Week 28: It Wasn’t a Wall. It Was a Signal.
- Glen Jensen
- Jul 22
- 3 min read
Tend the edge. Bloom anyway.
Where Growth Actually Lives
Growth happens just past comfort. Not through force - but through tending.
The Plateau Isn’t the Problem
In high-output cultures, growth often gets mistaken for grit. Push harder. Grind longer. Perform better.
And when effort stops working, we panic.
We think we’re broken - or the system is.
But as we learned in Week 24 (Trust the Quiet), plateaus don’t mean failure. They often mean the scaffolding is holding - and the system is ready to stretch.
The mistake isn’t the stall. The mistake is what we do next: Collapse into comfort, or sprint into burnout. This week offers a third way.
You Don’t Push the Edge - You Tend It
Real growth is rhythmic. It lives near the edge - not beyond it.
You don’t smash through.
You stay, breathe, adjust - until the body, mind, or soul begins to shift.
In Portuguese, I plateaued.
I noticed I was still translating everything in my head.
So I didn’t study harder. I stepped sideways.
I started learning Spanish through Portuguese - and soon I was thinking in the language.
The same approach holds:
A developer re-learns calculus.
An athlete juggles to rediscover rhythm.
A leader volunteers - not to give back, but to come back to earth.
Sideways isn’t surrender. Sideways is deliberate structure.
The Edge-Tending Protocol
Step 1 - Name the edge. What are you avoiding? What feels unquiet, but easier to ignore?
Step 2 - Calibrate. Too safe? No growth. Too sharp? No recovery. Find the zone where discomfort becomes adaptation.
Step 3 - Broaden before you rise. Don’t overpower the edge. Build around it.
Examples:
Cognitive: 10 minutes of untranslated immersion
Physical: A Zone 3 walk - not a punishing sprint
Relational: One honest sentence
Spiritual: An hour of humble service - no photos
Step 4 - Ritualize. Treat the edge like a seed. Water it. Don’t dig it up every day to check for roots.
What Tulips, Towers, and Pyramids Know
A tulip bulb needs frost to bloom. Too little, it sleeps. Too much, it dies. Just enough - it awakens.
Growth is rarely dramatic. It’s calibrated.
And it isn’t just vertical.
It’s foundational.
The Tower of Babel reached high - and fractured. The pyramids were broad - and they’re still standing.
Resilience begins at the base.
Tend the Edge. Bloom Anyway.
For Those Who Want to Go Deeper
The Comfort Crisis - Michael Easter
Endure - Alex Hutchinson
A Wing Built by Strain
The caterpillar must strain against the chrysalis. No one can do it for them. The struggle is the sculptor of the wing.
- Nature
Your Stubbornness Isn’t the Enemy. Point It.
This week is for the nonlinear. The overthinkers. The quietly burned out.
Especially you.
Pattern breaking isn’t chaos. Feeling your way forward isn’t failure. And your stubbornness? Aim it at the edge.
You don’t need a breakthrough. You need a 3-degree shift - held with care.
You’re Ready. The System Holds. Now Stretch.
If you’ve journaled since Week 24: You’ve quieted the noise. You’ve tended the field. You’ve held the floor.
Now, move - gently. See what blooms.
Next week, we begin designing joy. P.S.
I didn’t just write about tending the edge.
I found out what was growing there—by getting dirt on my hands.
As I was writing this, a growth opportunity was unfolding right at the edge of my tolerance.
And I couldn’t tell if what I was tending were stubborn old weeds that needed pulling and burning - or fragile new starts that needed to be left alone.
Comments