Some things, especially the things we care most about are difficult. Starting is hard, but then following thru over a long period, is nearly impossible. That’s why so few people have great acts, that’s why so few bands create great albums. The follow thru is rough.
In addiction programs, the addiction is so linked to the addict’s identity and daily life, that changing feels like a destruction of self. There’s a lot of resistance there. Even after joining Alcoholics Anonymous, many drinkers keep on drinking until they get to a point called rock bottom. This is the end where nothing is worth another drink. Something happened that made sobriety more important than social circles, old patterns, identity, and maybe even a sense of survival.
It’s completely life changing to reach rock bottom… The addict is confronting issues that are not just from their whole life, but probably from generations before them. It might sound simple, but this is a matter of priorities. Solving the addiction becomes the number one priority over maybe everything else, and the addict becomes willing to make major changes, get help, and follow the guidance of others to get rid of their demons.
One interesting part of this to me is that rock bottom isn’t a specific thing. Everyone has their own. Even though it probably feels to them like they had no choice, they did. They chose that rock bottom. For some people it’s ending up in the ER with broken bones from a car crash that killed people. For some it’s having a fight at thanksgiving. Every rock bottom is legit.
I’m not trying to make light of the subject, but I think it’s a peek into how humans operate. We would like to be victims of the world. We’d like to get to a point of having no choice, because it takes the responsibility off us. Those people who recover from addiction might feel they have no choice, but they do and they chose to do something very scary.
If we think about this for more mundane creations and revolutions for ourselves, we can maybe channel the rock bottom mentality into our scary realms. We can decide, “I have not written that book because I need help and I need to give up a lot of beliefs, and habits, and some fun things maybe to get this thing done. This is the final day of not being a writer. This is my rock bottom.” Then, we can do the hard things that we know we can do to follow thru on creating something amazing for the world.