You’ve heard of The Edge, before you’ve ever realized it. Some of you are The Edge, some of you want to become it, some of you will never experience it.

What is it, exactly?

The Edge

The Edge is where you are creating your best work. This is where you are in a state of dynamic flow. This is where you are the most alive, the happiest, the most brilliant. This is where you want to be. This is where you need to be.

How does one get closer to The Edge?

1. Take healthy risks in life.

Knowing our lives will come to an end one way or another, “one can’t live with one’s finger everlastingly on one’s pulse,” writes Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness.

That is why you must learn to take healthy risks in life.

What are healthy risks as opposed to destructive risks?

Healthy risks are those that by taking them, you may have a chance of failing, perhaps a far greater one than succeeding. But with every failure, you are able to learn from it, to grow from it, to become a better person because of it.

Destructive risks are those that by taking them, you yield no positive benefits. You are further away from the highly creative, beautiful person that you can be. That you ought to be. You are considerably worse off because of these risks.

Do choose risks that you’re deathly afraid of. Because you know, as well as anyone else, that these are the ones you ought to be taking.

2. Understand that trend is fleeting.

The Edge beckons you to be on the cutting edge, yes, that is true. But merely embracing the latest new thing, be it religion, philosophy, gadget, lifestyle, haircut or fashion, without thinking about it before whole adaptation, is fruitless.

Classics remain classics for a reason.

These are the timeless books that survive every possible human, geological, scientific, political, religious, technological evolution there is. These are the books that remain.

These are the timeless films that stir the human heart no matter who we are, where we come from, what family we’re born into. These are the films that remain.

These are the timeless articles of clothing that exemplifies who you are, no matter what the current seasonal trend may be. These are the styles that remain.

These are the timeless methods of creating your best work, no matter how far technology will take us. These are the methods that remain.

The Edge means you write about things that scare you. You don’t write to please others. You don’t write to yield as many click throughs as possible. You don’t write necessarily for the money, for the glory.

You write because you can’t take your fingers away from your computer, no matter how hard you try, how far away you go.

3. Grab a coffee or tea, a notebook, and prepare yourself visually.

Do you think you can get to The Edge without a clear visual of what The Edge will look like? How it is you will even get there?

You don’t need to drive up to the Grand Canyon in order to literally peer over the edge. You don’t need to jump out of a plane in order to discover how close to the edge of the world — and your life — you really are. You don’t need to do what everyone else is doing, especially those extreme lifestyle designers who are already on the edge of society.

Listen. Everyone is quitting their day jobs. Everyone is becoming a minimalist, packing away their 54 things into a bag and driving across country. Everyone is defying society, because society is the enemy and we are the one and only true voice. (Almost) everyone is becoming a world traveler.

It no longer surprises me to come across many new blogs who have sprung up in the recent months of those who have quit their jobs, became a minimalist, and who now writes about it, inviting others to join the revolution.

Good for them. They are living their dreams, even though our dreams can oftentimes overlap.

But are you living your dreams? That is the deep question that you must contemplate.

Go and make yourself a steaming cup of fresh brewed coffee or tea now. Grab your favorite notebook and pen. Now prepare yourself visually by writing in big, bold words: THE EDGE.

Answer these questions in matter-of-fact statements:

- HOW will I get there?
- WHAT do I need to do?
- WHEN must I get there?
- WHO must I collaborate with in order to get there?
- WHERE must I be in order to get there?
- WHY is The Edge important to me?

As an example, these were my own responses to such questions:

HOW will I get there?

I will get to The Edge by embracing change, persisting despite failures, and always holding myself accountable for any successes or setbacks I will experience.

WHAT do I need to do?

I can get to The Edge by always questioning myself. By retaining a constant curiosity of the world. Of never letting my mind fall by the wayside. And I can do this by writing, every day. By reading, every day. By intimate conversations with trusted friends where we are open and frank with one another.

WHEN must I get there?

I must get to The Edge whenever I feel myself sinking back into my own pit of apathy. This occurs when I do not feed my soul what it needs. This occurs when I do not listen to myself, and instead, persist to continue on a path which I know is not fit for me.

Ideally, I must be on The Edge as often as possible, as long as possible.

WHO must I collaborate with in order to get there?

Shunning others for the sake of my own introversion is an atrocity with which I must not commit. Collaboration with trusted individuals is essential for my own creative growth as well as developing an eye for humanity.

