“No battery is stronger longer.”— Duracell battery commercial, early 90s
Ever stand in a room flipping a light switch over and over, thinking this time it’ll work? Click. Nothing. Click again. Still nothing. So you flip it harder, faster, like effort alone might suddenly create electricity.
When it came to solving our drink problem hadn't we flipped the switch on relationships? — this one will fix me. Flipped it on the gym? — if I just get healthy enough. Desperately, didn't we sometimes flip it on going dry? — I’m done drinking, problem solved. We flipped it on routines, diets, jobs, promises, fresh starts. Sometimes we even talked ourselves into seeing the light flicker.
We believed somewhere in exhausting our own effort we'd find the power. So we hit the switch harder and harder, not noticing we’d neglected the power company long enough for the lights to get shut off. Towards the end, we ended up exhausted.
Lack of power had become obvious. But what kept us stuck other than the quiet pride of I’ve got this, I’ll figure it out? Asking for help meant admitting that our problem drinking didn’t respond to the same willpower and intelligence we’d used to solve so many other problems.
When we finally stopped flipping the switch and said, “Maybe I need to call on the Power Company,” that’s when recovery started picking up speed — and the Light came on. That pause — that surrender — that’s where the real power showed up.
Where do you notice yourself still flipping the switch in life — trying to figure it out on your own instead of reaching out?
