The first time I was conscious of using enough in my life was when I trained our dog, Scout. She came home at 12 weeks in April of 1994. Because I had never owned a dog and I knew she would get to be 70+ pounds of pure muscle, I immersed myself in reading several dog books to prepare myself for dog ownership and to learn how to train her.

I turned out to have a knack for training animals and Scout learned the usual commands: SIT, DOWN, STAY, HEEL. And I also taught her more sophisticated commands like WAIT and ENOUGH. I remember thinking what an odd command, ENOUGH. I ended up using it often, mostly to convey, what you were doing was fine but now I have had enough. So stop.

I took that same philosophy into my parenting, again to communicate your rowdiness, loudness or rudeness was fine for a while but now I have had ENOUGH. I also used it liberally with food, “you have had enough snacks, dinner, juice etc. . .”

Now as I think about enough as an inquiry I see why I can get tripped up by the word. When I physically have arrived at enough I think I actually have been pushed into more than enough. I moved from content, fun or play into annoyance, distraction or tiredness.

I seem to actually cross a line from enough to more than enough.

When I look at the world and living a life or creating a business within the paradigm of enough, I wonder if I am drawing too fine a line? Short of the line I am left wanting—cross the line and I rapidly get distressed.

Yet somehow I have come to believe that crossing the line is better than being short of it. I would rather the indigestion from overeating then the hunger pains for under eating. I’d rather the exhaustion of over working rather than the feeling of incompletion. I would rather own every book on leadership than be caught short without one.

Maybe my journey of enough has defined this line. Have I created such a thin place to stand that is therefore unattainable? Maybe if I stop short of enough for a few moments, hours, or days I will finally rest in enough.

• When have I ever gotten less than enough?
• Where is my enough line?
• What happens to me physically, emotionally and spiritually when I have more than enough?
• What might happen if I stopped with less than enough, only to discover that I still had enough?