Find your tipping point — it’s the key to a more productive future

It was 6:30am on a typically foggy and cold San Francisco Tuesday. Oh, the hills. San Francisco has lots of them. And all I could see…

It was 6:30am on a typically foggy and cold San Francisco Tuesday. Oh, the hills. San Francisco has lots of them. And all I could see stretched out in front of me were those hills. They were mocking me. And the ex-marine running alongside me wouldn’t leave my side. As tears of pain and frustration fell down my face, he stayed right there, refusing to let me give up.

I was a week into a six week bootcamp fitness program. 6:00am-7:00am every day. Potentially devised by a sadist. Definitely designed to shock your body out of its carb and cookie comfort blanket. I like to keep fit. I don’t like to run. And I definitely don’t like to run up hills in freezing fog before my first coffee of the day.

Normally I would have given up. Returned to the safety of my “walking on treadmill whilst watching crappy TV” regime. But I knew something had to change this time. In terms of my fitness and lifestyle goals, I had reached a tipping point.

I finished the run. With more tears than I’d like to admit to. And at the end of the six weeks, not only had I lost 20 pounds, I had also discovered exactly what it takes to make a meaningful change to my health and wellbeing.

We all reach tipping points at many times in our lives. And for different reasons. They could be related to your wellbeing, perhaps a relationship, maybe your career. But if we’re not careful, these pivotal moments can come and go without us really noticing. Worse, without us doing anything about them. Which means their transformative power can go unchecked and we lose the opportunity and momentum to make a lasting change for a more productive way forward.

How can you recognise a tipping point coming your way? Here are three signs I always look for:

1. The comfort of your usual routine no longer feels comfortable, but starts to feel suffocating. Pay close attention to how you feel and how your usual way of doing things really feels. Be honest about these feelings, even if they are uncomfortable. That’s a sure sign something needs to happen.

2. Another week, month, year has passed without you making any progress on your goals, be they fitness, career or any other kind of personal development. I often use the spring time to check in on how my new year goals are coming along and if I haven’t done anything to further any of them, I take stock. Are they the right goals, but I am lacking motivation? Or are they the wrong goals, and you need to change course? How does it feel to review your progress (or lack of?) If this exercise stirs some uncomfortable feelings, then you know a tipping point is on the horizon.

3. People that know you well comment that you don’t seem your usual self. Whilst well meaning comments aren’t as powerful as your own self-reflection, they can be a helpful adjunct to the process of identifying if you are at a tipping point.

If I’m not sure about making a change, then I fast forward a year and build a mental picture of how I feel, how I behave, how I look, how I interact with others, using two scenarios — a) if I make the change I’ve been pondering and b) if I don’t. This usually provides me with enough motivation to move past the tipping point and make a change stick.

This isn’t a linear journey — life never is. Since my initial immersion into the world of serious fitness, I’ve fallen off the wagon more times than I care to admit. Including right now. But yesterday, I reached a tipping point again — and decided to move my body. Ten minutes. No hills. After all, we’re not in San Francisco anymore Toto. But it was enough to get me to the other side. See you there.