Lesson 4: Your Rock Bottom Is Your Rocket Fuel

1:00--2:30

I want you to hear me on this. Your lowest moment --- that moment when

you're sitting in the dark wondering how you got here, wondering if

it's even worth trying again --- that moment is not your ending. That

moment is your LAUNCH PAD.

In September 2013, I was working as a custodian, making \$8.25 an hour

on the graveyard shift, 10pm to 5am. I was a former NFL player. A former

millionaire. I had my My Spoiled Boat Moment --- somebody's rotten

trash, banana peels, smelling milk, right all over my skin and my

clothes. And in that moment, instead of breaking --- I DECIDED. I

decided that this was the last time I would ever be here. That decision

--- not a wish, not a hope, a DECISION --- was the rocket fuel that

launched the next chapter of my life.

"And that was my rock bottom moment. Thank you for that, Marcus, do you

know --- yes, yeah, yeah. So my mother picked myself\... that was my

rock bottom moment." --- Marques Ogden

In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl --- who survived the Nazi

concentration camps --- wrote that between stimulus and response, there

is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our

response lies our growth and our freedom. THAT is what I chose in that

moment with the trash on my body. I chose my response. I chose my

future.

Your rock bottom isn't a punishment. It's a qualification. It

qualifies you to speak with authority about rising up. It qualifies you

to lead others who are in their own valleys. Don't waste your pain. Use

it.

Key Takeaway:

Whatever your lowest moment has been --- or whatever it might be ---

decide right now that it is NOT your destination. Make a DECISION, not a

wish. Decisions have power. Wishes are just thoughts with no legs.

Reflection Questions:

1\. What was your lowest moment? What decision did you make (or fail to

make) in response?

2\. How has your adversity qualified you to help others?

3\. What would change in your life if you started treating every setback

as rocket fuel?

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