When I first started working with my coach, Laura, I was broken. I had just gotten divorced, lost my dog, and broken up with my best friend. I was a real life Country Western song. I had lost everything. But do you know what happens after your worst fears are realized?
Freedom.
Rock bottom is not only a wake-up call, but an opportunity to recreate. As my friend Shaun T. says, “You gotta go down to go up.”
Because I had nothing left to lose, I listened to Laura’s words as those they were gospel. Whatever assignment I was handed, I did. I never resisted or hesitated. She often told me that I was one of her best coaching clients because I trusted, and leapt.
Does that mean that my life has been perfect since ? No. I’ve hit more rock bottoms, and realized a few more worst fear come to life moments. In 2011, my fear was being alone. Check. In 2013, it was losing my job. That came to fruition a few years later when my company downsized.
But each challenge presented an opportunity for me to recreate myself. When our worst fears are realized, a release occurs. And then we have the opportunity to shift. Most of us don’t seize this moment. We stick with what we know, even if the “known” is toxic for us. But the lesson is this: it’s not what happens to us – it’s how we chose to show up for ourselves in the months and years thereafter.
Where are you holding onto fear? What scares you the most? And might happen if you started to let go, and focus on the possibilities that a new opportunity presents?
