When You Hit Rock Bottom - Finding Your Way Back To Joy

This past week I hit the proverbial rock bottom. It was not pretty. I’m going to share with you my experience with the hope that you can learn from it and that it will be helpful when you may find yourself in that same place. That’s what shared experiences are for! We can learn from one another.

Looking back on it now, I can see that It was the confluence of three things that caused it in the first place.

I was mentally and physically exhausted after delivering separate retreats for two of my CEO Forums. These retreats are always a busy time for me. Keeping up to 14 leaders engaged and stimulated for more than two days, is no easy task! This year it was complicated by COVID distancing protocols we had to follow to keep everyone safe. To add to it, I was caught on a mountain pass during a dangerous snow blizzard on the way back from the first retreat (it made for a few hours of exhausting white-knuckle driving!) and then our hotel closed down for deep cleaning due to a staff member testing positive for COVID just before my second group was scheduled to arrive. We had hours to move hotels and all the complicated COVID details that accompanied it!

I arrived home exhausted.

Then we made the mistake of getting drawn into the negativity of the US election. It was, and still is at the time of writing this, like watching a train wreck in slow motion! Painstakingly slow progress, arguments and counter arguments, it dragged on for days. Once we were drawn in, it was very difficult to stop as I still want to see this thing done! Checked off. Completed!

The final straw was when a dear friend, a man I admire and love, sent news that he received a stage 3b cancer diagnosis. He did it with so much dignity and class it took a few hours for the gravity of the situation to sink in.

That’s when I hit rock bottom.

My first instinct was to start praying. My mom taught me to pray as a little boy and I am still praying today! I talked to God. I was not happy, but I could spill my guts. I could pray for my friend. I felt a bit better. I felt more anchored.

Later I felt the urge to cry and for probably the first time in my life I decided to just go with it. I cried. As a young one I was taught that ‘boys don’t cry’. I didn’t care. I cried alone behind my desk. I cried for all the losses due to COVID. I cried out of exhaustion. I mostly cried for my friend.

I felt better. I could start thinking positively again.

I decided to do one thing that can take this forward. There was this email sitting in my In-Box about Movember that I had been avoiding. I had helped sponsor a friend to grow a moustache during the month of November with the funds going to improve men’s health, particularly men’s cancers and suicide prevention. I decided to sign up.

Now, I have to qualify. I’m not naturally gifted with an abundance of facial hair. I grow something that looks decidedly scruffy for quite some time and, once it’s all grown out, leaves me looking a bit like a homeless person. But I decided this is not about me, it is about my friend and all others fighting cancer.

There you have it! This is what I did. Some of it may not be a fit for you – you may for example not be a guy who prays, but perhaps this will get you thinking of how you can find an anchor when you hit rock bottom. How you can let the emotions out. How you can take the first positive step. We all hit rock bottom

I hope you found this helpful. More of the same can be found on nicohuman.com or by following me on LinkedIn, FaceBook or YouTube.

Thank you. Until next week!

I’m grateful to have you in my life. When you hit rock bottom, do know that I am here for you – let’s find the path back to joy together.