Breaking Point, Boiling Point, and Beyond

1. Introduction

Life is a journey, and you can soar to success, stay stagnant, or fall to failure.

In life’s journey, you can meet turbulent waters that can rock your boat. This article is about the turbulent waters and your response to such testing times.

Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.”

There are several ways you can reach your breaking point. When you pull on a rubber band, it can reach its breaking point. When you go past this point, it will snap.

Everyone has a breaking point. When the grind becomes too tiring, too stressful, or too difficult, you may be tempted to take the exit lane, the easy way out, but then you soon end up on the path to nowhere.

You get under the blanket and sleep instead of grinding.

Your response to your breaking point determines your success or failure in life. You need to master your breaking point, so you rise to your destiny. If you don’t master your breaking point, you may go to your melting point, meaning you reach the domain of depression, sadness, and failure.

Remember, everything you really want is past the breaking point. When faced with a breaking point, don’t quit, don’t run away, and don’t turn your back on it.

How you handle the breaking point determines whether you will win or lose in the game of life.

2. Paths That Can Lead to Breaking Points

• Repeated procrastination with deadlines.
• Success without fulfillment: Tony Robbins considers this as the ultimate failure.
• Lacking the skill set required to do the professional job.
• Too many toxic people in your life who zap your inner energy.
• Being stuck on negativity and past failures.
• Bad habits exceeding good habits in your bag of habits.
• Overcommitment with no time to complete tasks—being a “yes” person.
• Too much money at a very young age and being unable to cope with it.
• Unexpected disasters.
• Pressure from others to do things against your principles or willingness.

3. What Can Happen When You Reach Your Breaking Point

• You throw in the towel, give up, and embrace failure.
• One may pass from the pain of the breaking point to manmade pleasures of the senses and the flesh.
• This may result in one becoming non-functional and may proceed in a downward spiral.
• It can make you break through the breaking point, and it now becomes your perforating or breakthrough rising point.

4. Three Great Individuals Who Went Past Their Breaking Point to Success

Let us look at some examples of individuals who hit very turbulent waters in their lives, and due to their resilience, resolve, and persistence broke through their breaking point to reach great heights.

i. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) – 32^nd US President

I want to take you back in time almost 100 years ago. On August 9, 1921, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), then an attorney, went to his vacation home in Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. There he joined his wife Eleanor, and their children.

The next day, August 10, he took his family for a day of sailing on a sailboat named Vitreo. Later that evening, he said his legs felt funny and he felt feverish. He retired to bed, skipping dinner. He never walked again without support. He was diagnosed with polio. He was only thirty-nine years old.

FDR loved to swim and sail, play golf and tennis, run in the woods, and go horseback riding.

But his life came to a screeching halt! He hit his breaking point. Imagine not being able to go to the bathroom by yourself. Imagine not being able to walk or to dress yourself. Imagine knowing you are dependent on others for the rest of your life.

For most, that experience would be a melting point. But not for FDR. He went past his breaking point. Seven years later, he was elected Governor of New York. Two years later, he was reelected. Eleven years later, in 1932, he won the Presidential Election in a landslide victory and became the first physically disabled person to become President of the United States.

FDR served four terms (twelve years), from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest serving US president.

ii. Ludwig van Beethoven

Now let us go back in time more than 250 years ago to Germany.

Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the greatest musicians the world has ever seen. His work changed musical history.

Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770, in Bonn, Germany. His father was a musician. At the young age of seven, he played his first public concert in Cologne, Germany. At the age of thirteen, he replaced his teacher as the musician in the king’s court at Cologne. At the age of fourteen, he composed his first piano concerto.

But soon Beethoven hit turbulent waters. At age twenty-six, he began to have hearing problems. It started off as tinnitus, a high-pitched ringing in his ears, that made it more difficult for him to listen to music or carry on a conversation with others. By the time he was forty-four, Beethoven was almost totally deaf.

