Have you ever had a life wake-up call?

[Rain Man]

The Rashee Rice thread makes me wonder how often people might have a "wake-up call" to change a behavior. And then I wonder if it's ever permanent.

So...in thinking about things that you might have done that were risky in a bad way, did you ever have a wake-up call that made you permanently change a behavior? If so, what happened and what behavior did it change? And was it a permanent change?

Similarly, have you ever had a temporary wake-up call on something, but then slipped back into the bad habit?

This can be any bad behavior. Maybe it's drugs or alcohol or eatting fatty foods or not wearing a seat belt or engaging in unsafe sex with third-world bargirls or robbing convenience stores or kidnapping hitchhikers or hitchhiking or starting fires by spitting gasoline out of your mouth or doing tightrope walks over deep canyons. Use your imagination.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Dark Horse

When I was young I did stupid stuff to entertain people. I tried a 2 1/2 flip from about 25 feet up in a tree into a rock quarry and cracked my skull on impact.
What’s worse I had a sinus infection at the time which entered my brain.

Long story short I decided those ungrateful bastards could entertain themselves from then on

Was there water in the quarry?

[Dark Horse]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Was there water in the quarry?

Yes it was the only thing that saved my life

[Smed1065]

Too many to count but it does affect ya if smart. Guess my 3rd time kicked in.

[wheeler08]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

As I said in the retirement thread, most thought I’d be dead by 25.

At 25, I’m in Jerusalem in the old city. The Arab part of the old city. The Israelis patrolled the area to make sure the tourists didn’t go into the Arab quarter. I wanted to go in there. Went to the top of David’s tower and figured out a path through the Israeli soldiers.

It worked I’m in taking some pictures. I see a real old man leading a donkey through some of the old arches and took the pic. He was pissed. Starting yelling at me flying his arms about etc. a group of young men were suddenly by me. I’m saying all I did was take his picture. They said something to the effect the old man wants $100. I told them to **** off turned to leave and got busted in the head with something and the fights on.

I took out 2-3 before they got me on the ground kicking the shit out of me. I was thinking laying on the ground getting the shit kicked out of me that this was a stupid way to die. About that time the Israeli patrol had heard the commotion and came to investigate. The attackers scattered and the Israelis got me off the ground and outta the Arab quarter.

Didn’t get into any trouble because I got my ass kicked I'd probably not do that again. Went to the hospital and I had a preferatted stomach, burnished kidneys and a concussion.

Within a month I was back in the states. Decided I wanted to live, have a family, fall in love and raise the kids.

33 years later I’m still madly in love with my wife. Son is in NYC pursing his dreams. And now, I’m retired comfortable enough. Wife retires in 3 weeks. Time to show her the world as just a regular tourist doing tourist things.

And yes, I still have that picture of the old man in Jerusalem.

Pics or it didn't happen!

[DJJasonp]

For me, it was when I confessed to my mother that I had killed a man.

I told her. Mama, just killed a man

Put a gun against his head , pulled the trigger now he’s dead.

Life changing moment.

[Katipan]

Most of my moments involve someone or thing trying to kill me and failing so that's probably why you guys get what you get from me.

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by In58men

Took my gun to a bar because I knew there would be some dudes there I didn’t like.

Long story short, my friends and their friends all got into it. Two of them started walking towards me, I opened my truck door to get my gun. I pointed a loaded .45 at one of the guys, but held back.

We didn’t like each other because we got into a fight at a party.

Very pathetic, could have been very bad.

Thank God for that 5th voice in your head

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by Smed1065

Too many to count but it does affect ya if smart. Guess my 3rd time kicked in.

Lol, yeah, my first thought was, "just one?" I must've had at least three "wake-up calls" in my life, each taught me something slightly different. But at least I did learn from them, and eventually learned to extrapolate consequences, so I didn't need any more "wake-up calls" after the last one.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by wheeler08

Pics or it didn't happen!