I shall collaborate with my inner circle. My handful of friends whom I can easily talk with, who will listen, and who will understand.

WHERE must I be in order to get there?

I must be present, wherever I happen to be. But I must be in an inspirational environment, where I am visually stimulated and feel happy.

I know myself to love working in beautiful coffee shops, bookstores, libraries. If I am outdoors, I know myself to love working while experiencing nature as it stirs and awakens or slumbers and sleeps.

These are the places I must be in. These are the places where I can experience The Edge.

WHY is The Edge important to me?

Because without it, I have fallen.

Now. Your turn.

I know 99.99% of you won’t do this self evaluation. I know, because it is human nature to read about it, while exercises that stir the mind are given the cold shoulder because it’s time consuming or you feel you don’t need to do them because you already know the answers.

But do you honestly really know the answers?

4. Discover the WHY behind the WHAT.

It is easy to answer what we do when people ask us that.

But did it ever occur to you WHY you do WHAT you do?

Why are you an electrical engineer?
Why are you a Yoga instructor?
Why are you a social media consultant?
Why are you a minimalist world traveler?
Why are you a project manager?
Why are you a dancer?
Why are you a graphic designer?
Why are you a photographer?
Why are you a personal trainer?
Why are you a teacher?
Why are you in graduate school?

Why?

In order to get to The Edge, you must answer that question. Otherwise, what is the purpose of what you are doing? Ever think about that?

When I realized that the why was an empty blank stare looking right back at me in the foggy mirror, that is when I knew the what was an ill match for my life.

I cannot be happy if I know the why is a silly ‘just because.’ Just because of what?

Answer why you do what you do. Say it right now out loud. If you have to think about it for more than 45 seconds, I am afraid even you do not have a clear idea of why you do what you do.

5. Experiencing hard knocks in life doesn’t create you nor will it destroy you.

Everyone has a sob story. Everyone.

And though we all once in a while appreciate a little self-pity, know that The Edge is not attained because you have had a difficult life.

Gallivanting around telling everyone that if only they knew what you had to go through, what life dealt you, what horrors you’ve experienced, what hardships you’ve faced and still are facing, won’t lead you to a better place, a place where you need to be.

The hard knocks in life won’t break you unless you let them break you.

The hard knocks in life won’t create you unless you let them create you.

The Edge doesn’t care about who you were in the past. It cares about who you are today.

6. Understand your audience but don’t be limited by them.

When your work has reached a point where the majority of your audience no longer understands you, is it your responsibility to create in a fashion where they can understand you?

How about just letting your work evolve naturally rather than chasing down your audience and ensuring that they continue following?

Those who understand will follow.

Those who do not, will slowly disappear.

That is how you ensure you are continually creating your best work, that you are living and breathing The Edge.

7. Crowd accelerated innovation is innovation. But is it the best kind?

When you create, sometimes you create out of sheer demand. This is how marketing and distribution works. Advertising creates the demand where there is no demand.

But when the crowd becomes full capacity and the noise drowns out the best ideas, what then? Who do we listen to? And what do we do?

The Edge means you take into account applicable suggestions and comments that is time-relevant. It does not mean you innovate for innovation’s sake.

Ever sit in your company’s team meeting to talk about ideas, goals and projects for the next quarter? What usually occurs? That’s right. Talk.

And the few actions that are taken are taken with half stride. With no heart, no intensity, no fiery determination, no ‘twinkle in the eye.’ They are taken because they have to.

But when you innovate and create not because you have to, but because your heart desires to, you literally can feel, see and notice the vast difference.

I was cleaning out some of my folders in my Mac yesterday and came across some photos of me during periods where I was working in corporate jobs. Heavy, tired bags were under my eyes, bags which ought not to be there especially for someone who was in her early 20s at the time the photo was taken. But not only was it visually noticeable, but my spirit was evaporated. My eyes did not light up. My heart did not smile. My deflated soul was aching for something more, something better.

Now I see photos from the past 5 months worth of traveling and my eyes are smiling. My heart is alive. My spirit is happy.

This has occurred for 4 reasons:

1. I am writing.
2. I am traveling.
3. I am actively taking care of myself.
4. I am listening to myself.

Do make it a priority that whatever you create, that your heart is in it.

**

The Edge does not allow room for mediocre bystanders who only want short-cuts in life. It beckons the strong-willed, the ever persistent, ever present, open-minded individuals with a thirst for an enriched and full life.

It awaits you, but only if you are ready.

Are you?