Rock Bottom and Bill W.

My name is Bill W and I am an Alcoholic.

For those of you who know people in “the program”, you are probably familiar with the name Bill W. William “Bill” Wilson is the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. This is a group that has changed millions of lives by helping people kick their dependency on alcohol.

If you know anyone who is part of AA, you probably also know the term “rock bottom. While this term can be subjective, it usually means a low point that an alcoholic never wants to experience again.

I want to say something very odd to some of you.

I want you to hit rock bottom.

Sounds weird, doesn’t it? It makes it sound like I am cursing you, but I am doing the opposite. Why would I, someone who genuinely wants to make your life better, want you to hit rock bottom?

The answer is simple. People are slow to change unless they have some life changing event. Without said event, people tend to stay in their comfort zones.

If I never broke down after doing an abysmal job selling security sales, I would not be where I am today. Without that breakdown, I would have continued to think I knew everything about sales. I would have continue walking around delusional.

I needed that wake up call.

I needed to have my voicemail so filled with creditors that my wife could not leave a message.

Here is the thing, remember how I said rock bottom is subjective? You can decide, right now, that you have had enough. It does not have to be sleeping in a train station or being foreclosed on. This very sentence could be your rock bottom. This can be the call to re-evaluate your life and change what you don’t like about it.

So, yes, I do want you to hit rock bottom. I want you to say “This is the lowest I ever want to be in my life from here on”.

One day you will be grateful for your rock bottom because it created the change you needed.