Mid Life Crisis, aka the Pivot Point
The definition of a ‘ ‘Pivot’ is to turn or rotate, like a hinge. And in business pivoting often means to make a shift or turn into a new direction. Often these changes develop out of a need or out of necessity but almost always is done strategically and includes a dramatic shift in direction. I often thought pivots were obvious and sharp, where a life situation or an awakening of the mind occurs and you make big deep profound changes quickly and in a short amount of time. I think I may be wrong.
Yesterday, I watched a Netflix movie Long Story Short about a perpetual procrastinator who awakens to find that every few minutes, his life forwards by 12 months. Similar to Click by Adam Sandler, it’s a movie that sends a similar message, be grateful for the time you have and use the time you have to do whatever it is that makes you happy. In both movies, there is an a-ha moment after (spoiler alert) experiencing their lives flash before their eyes. And as Hollywood would have it in the last 10 minutes of the movie, the life ‘Pivot’ hits (cue fast moving joyful montage scenes) and everything they’ve ever wanted to do happens quickly and wonderfully for them.
Life is not Hollywood
These types of movies play out in many of our minds for countless entrepreneurs who dream of pursuing their side hustle, or for those who are living frugally and saving for that big trip or for those who have family/financial obligations and hold back their illogical dreams of opening flower shops with a feature area selling only bowls – yes, I’ll admit that is mine!
The truth is, major life ‘Pivots’ are more akin to riding a wave rather than living through a crashing dramatic storm. Life gives you little hints telling you to change, and communicates this over and over again over a long period of time. We tend to ignore these messages and keep pushing through until one day bam! our life collapses by way of a mental or physical breakthrough. And then from there, the changes we undertake are large at first, but then the changes don’t yield results and we leave our well intentioned plans. This cycle plays itself out numerous times – breakthrough, inspired effort, no reward and a fizzle out.
So how do we get out of this vicious cycle you ask? There a million self help books and gurus on perseverence and how small habits each day stack up to bigger results. While I think there is a little wisdom and truth in everything I have read or watched thus far in my journey, what I have concluded is that you need to want IT enough.
What is IT
Whatever that IT is needs to be so life changing that it dispells your current comfortable life and drives you to keep going. And take note that I didn’t say ‘drives you to succeed’ but rather that IT should be so desirable that you want to keep pursuing it and that you want it no matter how long a haul it is to get you there. That I find is the secret sauce to ‘Pivots’, to break through on a realization and to have a goal that is so desirable that you will persevere through extra hours on the weekend, or choose to spend money on developing yourself for success vs buying yourself a new outfit, or for believing in yourself even if you haven’t hit success after months of trying. One day when you look back, when your dreams become your reality you will realize on the path here you were already living the definition of pivoting – turning and rotating to achieve what passionately drives you.