Matriarch Inflection Points

Today’s post is about inflection points of life. I got the idea of inflection points from a book by Andrew Grove - Only the Paranoid Survive  - that I read years ago. Or course, his book was about strategic inflection points for business and ways to anticipate those inflection points. He defined a strategic inflection point as ‘a time in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change.’ The inflection point is much easier to see looking backward. The idea stuck in my mind.  I like the notion of recognizing that some changes in life are more than a milestone - they are an inflection point because your life is forever changed afterwards.

Thinking about inflection points of my life - there are some that are pretty common life changing points: marriage and having child (many years later). Others I forced because of a decision I made - switching to an entirely different area of study for graduate school, moving half-way across the country from my family to pursue my career, and deciding to leave my primary career in my late 50s rather than waiting until my mid-60s. Those inflection points are ones I see looking back. They are slightly skewed toward the earlier decades of my life: 2 happened in my 20s, 2 in my 30s, and 1 in my 50s. It’s interesting that I don’t see inflection points inside my career; the 40 years was a gradual path that included increased technical savvy and responsibility that didn’t have any sharp turns of an inflection point.

Now I am anticipating inflection points over the next 30 years. What might they be: the first arrival of the next generation (either grandchild or grandniece/nephew), moving to be close to family and living in a smaller space, not driving? Of course - there could be ones that involve injury, disease, and other loss. Those things are worth some contingency planning….but not too much focus.

 I’m too busy enjoying the present and anticipating the inflection points that I choose for my life.