Here ya go

The pic that nearly got me killed

Dome of the rock

David’s tower

Israeli truck at the Lebanon border. One like my shirt and allowed me to get in and take a pic

Pic on the kibbutz down past the Dead Sea and 100 or so from the Red Sea

[Why Not?]

Are there any adults in the world (or certainly here) that can honestly say "no" to this question? The amount of stupid shit I did when I was younger is mind boggling. Can't believe I didn't die or kill someone else (would've been way worse). Thankfully I was able to get enough second chances to finally take advantage of one of them and got things turned around. But there is a thin line between that and ending up on the wrong side of the dirt.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by In58men

Took my gun to a bar because I knew there would be some dudes there I didn’t like.

Long story short, my friends and their friends all got into it. Two of them started walking towards me, I opened my truck door to get my gun. I pointed a loaded .45 at one of the guys, but held back.

We didn’t like each other because we got into a fight at a party.

Very pathetic, could have been very bad.

Lol I guess just sit there and pout about it

[stumppy]

Yes, running with the wrong kind of people for too long. Doing dangerous shit. Lucky I didn't get myself shot or dead. Found my out and took it.

[cdcox]

I was in 7th grade math. The teacher used a hybrid group-independent study approach. All of the best performing students were in the top group, the next four best students in the next group and so on. Every couple of weeks the groups were resorted according to performance. I'm naturally a procrastinor and at that age a daydreamer. By the 3/4 mark of the school year I had slid to the bottom group in the class.

My teacher pulled me aside and told me I was in danger of funking. And then he said the words that have stuck with me to this day: "cdcox, between you, me, and the gate post, I know you are not giving any where near your best. You're capable of so much more. It is up to you to put forth the effort." That is one of the top 10 most important moments of my life.

I felt like I had been exposed and could no longer hide. I started spending a couple of hours every night on learning 7th grade arithmetic. I raised my grade to a respectable but not spectacular level. In 8th grade we started algebra and my mind engaged in a way it never did with arithmetic. Never looked back. Thank you, Mr. Thompson.

[cdcox]

Top 6 most fork-road moments of my life:

1. I was at a college party freshman year. DJ played "Riding the storm out" by REO Speedwagon. I wanted to dance. I asked a girl to dance I had been scoping --in a non-creeper way -- all night. Together for 44.5 years and married for almost 41.

2. I was about to graduate in engineering, in a recession without a job or a plan. I saw a bulliten board ad for a graduate research assistant in environmental engineering to study flocculation in water treatment using polymers. I didn't know what flocculation was, but I looked it up in the dictionary. Decided to contact the professor who was advertising the position an that set my career in motion.

3. I was working in industry at the interface between engineering and marketing. It was made known to me that I could get a promotion along the marketing branch to a position reporting to a VP at the age of 27. I thought, "I don't want to do that." Second thought,"okay, go ahead and turn down this opportunity, but what do you want to do?" Several months later I was headed to a PhD program.

4. Fast forward. I am now a professor and hold an entry level admin position under the department head. I'm good at it and I love it. I get offered an opportunity to lead a center where I will be in charge. My own boss, my own budget. Within a 10 minute window, I express reluctance to take the new opportunity because l love what I am doing to sending an email indicating that I wNt to do the new position as long as I can keep doing my current admin work.

5. See post 58 in this thread.

6. I'm interviewing for a position at a major petrochemical company. They put two positions on the table, I was very interested in one of the positions and less interested in the other. I made my preference clear and probably indicated an in flexibility that cost me the offeer.

[FlaChief58]

I've had a few since turning 50.

1. Quit smoking cigarettes 6 years ago, 1 week before my 50th.

2. I just celebrated 90 days alcohol free.

3. Since September of last year, I've lost 58lbs. (I still have another 50 to go to get to my target.) I was dangerously close to 300

My only regret is letting myself go over the past 10 years, but it's never too late to work on yourself.