It’s not a cliff — it’s Super Mario

When I talk about going to the edge in Focusing, people sometimes imagine themselves right at the edge of a cliff, about to fall. I get it; it sounds scary! The word “edge” doesn’t help.

But that’s not what the edge is.

The metaphor that came to me is Super Mario. Remember playing on Nintendo, moving through a level, and you can only see what’s on the screen in front of you? (Or am I dating myself?) And then you walk to the edge of the screen, and all of a sudden a whole new part of the world appears. You couldn’t have known it was there. And now there are things to jump on, things to discover, a whole new landscape opening up.

That’s what the edge is. It’s a place where what was previously unknown becomes available.

And once you’ve been there — once you’ve seen what’s on the other side of the screen — it’s already no longer the edge. Your system integrates it. The shift happens. You got there, and that feels good. And now there’s a new edge waiting, a little further ahead.