Find Your Tribe
When Bill Wilson (co-founder of AA) found himself in a bar after a business deal went bad, he knew he had two options:
Give in and have a drink, or
Find someone to talk to who understood his pain point.
That’s what happens when we find our tribe. We find people with whom we dare to share our vulnerabilities - our pain points.
Unaddressed pain points are one of the biggest reasons we wind up with resentments. And resentments are why we become emotional drunks (meaning we’re on overload with emotions that consume us, much like alcohol consumes the alcoholic).
Bill Wilson chose option 2 and found Dr. Bob, a like-minded person and fellow alcoholic, and their sharing is the genesis for what is one of the most powerful organizations ever created, changing hundreds of thousands of lives every single year.
One of my biggest tribes is a group of running friends. We aren’t the same age, the same profession, the same religion, the same zip code, or the same pace. But when we run shoulder to shoulder and share from the heart, we can lessen each other’s load. We feel seen. The kind of “high” we experience after a run is the best antidote in the world for the pain points we experience. It’s not that it abolishes the pain, it’s that someone shares it with us. This helps us look inward instead of blaming others for where we are.
If you already have a tribe, I hope you will nurture it deliberately. If you don’t have a tribe, I encourage you to find one. Yes, it takes a little bit of effort, but it’s a game changer, friends.
I’m so glad you are part of our tribe.
