Going Over The Edge
- Post By: Greg Crumpton
- Date:
- Category: Blog
As I am standing on the edge of Niagara Falls, and I do mean edge, because if you’ve ever been there and seen them in person, you realize just how close you truly are, I contemplated the life cycle of a water droplet in the Niagara River and how much like those water droplets we, as people, are.
The life cycle of a droplet of water going over the Falls looks a lot like us, as people, as we go through our life’s situations and events. The droplet rolls down a fairly happy river, much like we go through most of our days. Soon it starts getting into a little choppy water and the speed picks up. As people, our choppy water may come with a feeling that things are sliding towards out-of-control in our world, even if we can not put our finger on why. The closer the droplet gets to the Falls, the more chaotic it’s surroundings become, much like our own surroundings as a situation bears down on us that is going to take us for a ride. As the moment of going over, or “the event” becomes imminent, all you can do is you hold your breath, because ready or not, here we go. Sometimes this going over is a blind plunge, maybe it’s a calculated dive, or even a belly-flop, but over the edge we go. On the way down, we instinctively start looking for a landing spot. WATCH OUT for the rocks at the bottom, try to control your direction and guide yourself to splash down in a pool of calmer water.
You’ll soon realize that you have indeed made it! In the water droplets case “the event” was was going over the edge of the Falls. As people, our “events” can be happy, sad or intense changes, but the flow seems to be about the same.
Regrouping after “the event” can be rewarding, it should always be thought provoking, and ultimately, MUST be meaningful enough that we learn from it.
So there you are, floating downstream of the Falls, and the water soon becomes calm and serene again, your next adventure just lurking around the bend.
I witnessed this cycle as a large log approached from above the Falls, tumbled over the edge of the Falls and ultimately found it’s way to the safe haven of calm waters further on.
My takeaway is this: Plan as much as possible, be as prepared as you can be for any event, but know that ultimately you have to embrace “the event” and take the plunge.
One of my favorite writers, Seth Godin, on Twitter at @ThisIsSethsBlog would call this “shipping your work or product”. He means actually doing something as opposed to discussing it and planning and never doing anything with it.
Major “events” are outside the daily norms and we must work through the sloshing, gasping, scrapping and all of the other adjectives that surround things that are out of the norm. Once you live through it, good, bad or indifferent, learn from it so you are better prepared for the next inevitable water fall that comes at us from nowhere.
