Going to the edge – and falling over
Jun 17th, 2008 by Chase Brammer
I am a big fan of pushing myself to the edge – in business, exercise, and everything else. I was in a meeting once were Elder Holland spoke of a poem with the theme of “COME TO THE EDGE!” That phrase rang true to me in large part because that is how I have always lived my life, on the edge. Not the wild, out of control edge that most people associate with “living on the edge”, but the persistent drive to be on the edge of my abilities, to always be pushing; pushing towards accomplishing something that I shouldn’t be able to do, and then accomplishing it.
Most times I jump into things looking at the end, and start from there. I forget about what it will take in the whole middle part to get to the end. Things always seem like they are harder than I would have imagined them at the beginning, but with the end in sight, I feel like I can accomplish almost anything I put my mind to. I think that my desire to “go to the edge” is in large part due to optimism and a short memory. Optimism because I always believe that I really can do it. And a short memory because I can easily forget my failures.
That point, the point where I am caught in the middle working towards the end is my edge. The edge where I am pushing with everything I have. It seems more and more common that as I get to the end my will power, strength, endurance, whatever you want to call it, gives out. Sometimes I burst through with energy to give. Other times, I just barely fall over the finish line because I have nothing left to push with. And even more frequently I fail. To quote Seth Godin’s blog, “The object isn’t to be perfect. The goal isn’t to hold back until you’ve created something beyond reproach. I believe the opposite is true. Our birthright is to fail and to fail often, but to fail in search of something bigger than we can imagine. To do anything else is to waste it all.”
I believe that not going to the edge and pushing better ourselves and accomplish more is to waste our time, our talents, and our lives. Sometimes, I need to remind myself of these things.
