Hitting Rock Bottom

I think we’ve all heard the saying that some people have to hit rock bottom before they can rise again.

And maybe you know someone who’s done exactly that. I certainly do.

But I’ve always wondered: Do we really have to hit bottom before we can start climbing?

I recently heard a voice coach say, “Sometimes things have to break in order to have a breakthrough.”

Now she probably wasn’t talking about life. But those words got me thinking.

Because noticing that something in your life has broken can be the beginning of fixing it.

You don’t have to wait for everything else to fall apart before you decide to make a change.

The hard part is being honest enough to admit something is broken in the first place.

That takes some real “look-in-the-mirror” honesty.

And even when people recognize that something needs to change, they can still have a hard time moving forward.

Why is that?

Because they spend all their energy pointing outward. 

Someone else did this.

Someone else caused that.

Someone else is the reason I’m here.

And look, other people can absolutely be part of our broken story. But if we spend all our time focusing on their part, we never get around to looking at ours.

And that’s when blame becomes an anchor.

It keeps us down.

So maybe the way back up doesn’t begin at rock bottom.

Maybe it begins the moment we’re willing to say:

“I played a part in my demise.” 

That doesn’t mean taking all the blame.

It means taking enough responsibility to do something about it.

Because once you can see your part, you can change your part.

And you don’t have to hit bottom to begin rising.

All the best,

John