylett calls this the identity thermostat. A good month pushes you above your setting and a bad one pulls you below it, but either way you return to it. He names faith, intentions and the people you spend time with as the levers that move the setting itself.
+02HourLife takeaway
The chapter on trying again uses a piñata. Every swing that seems to do nothing is still weakening it, and you cannot see which swing will be the one that breaks it open. Quitting early throws away all the cracks you already made.
+03HourLife takeaway
Mylett calls the filter your matrix and links it to the brain's reticular activating system. It is the same effect as noticing one model of car everywhere once you plan to buy it. Point the filter at opportunities and you start to see them.
+04HourLife takeaway
The book treats goals and standards as different tools. Goals give direction, but you often miss them. Standards are what you do every day regardless, and raising one, even slightly, changes more than a bigger goal does.
+05HourLife takeaway
In the chapter on association, Mylett pictures your relationships as a target with a small bull's-eye in the middle. Not everyone earns a place there, and he suggests letting people audition for it over time rather than handing it out by default.
+06HourLife takeaway
Each kept promise is evidence that you are who you say you are. Each broken one teaches you not to believe yourself. Doing one more than you promised is the quickest way to rebuild that trust.
+07HourLife takeaway
A whole chapter argues for seeking out discomfort rather than avoiding it. The hard thing you pick in advance trains you for the hard things you didn't pick. Comfort, kept up for too long, lowers the setting.
+08HourLife takeaway
The chapter on being a multiplier uses Tom Brady as its example of a player who lifts a whole team. Applying one more to other people, one more encouragement or one more standard held for the group, compounds faster than effort on your own.
+09HourLife takeaway
Mylett borrows the Buddhist idea of the eight worldly winds: the pairs of gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and disrepute, pleasure and pain. High performers still feel them. They just don't let each gust decide their next move.
Action steps
Write one paragraph, in the present tense, describing who you are on your best day. Keep it where you will see it each morning and read it before you check your phone.
Choose one to three parts of your life to work on, such as health, work or family. For each, write what one more looks like: one more call, one more set, one more bedtime story.
Take a goal you keep missing and write the daily minimum you will hold no matter what. Make it small enough that you can keep it on your worst day.
List the people you spend the most time with. Mark who raises your setting and who lowers it, then book one extra hour this month with someone who raises it.
Put one hard, optional thing in your calendar for this week: the early workout, the call you've avoided, the honest conversation. Choose it now so the decision is already made.
At the moment you would normally quit, do one more rep, page, call or attempt. Then write down what it was, so you have proof you can.
Each morning, promise yourself one small thing you will do that day, and do it. Keep the promises tiny until keeping them feels normal.
Before bed, ask yourself what you did one more of today and what one more would look like tomorrow. Write the second answer down.
Once a week, give one person on your team or in your family a specific encouragement or a bit of help they didn't ask for. Notice what changes in them over a month.
Most of the distance between who you are and who you could be is covered one extra try at a time.HourLife note after Ed Mylett
Pick setup actions and daily habits from The Power of One More: The Ultimate Guide to Happiness and Success, choose a start date, and download a printable checklist with real calendar pages.
Ed Mylett is an American entrepreneur, performance coach and the host of The Ed Mylett Show podcast, and this is his second book after #MAXOUT Your Life. He argues that the gap between ordinary and outstanding lives is rarely talent. It is the habit of doing one more: one more call, one more try, one more hour when you want to stop. Each chapter applies that idea to a different part of life, from identity,...
HourLife’s key takeaways include: Your results keep drifting back to the level of who you believe you are, so raise the setting, not just the effort. The breakthrough often sits one swing past the point where most people stop swinging. Your mind filters the world for whatever you have decided matters, so decide on purpose.
It's a strong pick for readers exploring High Performance, Resilience & Mental Strength, and Success Foundations. HourLife distills its core idea into key insights and practical actions worth trying.
Write down your identity setting — Write one paragraph, in the present tense, describing who you are on your best day. Keep it where you will see it each morning and read it before you check your phone.
About five minutes. The HourLife summary distills The Power of One More: The Ultimate Guide to Happiness and Success into its core idea, 9 community insights, and 9 practical actions you can apply right away.
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