Why do people wait for a crisis before they change?

Rabbi Landau explains that most people don't take control of their life until they feel they have lost control. He asks a pointed question: “You had the power to make changes all along. Why did you need a crisis to start using it?”

He gives examples. Someone has ten years to save his marriage, and only when the divorce papers arrive does he suddenly become a marriage expert. You know your health needs attention, but you wait for the doctor. You couldn't find the courage to leave a bad job, and getting fired found it for you.

He sees the same thing in elections. When people get too comfortable, they get lazy and stay home. Politicians spend fortunes trying to motivate voters, but what really moves people is feeling that they have lost control of their lives. People don't act when they've had enough, he says; they act when they've suffered enough.

King Solomon says, “V'shalvas k'silim te'abdem,” the complacency of fools destroys them. Rabbi Landau leaves the question with each of us: why does life have to push you against the wall before you finally decide to move?

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

Most people only take control of their life after they feel they have lost it.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

Comfort makes people lazy. Without pain, they stay where they are, even when they know something needs to change.

Deepest human truth

“V'shalvas k'silim te'abdem.” Comfort itself can be the danger, and the power to change was there all along, before life pushed us against the wall.