Do not underestimate the power of rock bottom.  Rock bottom is where everything becomes possible.  And while none of us needs to visit there more than once or twice in a lifetime, when it’s your turn, just let go and stop trying to save yourself.  Race down as fast as you can.

We all have small cycles of destruction and creation, loss and recovery.  It’s muscle building.  It’s the going to the gym of character development.  These cycles are not what I am talking about.

I am talking about when life decides it is your turn to get crosswise of full-blown chaos.

This is when, instead of slipping down the hill and getting scraped up and needing a cold Gatorade, you see the hill turn into a hole and notice deep claw marks above your head, fingers raw and bloody as you try to pull yourself up but just keep falling deeper into darkness and destruction.

This is a universally human experience (unless you are a sociopath, but let’s stick with an ambitious definition of “human”).  We try and try and try to keep things on the rails in life, but sometimes life decides otherwise and we don’t get a say.

The money runs out.  A child dies.  Your health fails.  Your mate disappears.  You lose your home.  Your god abandons you.  Shit happens.  It’s not your fault when it does.  It is just your turn.

What rock bottom looks like

You know when you’ve arrived at rock bottom, sometimes after a couple of false landings, because your state of brown-beaten surrender might take on a sly and weirdly powerful grin.  Mud and shit drip into your eyes unimpeded, no longer wiped away by your last slivers of optimism now abandoned, and you laugh wisely and perhaps wickedly at the world, knowing nothing has power over you now.

Rock bottom is the ultimate state of nothing to lose.  You are untouchable.

How the hell is that a good thing?

Having nothing to lose when you are wasted and beaten and don’t care about yourself or your life anymore doesn’t sound like a particularly powerful place to be.  I know.  But that’s the deception.

Because odds are good that all the shit you used to care about and motivate yourself with – all the shit you were clawing your fingers to stubs to protect – doesn’t fucking matter.  And now you are finally free to start your life and find out what does indeed matter.

Great – give me some of that

Ha!  You wish.

Getting to what does indeed matter is a one step at a time process.  You don’t look up from your mud pit, liberated from your false assumptions and suddenly see truth.  You look up and see basics.

With nothing to lose, you can eat a whole wheel of cheese if you want.  With nothing to lose, you can tell someone what you actually think.  With nothing to lose, you can take a nap.  With nothing to lose, you can spend your last $10 on googly eyes and just stick them on things.

And that’s where rebuilding starts.  One real choice at a time.  And pretty soon those little, heartfelt choices turn into bold choices.  Nothing to lose turns into a V2, which looks more like: “I already have everything I need and nothing can take that away.”

Once you look deep into the eyes of your fears, you are free

Rock bottom is the invitation to face your darkness.  And fear of what’s hiding in your dark places is what keeps you white-knuckling your control of life.  Life isn’t controllable.  But it is beautiful, rich, and damn entertaining.

Once you have sat in the shit of worst case scenario, or at least gotten close enough to imagine it and feel fine, you can finally say no to all the things you think you need that really are keeping you from living.

You can live poor.  You can lose people you love with all your being.  You can exist in a broken body.  You can redefine your values and your beliefs.  You can be scarred and ugly and still be magnificent.  You can find a way to live that no one has ever lived before.  You can lose everything and rebuild over and over again.  And you will.

Thoughts?  Please leave ideas, comments, rants of your own below…