The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wild fire. ~ Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point
I so get this – and love both the concept and the book. The problem though, is that we keep hoping that we’re at the tipping point, that we’ve finally arrived at that pivotal, long-awaited moment, and still it doesn’t come. It’s elusive. We start asking questions: What makes it happen? When will it happen? And the deeper, truer question: Will it ever happen for me?
It can be downright frustrating really, because Gladwell’s right: something about it is magic. And magic, though entrancing and even entertaining is hardly something we can control.
In May, I will have been at this online business for six years (and blogging for four years more than that. 10 years? How is that possible?!?). I would love to be sitting here at my desk telling you that all the blog posts, all the online courses, all the social media efforts, all the auto responders, and all the pages of website copy that have been edited and edited and edited again have been sufficient to merit my own tipping point. Am I closer? To be sure.
Has my labor paid off? Of course. Would I take back one bit of the time or energy I’ve expended? Definitely not. But spreading like wild fire? Uh, no.
I cannot hope for the scales to tip if I’m not willing to do the work. Even more true: I cannot hope for the scales to tip if I’m determined to do it all on my own. I need help. I need support. I need wise, kind council. I need advice. I need perspective. I need to be told the truth. And I need to be in relationship with people who see me as I will yet be; who recognize my capacity, my beauty, my brilliance – especially when I find that even more elusive that Gladwell’s premise.
Gratefully, miraculously, and in the most generous of ways, I’ve had all of this and then some. Not because it has just landed in a pile at my feet (though sometimes that has been true), but because I’ve sought it out, I’ve asked hard questions, I’ve asked, period, for what I need.
I wonder what it is that you need to tip your scales; what force needs to be exerted on your side of things so that conditions will be right when magic does finally happen…