Losing your EDGE means you’ve lost your competitive drive. It’s easy to have the EDGE for one day, one week, or one month. It’s hard to consistently keep your EDGE sharp. Anybody can get lucky. Mastery requires you to do hard shit. In order to become a master, you have to do the hard shit that most men don’t do because most men are relying on luck. But luck is not a sustainable option. You can’t count on luck. You can’t predict luck.

The reason most men don’t have the EDGE is because they associate the EDGE with perfection. Having the EDGE doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means being committed to improving, not just one day, but every day. Can you commit to improving every area of your life 1% every day? Having the EDGE is not chasing perfection but pursuing progress. Fuck perfection, pursue progress.

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Every day, you have to ask yourself where you can improve. And every week, look back and see where you’ve improved or haven’t.

What kills a man’s EDGE?

To improve, you have to identify the leaks. What is keeping you from sharpening your EDGE?

1- Comfort/boredom
The moment you think you’ve arrived, you’ve lost. If you think you’ve got it, you’re losing it. If you stop growing, you start dying. The energy of a man who is going somewhere is contagious. You have to keep that energy. If you don’t have that positive energy, you have the energy that drags people down.

2- Guilt & Shame
Guilt and shame is the lowest level of energy. It’s just a matter of time until you will begin to blame others for your circumstances. When you start living in guilt and shame, you attract people who will validate that story. It’s impossible to build momentum if guilt and shame are dragging you down.

3- Playing the comparison game
Men play the comparison game to make themselves feel good. You play the comparison game because you want to make yourself feel better because someone else has it worse than you. But at the same time, if you compare yourself to people who are doing better than you, you feel worse. Either way you lose; playing the comparison game kills a man’s EDGE.

4- Sedating pain/stress
When you are being consumed by pressure, it’s easier to sedate the pain instead of facing your pain. It’s easier to tell yourself you aren’t stressed and ignore the pain or drown it in alcohol or distract yourself with porn. Anything that takes you away from facing your current reality and doing something about it is sedation. You’re not dealing with the pain, you’re only putting band-aids on it. If you only put on a band-aid, the wound will eventually get bigger. It’s impossible to have the EDGE if you continue to sedate. Eventually, you will become numb to to the pain and think there is no pain. You disconnect the pain so you feel nothing.

5- Setting/playing small
When you feel numb, you settle for what you have. Settling is a sign that you are afraid of failure. Your fear of failing is keeping you at this level. Settling for less than what you know you can do is a way of giving up. You tell yourself the story that this is as good as it gets. You tell yourself you don’t have to push yourself. Appreciate what you have, but also look for where you can go to the next level.

6- Lack of purpose
This is what happens when you settle. A man’s purpose is to lead and level up. When you stop leading, you’ve lost your purpose. Most men don’t want to lead. Most men want other people to lead for them. They don’t want to take the responsibility of being the leader. You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution.

When you understand what kills the EDGE, then you can anticipate what threats kill the EDGE before you lose it.

What leaks and threats can make you lose your EDGE?

1- Betrayal.
How would you show up if people betrayed you? Who would cause you pain if they betrayed your trust? You have to put in the work so they don’t betray you. The reason we don’t talk about this is because we’re afraid it will happen if you talk about it. Have the conversations it takes to keep those people happy with you so they never betray your trust.

2- Sickness
How are you taking care of yourself? If you know that getting sick will cause you to lose your EDGE how are you going to take care of yourself?

3- Failure
What if you fail? What will you do? How would you react if you had to start over?

4- Ego
What prevents you from listening to a higher voice?

All of those conversations are based on fear. The Devil is whispering all these failures in your ear, according to Napoleon Hill’s Outwitting the Devil.

What opportunities do you have to sharpen your EDGE?

1- Connection
How can you connect to a deeper cause? How can you connect to a higher power?
Every time you feel connected to a deeper cause, you get the energy of certainty that you know you can figure shit out.

2- Contribution
We all have opportunities to contribute. To show your failures and successes. When you take the focus off yourself and focus on how you can help others, the game changes. You start realizing that there is perspective.

3- Vision
How can you sharpen your vision? Who are you working on your vision with? What are you doing to get closer to your vision? You have the opportunity to start dreaming bigger. When you are around other people who have a big vision, that energy is contagious.

4- Get around dreamers
Get around other men who have a vision, a purpose, a dream. That energy is contagious. If you feel like you’re losing your EDGE, you have to be around people who have the EDGE. Who are you spending time with?

You may lose your EDGE unconsciously. Sharpening your EDGE requires you to find the leaks, threats and opportunities. It also requires you to take advantage of opportunities that you have in front of you. If you don’t take advantage of opportunities, you’re going to be running in circles hoping and wishing for someone else to save you.