Rock Bottom Has an Expiration Date

Rock bottom always has an expiration date. The problem is that nobody ever thinks to look at it and find out when it runs out.

We are strangely consistent about getting this wrong in both directions. The second things go well, I catch myself thinking it could all be over tomorrow, so I had better go do something else great to keep the greatness going. And the second I hit the bottom, I am convinced I am going to live down there permanently. Those are the same mistake wearing two different outfits.

Here is the correction I keep coming back to. You have a 100 percent survival rate for every bad thing you have ever been through. Every single one. Think about how many times you have been at the bottom, and how every one of those ended with you climbing out, usually in better shape than you went in.

I drew it on the whiteboard as a lumpy rock that ended up looking like an Easter Island head. The rock drops. It keeps dropping. And then it stops, because there is a floor. Once you are on the floor there is nowhere left to go but up. Maybe your line out is not clean. Maybe you come up a little, hit bottom again, come up further the next time. That is fine. Nothing stays at the bottom forever.

Now here is the part you actually control. You do not always get to choose when you land at the bottom. That is frequently out of your hands. What you do get to decide is when it expires.

Think about a ham in your grandmother's deep freezer. Leave it in there and it will keep until the next holiday, and probably the holiday after that one. Take it out, unwrap it, set it in the sun, and that expiration date moves up fast. Rock bottom behaves exactly the same way. Sitting in it, dwelling on it, telling yourself this is just how things are now, that is the freezer. The longer you stay there thinking about how far down you are, the longer down is where you stay.

The way out is not complicated, which is the genuinely annoying part about it. It is remembering that you do not have to stay here. This too shall pass. When that actually lands rather than just sounding nice, people tend to leave rock bottom a lot faster than they expected to.

Try This Tomorrow: Say this too shall pass out loud, then take one action today that moves your expiration date up instead of sitting in it.

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