Deafness was Beethoven’s breaking point. Yes, it took time, but he, like FDR, persisted on his journey. He went past this breaking point. For most, this would have been the melting point, when they throw in their towel. But not for Beethoven. In fact, some of his greatest works, like the Ninth Symphony, considered to be a supreme achievement in music, were composed when he was almost completely deaf.

iii. Theodore Roosevelt (TR) – 26^th US President

Lastly, I want to bring you back from Germany to New York. Thursday, February 14, 1884, was Valentine’s Day. That day, Theodore Roosevelt, FDR’s fifth cousin, returned home to New York from Albany upon receiving a telegram from his sister informing of his daughter’s birth. This was subsequently followed by a second telegram stating that his wife, Alice, was seriously ill.

On that fateful day, his mother and wife died within a few hours of each other. His mother, at age fifty, died from typhus, and his wife, at age twenty-two, gave birth to her namesake Alice, and then died. He wrote a big “X” in his diary with a sentence below it that read, “The light has gone out of my life.”

This was a huge breaking point for anyone to bear. It could have been TR’s melting point.

We are all human. Yes, it took TR sometime to recover. He left New York and went to his Maltese Cross Ranch in the North Dakota Badlands. He left his newborn daughter, Alice, with his oldest sister, Bamie.

Subsequently, TR would travel between New York and his ranches in North Dakota Badlands. Two years later, a disastrous winter (1886-87) wiped out over half of his cattle herds. Later in 1898, TR sold his remaining cattle and gave up his home in the Badlands.

During the Spanish-American War of 1898, TR led the Rough Riders to victory on their charge up the Kettle Hill and the San Juan Hill. This victory helped the US win the war. TR became a hero. From his breaking point, he went on to victory and fame.

In 1899, TR was elected Governor of New York. Two years later, in 1901, he became the 26^th President of the United States when President William McKinley was assassinated during the Pan-American Exposition at the Temple of Music, in Buffalo, New York. TR served two terms as US President until 1909.

TR became one of the greatest US Presidents. His will to go past his breaking point led to his success.

5. How to Handle Your Breaking Point

• Faith: It can save you and help you rise past the breaking point to your success.
• If success without fulfillment is the issue, think about what you really love to do that will truly give you fulfilment. Then switch careers. Pick the career you really like. If you like engineering and you are in medical school, you may consider switching to engineering.
• If you lack a skill set, learn a new skill set.
• If you have repeated procrastination issues, then switch to continuous work mode. Just execute without thinking.
• Be persistent. You should keep on going, and soon you will master the courage, skills, and motivation to go past the breaking point to your success.
• Embrace discipline so you can do more in less time. This will give you the extra energy to break past your breaking point.

6. Conclusion

When you hit your breaking point, don’t let it be your melting point. Instead, let it be your rising point.

I have faith in you.

Start your new journey. Go past your breaking point to the kingdom of super-success!

References

1. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Symphony-No-9-in-D-Minor
2. https://www.ludwigvanbeethoven.org/
3. https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/franklin-d-roosevelt
4. https://www.biography.com/us-president/theodore-roosevelt
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralytic_illness_of_Franklin_D._Roosevelt#:~:text=Roosevelt%20won%20the%201932%20presidential%20election%20in%20a,taken%20at%20certain%20angles%20and%20at%20a%20distance.
6. https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/spanish-american-war

Author

DrTJ (Thomas John, MD, DTM) is the author of Your Lifeonomics: Take Action Now to Immediately Improve Your Life.

Visit him at speakerdrtj.com. Email: [email protected]. Click here to order your copy of the book: Your Lifeonomcs

DrTJ / Thomas John, MD, DTM

“DrTJ” / Thomas John, MD, DTM, is an international best-selling medical author, professional keynote speaker, personal coach, motivational speaker, and corporate leadership and sales trainer. 

He has delivered numerous medical speeches as an invited speaker and keynote speaker both in the United States and worldwide. He has been featured globally on TV and has appeared on The Doctors Show. 

Internationally, he has been invited to speak in Canada, Italy, India, South Africa, Serbia, Argentina, Greece, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Finland. He is listed in Chicago’s Top Doctors, America’s Top Doctors, and America’s Top Ophthalmologists. He has been featured in leading newspapers and magazines in the United States and abroad. 

Dr. TJ is also a rock ’n’ roll drummer, dancer (ballroom, line, disco), and writer. 

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Disclaimer

This blog is merely information – not advice. If users need medical advice, they should consult a doctor or other appropriate medical professional. 

Your Lifeonomics, LLC

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