Take A Turn! Straight Roads are Boring

Udayakumar Nalinasekaren
Dec 21, 2010

Take a Turn Has there been a moment in your life which you never forget? That is because life took a significant turn with whatever happened at that moment and was never the same again. These are what I call turning points. Everyone has many of them.

Some of these turning points are at similar milestones for most people. Examples could be about joining a school, getting a life partner, becoming a parent, losing something or someone valuable, etc., Very interestingly, there are yet others which are very unique to each individual.

Turning points are what they are because they make individuals who go through them (along with the world around them in the picture) realize who they are and what they are made of. The outcomes that are experienced at these points have the potential to shatter existing beliefs and install new ones. Character could get exposed. Resulting change (or lack of change for that matter) in character and beliefs result in changes in behavior/perception all around and hence change in lifestyle. Thus a turning point is identified.

The other interesting observation I have about turning points is about their probability of occurrence. Based on my reflection of my own life and it's turns, I feel that the probability of occurance of a turning point exponentially increases whenever someone places himself or herself in an unfamiliar situation.

I think there are two aspects that are important for every individual who aspires to grow in life.

One is to introspect and identify the past turning points to reflect on them deeply. This is one of the few most useful aspects of our past life memories which can help us shape our future. It is important to be emotion neutral when doing such introspection and reflection. The reflection can potentially highlight strengths, weaknesses and expose enabling / limiting beliefs about oneself. Such insight will be helpful in choosing high impact actions for the future.

Second and usually the difficult one for many is to constantly seek to be in unfamiliar positions. Moving out of comfort zones is usually an unwelcome proposition for most humans. We hate to change anything when things are moving well around us. The truth is, any perception of achieving a state of equilibirium in life is an illusion. Most leaders who create impact constantly seek, experience and learn from unfamiliar situations.

Some very effective coaches start their coaching journey with a chosen individual by asking for the turning points.