Coming on the heels of watching Celine Dion’s Netflix documentary, where she so bravely reveals her struggle with Stiff Person Syndrome, I was completely inspired by her performance under the Eiffel Tower. What a comeback!
Her career and personal story remind us how greatness is created by pushing the limits, but that is not without consequences.
This made me ask myself: If meaningful success requires pushing to the edge, how close to the edge can we get without falling off, and how do we calibrate that?
The answer is different for everyone. For me, I know I’m pushing too hard when I start having physical issues, particularly in my feet. That’s my indicator that it’s time to reset and take a different approach, rather than continuing as I am and risking further issues. This happens a lot because, admittedly, I’d rather deal with the consequences of falling off the edge than regret not pushing myself to see what could have been.
I take two lessons away from Celine and her journey. The first is that if you want to be great at something, the pursuit will have unintended consequences. The second is that how you deal with those consequences is everything and might be the whole point of it all.
