The Edge

The Edge.

That's the name of U2's guitarist.

It's also a pretty great place to live.

When you're complacent, you just want to stay where you are, stay on the couch, watch sports (world series, anyone?), and not be challenged. That's staying well within your edge. May feel great in the moment. Pretty sure it requires an increasing amount of substances to numb out the voice whispering inside. Not a good long-term strategy. 

Then theres' what I used to do. So full of hate and resentment towards myself, so disliking of who I am and what I've got, that I throw myself way out ahead of myself, pretending I'm something or somewhere I'm not, because, dammit, I cannot stand being here, being this, let me get as far away as possible. Grandiose business plans, big scheming stuff, with no grounds in reality. That's trying to catapult yourself way outside of your edge. It's one endless journey of suffering and defeat.

Finally there's leaning into your edge. Seeing clearly where the edge is. Lovingly allowing yourself to lean into the edge. Loving yourself for where you are, loving yourself for your willingness to move beyond where you currently are, for the sake of the unexpressed creativity within you, and loving the process as it unfolds right now. Where's the edge? What truth needs to be faced? What (unpleasant) feeling needs to be felt? What step needs to be taken? Ever so gently, ever so loving, yet ever so firmly, you lean into that edge, and you watch it give.

This sets you up for a win, and sets you up to fight another day.

It takes real courage to go there, and even more courage to not try and blow past it. Just honor exactly where that edge is for you today, and then lean.

It took me so long to get. I hope it won't have to take as long for you.

New Features in Simplero

We've upgraded our video player, and people are generally reporting much improved video viewing experience. If you're having problems with it, please let us know. It should be an improvement all-around.

We've fixed an issue that would cause layout in spaces to break, especially in mobile. It was basically that when people posted long links, browsers won't break those up, and instead destroy the layout. Now we truncate them when they're shown while still allowing the links to work.

You can now send broadcasts to segments. Before you couldn't, and you'd have to use an Email Library email and an Action instead. That was a little cumbersome, so now you can send broadcast to a segment directly. I took the opportunity to clean up a number of other things related to segments and broadcasts.

You can now send an Email Library email as broadcast. That way, you can have some standard email templates lying around in your Email Library, and then when you need them, you can send them as broadcast to a specific group of recipient at a specific time. Handy!

Cleaned up and clarified some pages and issues around suspended subscriptions, that is people who are actively subscribed to a list, but not actually receiving broadcasts sent to that list, because they're suspended, probably because they're part of some intro sequence.

Cleaned up some things around notifications for activity in spaces. It was unclear which email address those notifications were being sent to, and how to change the email address. Much more clear now.

We got a couple of new testimonials for Simplero. Thank you so much! We love these. Here's something you may not know: They're almost always purely spontaneous. People write something to us in a ticket or otherwise, and we just politely ask if we may quote them on this page. And people are always generous enough to say yes. This is my favorite kind of testimonial. Not some word-puzzle crafted to hit all the right spots, but just a spontaneous outburst of joy and gratitude, captured fresh in that moment. Michelle Paiva here even submitted a ticket just to say how grateful and happy she was. Admittedly, then she ended up adding a bunch more, but let me just say, we live for tickets like those!

Random Links from around the Interwebs

I'm so glad when people in the public eye, like Lady Gaga, talk honestly about depression and anxiety. I've suffered badly from depression and suicidal thoughts, and it wasn't fun. There's no shame in feeling this way. You just need help so you can learn to feel differently. Thankfully, I feel like I know how to handle these feelings now, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to help others through there challenges. 

The Periodic Table of Storytelling is fantastic, and an incredible resource for storytellers—like us!

The TWA terminal is an incredible piece of architecture. I'm starting to feel like my dad, but, honestly, are we still creating things with this level of elegance and beauty? I don't see a lot of it. I see in it a love for the human soul, a belief in the progress of humanity, not as in "let's destroy more rain forests so we can make a buck today", but as in the human race growing into its potential. That does not seem to be the prevailing wisdom of today. But thankfully it's what you and I are working towards. You, with a little bit of me, we're changing the face of entrepreneurship.

Love ya!
-Calvin