People say that the best thing about being at your lowest point is that the only way from there is up. I seem to disagree with this notion because of the human tendency towards complacency. I, for one always tend to use excuses or tend to blame my circumstances for my outcomes when I truly know that it was my own laziness which led to that outcome.
I have had almost 10 “lowest points" in the last few years. The thing about “lowest points" is that they can affect so many different aspects of our lives. I have had the lowest point in terms of my health, my social life, my academic life, my career, and my family life in the last 2 years. All of this is along with the existential crises that I have every now and then. I have always had a half glass empty kind of outlet in my life but I always seem to move out of these moments by saying that since I have acknowledged that this moment is as low as I can be, I can forget all the mistakes I made in the process. Therefore, I find myself in the same situations from time to time but much lower(theoretically) than the last time.
Today, I received a mail which said that I have been dropped out of my degree program because I missed the minimum requirement by 3% and my first thought was, damn this is my lowest point and the only way from here is up. But, the difference this time around was that it actually annoyed me. When I said it to myself I felt ashamed of myself for being complacent and careless. I have always tried to forgive myself for everything that I do. I find excuses to convince myself that I am never in the wrong but it is the situations that I am putting myself into that lead to my shortcomings.
This worked when I was younger because I could blame my parents for their bad decisions for me. But, now I am the one calling the shots, I made them send me to a very expensive university abroad. When I failed, they still supported me because they trust me, but I just used my failure as a mistake made in the decisions we made as a family in putting me in a course we knew I wouldn’t succeed in. My parents are gems of people who never make me feel bad about myself, they want me to understand my mistakes by myself and take accountability, which I never do.
When anyone is at their lowest point they need to reflect on what brought them there. This might seem hard when you are in that situation, but you will thank yourself for that in the future because you will then learn from your mistakes. Self-reflection is the key to growth in my opinion. I haven’t achieved success yet but I imagine this will lead me to it. Learning from your wins and losses always helps. Just like basketball players say after games, “We will review the tape to see what went wrong or what we did well and then focus on them”. But in real life, there is no tape(unless you have a reality show about your life) to look back on, it is your memories which would help you. Trust me, we never forget the important things.
In conclusion, the only way from your lowest point in life is lower without any proper reflection on the mistakes which led you there. Finally, “History repeats itself” because people don’t learn from the past.
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