Benefits Of The Bottom

Humility, Motivation, and Smiling Gratitude in the Face of Demons.

The thing about the Bottom is: there’s a tonne of shit down there that you wouldn’t expect, and won’t see without the magic key.

The Bottom is a subjective, (hopefully) transitory zone, that you find yourself in after taking one too many tumbles from your path. 

You may’ve been there before, but its different each time—there are new demons, and the view has morphed into dusty, unrecognizable plains, with a single mountain in the distance, and a thousand misleading signposts, and sirens at each of them, whispering wickedly in your ear about enchanting Edens that turn out to be new Bottoms.

This hellscape is a mirage: an illusion creating by your shame and lack of confidence. The demons are your distorted reflections, like twisted, carnival fun-house mirror images. The sirens and signs are vices, addictions, habits. Some are gentle, like Procrastination, who leads you through an easy downhill path that winds ‘round and ‘round before putting you back where you started. Some are more sinister. 

The Bottom is real. But your perceptions of it are often not.

The desolate plain is both an endless desert, and a flat, open road. The former is hopeless, meaning you look at it and feel only immanent, permanent failure. The latter you see as the ideal path to begin a journey on; no hills, potholes, thickets, or confusing woods. 

The difference is attitude, but more on that in a moment.

There is a single mountain at this particular Bottom. The mountain is Olympus; Sinai; Kailash. Your holy place. Your point of personal Heaven. Everything you desire lies somewhere on the slopes. Not even necessarily at the peak. 

The mountain is your goal, and the Bottom is where you start, and restart, and land on your ass and restart again, on your way Up.

The great thing is, the Bottom is a hard and simple place to be. You have all these roads ahead, some leading you in circles, others to new Bottoms, and a few actually lead you Up. But if you truly look at these trails—and keep looking as you walk—you see the true trail heading where you want to get to. It is a simple thing to identify the sirens for what they are, and the demons are old, masochistic friends. Simple, but not easy. And even less easy to ignore, battle, or out-think them. 

Now, you’re reading back, and thinking Didn’t he say this was a great thing? Sure did. Because you are going to suffer in life, and there’s nothing you can do to get out of that deal. In fact, avoiding or pushing away things that make you owie, is a surefire way to exacerbate the boo-boo. Its great because simplicity makes your call to action understandable and straightforward. Its great because the hardest path in life yields the greatest rewards.

Since you’re going to suffer, you might as well suffer on the way up your mountain. 

A common reason people don’t make the journey Up is because they believe there is slightly less suffering to be had staying where they are, ogling the sirens or playing grotesque games with their demons—you’re not at the Bottom, so you don’t need to make the uncomfortable trudge Up. 

Well, there are benefits to being at the Bottom that are only apparent with the correct attitude. That attitude, is gratitude.

When you’re profoundly grateful, there is no room for fear, no room for hate, no room for anger, no room for discontent. Abundance is the magic sprite that lights the way, and helps you take those steps forward.

With an attitude of gratitude, you can find humility at the Bottom—knowing you are mortal and have and will make mistakes is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. Practice it, and you will find a more compassionate, patient persona under the skin. Humility opens you to being wrong, and the understanding of how little you really know—as Socrates said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing”. 

Humility is a perpetual Bottom from which you have a clear view, a peaceful mind, and compassionate ears. Sounds like Heaven to me.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Bottom lights a fire under your ass. Often urgent, sometimes painful; I believe the fire flares from our soul. What do I mean by ‘soul’? I’m talking about an unseen force within that guides us to Meaning. Meaning is this extramundane quality that we find difficult to quantify and impossible to unify. But intuitively, we seek it, and the soul can be thought of as our compass, orienting us toward it. 

At the Bottom, your soul screams for Meaning. Recognizing the call to action is difficult in ignorance, but the wail is like that of a child for mother’s milk—impossible to ignore. You may try, but willful ignorance is akin to building a house of sticks and inviting demons to stoke the fire.

Suffering is non-negotiable, so make the best out of the deal.

Converse to the gravitational pull of Meaning, is the explosive push of motivation. The Bottom gives both to those with the right attitude.

Pressure will crush you if you allow your thoughts to turn a simple sensation into a demon, called Anxiety. When viewed from the lense of gratitude, that very same (and in future, even more) pressure transforms into motivation. You begin to seek higher pressure—greater responsibility and greater difficulty—for the same reason you seek the most nutritious (often unappealing) snack; you want to be healthier, stronger.

Do not allow your mind to lead you down the easy, comfortable path under the guise of saving you from being crushed. Given time and intelligent progression, you will adapt to pressure, overcome it, and eventually lean into it from a place of strength. 

Motivation is just the beginning, the real task is using the motivation that comes from being so discontent with where you are that you cannot conceive of staying, and turning that call to action into a series of consistent mini actions that create good habits and build a powerful force called discipline. 

You don’t get discipline from the Bottom. You get the opportunity for discipline, which is harder and much more valuable.

The Bottom is a terrible place for those with a warped outlook. It is a blank canvas to those with an attitude of gratitude. Be thankful for the solid bedrock on which to build your dreams. Be thankful for the tests and trials that strengthen your mind, body, and resolve. Be thankful for the brazen presence of your demons, so you can face them, smiling. Be thankful for the exponentially steep, treacherous mountain, because nothing worthwhile ever comes easy.

Be grateful for the Bottom and you will find yourself at the foothills in no time, ready to climb Up.

As a final disclaimer, I want to impress the UNimportance of making to the top of your mountain. The goal is not the destination, its the Meaningful journey Up. Whatever your ideal is; business, body, personality, organisation, mental health—whatever the mountain is—there are milestones along the way that you may come to recognise as a perfectly happy place to stop. Often the top is out of reach for us—our ambitions are larger than our abilities—what matters is not where we stop on our way Up; its how hard we persevere to get there, and how much Meaning we derive from the climb.