Excerpt from Daily Cures, Wisdom for Healthy Aging Connie Mason Michaelis
What are the tipping points in your life? I read a marketing book called The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. It was a fascinating book about how there are magic moments when ideas, trends, or social behaviors cross a threshold and spread like wildfire. So there are tipping points in every area of life, both global and personal. Is it time to get married? Is it time to have children? Is it time to change jobs or even careers? Sometimes, a tipping point is created by stress or frustration. There are moments when you can’t tolerate one more minute, and you tip over the edge! Other times, a tipping point comes when you have studied, researched, and thoughtfully considered a change. The whole concept brings to mind a teeter-totter with one side holding all the weight, and then the pressure is applied over time to the other end, and suddenly it tips. The change of balance may have been very subtle, but when it happens, everything shifts.
On a personal level, we are often unaware of the changing pressures. The older we get, we may be in denial about the challenges we will face. A prime example is staying in your home so long that you lose the opportunity to make your own choices. If you’ve not made a plan and covered all the contingencies, you could end up losing that power. If you wait too long, the tipping point most assuredly will pass. When suddenly you end up in the hospital with a broken hip, everything instantly changes. The issues were growing, but perhaps you ignored them: the stairs in the house, unsteady gait, diminishing strength, and you just celebrated another birthday! Don’t wait until it is too late to plan for the future. There is a tipping point for each of us.
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