You have to cross the Threshold

You had always been behaving and acting in a certain way. Then, slowly or sometimes abruptly, you change the method followed and do things in a different way or maybe add and delete items from the things you do. This happened only because, either your threshold changed or the threshold of the thing changed. In short a relative or mutual change in the threshold.

For every thing there is a threshold and may be even a threshold value, if you wish. You had been traveling by train forever and that too in the second class. Suddenly, you feel that in future, if you travel by train that would only be in the air conditioned coaches. After some time, the train journey ceases to be an experience you might wish to experience. You are all for air travel even if that is a little too much for your pocket. That is the time to realize that a threshold has been crossed (or achieved!).

There might be a number of reasons for the same. Like in the previous example, affordability may be an important parameter. The cost of air travel may have decreased or your income might have increased so that it was strong enough to support your new mode of travel. Various other reasons can be searched for, but the thing to notice is that there was a threshold which had to be reached.

You come across these, almost daily. You come across a stranger; talk to him/her for a while; find him to be a nice guy/gal; decide on the next meeting; have a few meetings. The virtual threshold of making him a friend could be crossed at any stage of the above interactions or it may happen that it is never reached at all. Also, you would see that there are a number of points/milestones to be reached and with each one of them, there is a threshold value attached.

Now, the value depends on both the people interacting and the situation or the behaviour involved. Thus, the value varies with the person involved and as such different individuals in a similar situation might have the milestones at different levels in the journey. The value interprets and translates into different variables like time taken, money spent, quantity of work required to be done etc. So, different persons may take different amount of time to become friends with a particular person, or may have to employ distinct amount of labour in similar work profiles.

This threshold value is more dynamic than it seems. So, it is possible that it increases or decreases according to the change in the parameters on which the threshold (and thereby its value) is based. So, when you move out of the comforts of your house for the first time, the value hill is steep; but once the initial phase is over, it kind of becomes a plain and for many, the other way (i.e. moving from the independence in the outside world to the confinements of the home) becomes a mountain.