At a recent social event, I caught up with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while.
By most measures, he’s doing incredibly well.
Senior role in a tech company, highly paid, respected, and successful.
But his life is relentless.
He’s constantly in meetings, travelling across the globe, flying most weeks, often long haul.
There’s always another commitment, another demand, another reason why now isn’t the time to slow down.
Then he told me something that stopped me.
He has a serious health issue.
Not life-threatening (yet) but not something that can be ignored either.
And it’s a direct result of the way he’s been living.
Life is a feedback mechanism
As I reflected on our conversation, an old analogy came to mind:
The feather, the brick, and the bus.
Life is always giving us feedback.
At first, it’s subtle. A quiet feeling. A bit of tension. A sense that something isn’t quite right.
That’s the feather.
It might show up in your health, your relationships, your work, your finances.
A gentle nudge saying: “Pay attention.”
But we often don’t.
We tell ourselves we’re too busy, we’ll deal with it later, and it’s not a big deal.
So, life turns up the volume.
Now comes the brick.
Something more obvious. More uncomfortable. Harder to ignore.
That’s where my friend is now.
The problem is no longer subtle. It’s real and it requires action.
And if that gets ignored?
That’s when the bus comes.
Something serious. Potentially life-altering. Sometimes with consequences you can’t come back from.
Our job is to stay awake
I think one of our real jobs in life is simple:
Stay awake.
Not physically – but mentally and emotionally.
Aware enough to notice the feathers, honest enough to acknowledge them, and wise enough to act before life has to escalate things.
Because the truth is, the brick and the bus aren’t bad luck.
They’re just louder messages.
So, here’s the question…
What are the feathers in your life right now?
The things you’ve noticed but brushed off, delayed, or explained away.
Where do you already know something needs your attention?
Your role as a financial planner
If you work with clients – especially in a role like financial planning – this matters more than you might think.
Yes, your job is to provide technical expertise.
But if that’s all you do, you’re missing where the real value lies.
Because clients ignore feathers too.
They delay decisions, avoid difficult conversations, stay stuck in patterns that don’t serve them.
And sometimes, they don’t need more information.
They need someone who is willing to gently point to what’s already there.
Not to push, not to lecture, but to help them see.
To help them wake up before life does it for them.
A final thought
Most people don’t change when they should.
They change when they have to.
The feather gives us a choice, the brick creates urgency, the bus removes options.
If you’re honest, you already know where life is nudging you.
The only real question is:
Will you listen now… or wait to be hit harder?
PS. Are your clients emotionally engaged? Click here to watch the video.
