“That thing is possible; YOU can do it. You already know the way.” - Aubrey Marcus

I recently came across Seth Godin’s work, The Icarus Deception, which is an excellent book about seeing the world a bit differently and then making choices to better align with the reality you want to create. Unsurprisingly, I love this topic; it’s precisely what we do here at XOVeil in our own unique way.  

Early on in the book, Godin reminds us that the tale of Icarus is about more than a warning against hubris… it’s also a warning about settling for too little. 

Brief recap of the story you might know, paraphrased from Godin’s book: Icarus and his father Daedalus were imprisoned for upsetting King Minos, so they hatched a plan to escape. Daedalus made a set of wings for himself and his son, and the breakout was underway. 

Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, for fear of the wings getting ruined… but he also cautioned the boy against flying too low, since the sea would ruin the wings too. 

Fast forward a few millennia, and what most people recall is the first part – the caution that is translated as a warning against hubris. But the lesser-known caution, against flying too low (not reaching your potential), is equally as deadly. One is Real Death, the other is the slow kind of death that leads to quotes like Thoreau’s, “most people lead lives of quiet desperation.”

Like we learned in the famous children’s story Goldilocks, too little is just as bad as too much; the goal is Just Right. The challenge is to determine what Just Right is for you, for now. That last bit – for now – is where I’d like to focus for a moment, if I may. 

In my experience, oftentimes we need to slow down a bit and step back a touch in order to get it Just Right. But fairly often we think that by slowing down, or taking a step back, or downsizing a little bit we’re somehow broadcasting failure to the world. 

Bullshit. 

Sometimes the best thing you can do is stop digging once you realize that you are, in fact, in a hole. “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else,” as Yogi Berra once said.

There are countless applications of this concept (which I’ll call the Icarus Range or the Goldilocks Range, interchangeably). Sometimes it appears to be all about maximizing the positive by direct action and steady focus. Other times, it seems like you should be focused on minimizing error conditions such that all that remains is the success you’re after. An example of the former might be lifting weights at the gym; golf an example of the latter.

But really, in my view, it’s about using both – maximizing the positive and minimizing the negative. What are we driving towards? What are we determined to stay away from? Depending on the problem you’re trying to solve, it’s a useful exercise to map out the Icarus Range, and determine what Just Right looks like – and what exists outside of the Range on either side.

Now we can run the premedatatio malorum exercise, and do our level best to inoculate against problems in advance. What might go wrong? What might come up? How will we deal with distractions? How to do get back on the rails if we’re derailed? Etc.

Depending on the goal, the Icarus Range might be rather wide… or quite narrow. In golf, for instance, at first it’s all about just making some solid contact by getting your mechanics close enough to do so. Then, let’s hit it straight. Then the right distance. 

Fast forward a while, and now the Goldilocks Range is a bit more narrow: the ball is above your feet, you’re 147 yards out, there’s a cross breeze, there’s a sand trap, and the pin is towards the front of the green. 

As Orrin Hudson once said, “If you know the combination to the lock, it doesn’t matter who you are; it has to open for you.” So, the next time you’re trying to level up, or solve a problem, or just try something new, give some thought to our friends Goldilocks and Icarus. 

And as always, please let me know if you found this post helpful!

Onward and Upward!

-Paul, V7