People tend to cry a lot and emotionally (if not physically!) kick and scream whenever they have breakdowns. It could be the proverbial “bad hair day” or something more significant like a major setback in one’s career or personal relationships. Regardless of the severity of them, breakdowns are rarely if ever celebrated in those very moments when they occur.
Breakdowns, however, are not experiences to be feared or resisted. Sure, that’s easy for me to say as I sit here pontificating from my high horse. In the moment, a breakdown is exactly that – a breakdown! On the other side of a breakdown though awaits the potential for a powerful breakthrough, one that likely would never be possible without the occurrence of that wretched breakdown.
Trust me when I say I’ve had plenty of breakdowns in my life just in the past few years. I’ve been divorced and ended my business partnership with my former wife. Good times! Since then, our firm has experienced some of its greatest successes ever, yet even in that context there have been numerous setbacks that have had me thinking it was a “no good rotten day and I wished I lived in Australia”. (Yes, that’s still my favorite childhood book ever!)
It’s these very breakdowns though that were the access to bringing greater happiness and an even more sustainable business model into my life. Did I realize that in the midst of the breakdowns? Not so much… I cried like a baby like any normal human being would do. As I get older and experience more of these breakdowns in my life though, my emotional outbursts and tantrums get shorter and shorter because I’ve learned to look at these experiences for what they are – opportunities to break from the parts of my past that aren’t working for me and bring new ways of being and living into my life.
Breakdowns are to be celebrated. Yes celebrated! Without breakdowns, we cannot experience breakthroughs. We likely can introduce incremental changes and improvements to our lives. We will not be able to truly transform our lives though. That requires a complete breakdown for us to reconstruct ourselves in a whole new way.
So stop crying and get over it when breakdowns occur to you. As my mother taught me years ago, everything happens for a reason. We just need to be patient – and compassionate – with our emotions and actively search for what possibilities exist when one door closes, as unexpectedly as it may be. I promise you that another door will soon open. You have to be on the lookout though, or you’ll miss that new opportunity while booking your emotional getaway to Australia!
