Have you ever reached a low point in your life where you’re convinced it won’t get better? If you haven’t, I guarantee at some point you will. If you have, that feeling should prevent you from returning to that hole you were in. But there are no guarantees that it won’t. Sometimes in our life, we’ll get into a rut. What I don’t want you to do is dig that rut into a huge gaping hole.

Life is full of expectations. We have our own and those others impress upon us. We are always trying to push ourselves to reach our goals and reach new summits. When we can’t, for whatever reason, reach those summits, we tend to get discouraged, lose focus and lose energy. If we are not careful, we’ll question our self-worth and dig ourselves deeper into that hole.

I went through this. I dug myself a really huge hole. Everything I did with the intent to climb out instead was another shovel full deeper into the hole. You can’t think straight, you feel overwhelmed and tend to make more bad decisions. Self-worth gets worse and not better. You feel like a failure instead of a success. You will also feel a lot of pain.

There is an old joke that says “if you’ve dug yourself a huge hole and want to get out, what is the first thing you must do?” The answer is “stop digging.” Stop digging! Sometimes we have to stop everything, take an honest, objective look around us. After we look, we have to make sure we don’t continue those old habits and limiting beliefs that are holding us back.

After that honest look, we need to be able to adapt, become resilient and have courage to MOVE FORWARD. I guarantee that when you look up out of the bottom of the hole, you will see light. How much light will depend on how deep you dug, but you will see light. There is hope that you will climb out. And another thing: you won’t be able to do this by yourself.

You will need people to help you climb out of the hole. They can be family, friends and, in a lot of cases, complete strangers. I have a saying: “The person who will help you the most you probably haven’t met yet!” You’ll try to do it yourself, but you will just dig the hole deeper. Have the courage to ask for and accept the help.

Recognizing you are in a hole is your first step. Don’t worry, others around you will help you recognize it, but you are the one who needs to open your eyes and accept it. You may not be the one in the hole, but know someone who is and want to help them. By reading this blog, this is a good step to help you (or them) dig out, rise up, and move forward. Let’s move forward together…

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