Gibson

Cliffs

I’ve just finished What to Make of a Life by Jim Collins. In it he talks about cliffs – unforeseen upsets that throw everything up in the air and leave us confused, or reviewing our life.

This week alone I’ve had two separate new client conversations. Both people have individually faced their own cliff recently, in the form of major health scares in their late fifties. Both have paused since and taken radical stock of where they’re headed. One of them put it simply: it shook her out of her reverie.

Sometimes that’s what it takes to wake us up. Our own health event, or that of someone very close to us. What matters is what we do next.

Collins says we just need to take the next logical step, however small that may be.

For both of these people, the next logical step was to pick up the phone to us. They’d already decided, in the days after their scare, how they wanted to spend whatever time they have left. What they needed from us was simpler than that decision – was it actually affordable? Could the numbers carry the life they now wanted to live?

That’s often where we come in. Not to make the big decision for someone, but to tell them whether the life they’ve decided they want is one their money can support. 

For one couple it was a straightforward yes.  For the other person, it wasn’t so simple – financial compromises have to be made and not everything she wants is possible.

Nobody chooses a cliff. But of the people I’ve met who’ve been through one, I’ve yet to meet someone who looked back and wished they’d waited for a better time to act.

They wish they’d started the conversation sooner.

If a health scare, a loss, or some other cliff has recently made you rethink how you’re spending your time, get in touch. We’ll help you work out if the plan forming in your head is one you can afford to live.