“It’s gonna get worse before it gets better.” Thus goes the saying. But how much worse? Tell me! How much more is the stock gonna sink? How many more rejections will I collect? How long will I wake up feeling sick? If only we’d know! Can’t the gods of reassurance have some mercy?
Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. When things are trending down, life is giving you a test. The test is not whether you can predict where the bottom will be – for what good does it do to know what rock bottom looks like when you’re guaranteed to hit it either way?
What life wants to know is: Can you turn off your inner alarm? Can you look at the saying – “it’ll get worse before it gets better” – and dedicate your full attention to the “getting better” part? That is your half. That is the job. The only job. The true business of living.
I’m sorry that the slope is so slippery. I wish we wouldn’t have to keep sliding. Then again, most of us used to go on slides for fun, and once we saw the end around the corner, we used every last bit of the incline to garner all the momentum we could – so that, once we did reach the bottom, we might achieve lift-off.
Keep your head down, and your eyes pinned on better. Before you know it, you’ll come off the tail end soaring – because rock bottom may be rough ground, but it always comes with a catapult, ready to send you to new heights.