Becoming Your Best: Pushing Against Your Edge

If there is any one concept that I am constantly evaluating and endorse fully is the concept of leaning into your edge. This is what I mean by this concept. If you look at any area of your life as a continuum from, not knowing anything to being a complete master, we should always be moving in the direction of being a complete master. What this specifically means is that whatever accomplishments you've done today will be added onto tomorrow for constant and never-ending improvement (CANI). Whether it's your career, a relationship, a new language, playing guitar or playing soccer, it does not make sense to become less than what you were yesterday or to just be content with where you are today.

It has been psychologically proven that we are happiest when we are growing. If you're going to the gym and see progress, it increases certain brain chemicals and hormones that literally make you feel good about yourself and the future. It's the science of happiness and it's completely fascinating. Now, this is most likely not new information to you and obviously not rocket science. Whatever we endeavor towards is usually because of interest or passion in that specific thing. Given the very nature of that, excelling in that specific area is built into our DNA and when we don't see the gains that we desire or expect, we are disappointed. So what can we do about this conundrum?

I find more often than not that the Masters in any given field quantify their progress either on paper, spreadsheet or some sort of tangible and visual medium that allows for a quick glance to actually see their progress. In the beginning stages of bettering ourselves at any particular thing, this is usually not needed because the progress is usually quite dramatic and it's hard to miss. That said, as we become better at our craft, the progress becomes less discernible and must be, "kept up with" so that we have definable numbers to allow our brains the same reward as when things were more obvious.

Your edge is where that progress happens. Rarely do we find gains by going backwards and just repeating the same things that we've always done. But pushing against your edge has always been the gold standard for moving forward and getting better. That is why I am always quantifying what I do. Whether I am playing chord changes or running scales at a specific metronome speed and need to refer back to and observe my progress, we must have some sort of concrete method to become the best that we can be. Without this tool, we only get so far.

As far as quantifying my guitar progress, I came across a unique and powerful app that addresses this very issue by the name of Modacity. This convenient app allows one to keep track of their progress through note-taking, self-listening with the built-in recorder, speed building via the built-in metronome and other organizational tools which are bettering musicians of all genres. Modacity loves what we are doing to help guitarists reach their highest potential and have granted us a substantial discount that you can take advantage of here.

Whether you buy a metronome and recorder and keep up with everything well organized in a notebook or using Modacity, I highly encourage you to ruminate on this idea of, "pushing against your edge". Think about the different areas in your life that applying this concept would bring you more joy and satisfaction. Then, each day when you wake up, determine what your edge is and push against it! This is literally where much of life's joy and fulfillment is found. Good luck!