Dealing with Life's Speed Bumps

By John H. Sklare, Ed.D, Lifescript Personal Coach Published May 27, 2013

How good are you at recognizing and accepting imminent warning signs in your life? Do you immediately identify danger signs or counterproductive thoughts and behaviors, and then take appropriate action to remedy or counter the situation? Or do you tend to ignore these types of ominous indicators and just deal with them when an emergency is at hand?

Your answer could very well tell a lot about how happy and healthy you’ll be in your future life.

For example, let’s say that you’re a smoker and begin to notice excessive coughing, shortness of breath or lack of endurance. Or perhaps it’s your weight that has been slowly increasing and, as a result, you’ve become aware of painful knees, difficulty going up and down the stairs or walking through the mall needing to sit down. These simple examples offer warnings of much bigger and more serious things to come. They are similar to the speed bumps you encounter on the roadway.

A speed bump is a 3-to-4 inch high, man-made obstacle placed on the street to slow down traffic. It does this by first visually getting your attention and then, secondly, by forcing you to take evasive action and reduce your speed. In a similar way, we’re also presented with speed bumps in our lives that warn us of potential for dire consequences.Life’s speed bumps aren’t tangible objects comprised of recycled plastic, metal, asphalt or rubber like the ones you encounter on the road. Instead, they’re an entirely different kind of animal that consists of bodily pain, physical limitation and emotional discomfort.

If you’re like most people, you react appropriately when you see a speed bump on the street and, as a result, slow down so that you don’t do any damage to your car.

In life, however, too many people tend to ignore these indicators of future trouble until it’s too late to deploy an effective avoidance maneuver and take corrective action.

I’m wondering how many of you reading this today are beginning to squirm in your seat as you find yourself identifying with this dangerous type of avoidance behavior.

Have you been given signs of trouble and chosen not to address them? Is there something you’re either doing or not doing that you know isn’t in your best interest, but you continue along the same path anyway? If so, stop ignoring these messages and treat them as you would when you’re confronted with a speed bump on the roadway.This leads me to the primary point in today’s message, which I will put in the form of a question: Is there something that you’re ignoring in your life today that you very well know you should be addressing? If your answer is yes, perhaps you should treat it as you do that speed bump on the roadway. That is to see it clearly, acknowledge it, slow down and take evasive action.

Wishing You Great Health,
Dr. John H. Sklare
Lifescript.Com