The Extra Mile

We’ve all probably come across the cliché: “The one who walks the extra mile gets a bit farther.” Many of us find it to be a nice one – not necessarily because it strikes us as true or sensible, but simply because it has a nice ring to it. Or maybe we’ve had heard some smart aleck say it, and it seems to be a good line to drop at an appropriate occasion, and so we try to keep it at the back of our head.

But what or where is the extra mile? It is that stretch or distance beyond what is obligatory or essentially necessary for one to cover. It is the number of steps one takes beyond “the finish line” of an assigned task or duty.

Going the extra mile is not basking in the glory of a position that makes one tend to overdo things. Most of the time, one is not even aware that he has exceeded the distance he is assigned to go. One simply keeps going, out of a profound commitment to get his assigned task done – or he keeps going because he is not simply accomplishing an assignment but defining his very being with the task at hand.

My late uncle once said to me, “When you are tasked to do something and you accept it, do it like it’s the very reason why you were born.” Whew! At my young age then, I couldn’t get the heads and tails of the statement. I thought my uncle was probably drunk or was “speaking in tongues.”

I didn’t have the slightest hunch that such idea was to be my guiding philosophy in life. Not that I consciously decided to adopt it – it just sneaked its way into my daily undertakings. I would not even notice it myself, until other people pointed it out to me.

It alarmed me at first; I thought I was unnecessarily making the easy things difficult. Then I got to know of others who were doing it the same way, only much better. What a consolation to know that I was not an oddball, after all. In fact, I would later learn, “going the extra mile” – being thorough and finicky – are good traits to have (so long as these do not come close to a mania).

Honestly, I am still too far from the real “extra mile.” I have to keep my fire burning by looking up to the great extra-milers whose examples are like beacons that I want (and for others) to follow. In comparison, my own passion for doing things well and right would only amount to a slight flicker that becomes visible only in the midst of others whose spirits are in slumber.

One sure thing one gets in going the extra mile is getting noticed. And that is a double-edged sword, a good thing and bad. In getting noticed, one exposes himself to the critical eyes of those who specialize in finding faults. On the other hand, the extra-miler may also become an inspiration for others. Again, it’s a two-edged sword – one side can slice the meat, the other can cut the hand.

One does not need to be a master of everything that’s thrown his way; no one ever is. Life is a journey of discovery. One only needs to be eager to learn, and be willing to pay the price for every new learning. 

Those who are willing to walk the extra mile shall be ready to hurt their feet. It takes something to gain something. But, in the end, having reached farther is a reward not quite like any other. You get to know yourself better – you get to know more of what you’re capable of.