Rapture of the Deep

According to multiple studies and extensive research, over two thirds of lottery winners end up broke or bankrupt. Nearly 80% of NFL players are bankrupt or financially insolvent within five years of retirement. Basketball players aren’t much better, with 60% of NBA retirees filing for bankruptcy within five years of leaving the game.

How is this possible?!? How does wealth vanish so quickly and leave previously rich individuals destitute? While there are many possible reasons and theories that I won’t go into here, we can sum up a lot of it with the fact they came up too fast. Money and fame flooded into their lives before they were properly prepared to handle it. Their behavior, perspectives and mindsets didn’t have time to adapt to the new challenges and scenarios they faced. Ultimately, they allowed themselves to be ruined by their own success and prosperity.

When a diver spends time at significant ocean depth, the pressure of the water causes physiological changes including, but not limited to, the solubility of gases in the lungs and blood. If there is a sudden change in the depth of the diver – such as too rapid of an ascension toward the surface –and thereby a quick variation in those pressures, the gases in the tissue can create a phenomenon called “nitrogen narcosis,” also known as, “Rapture of the Deep.” The solubility of gases in the blood changes faster than the body is able to adapt, and the diver can experience an intoxicated-like state, triggering disorientation, visual and perceptive disturbances and nausea. Although this is generally reversible, divers in this altered state have been known to wander into underwater caves, remove and disassemble their oxygen supply or even approach deadly sea creatures. In rising from depth too rapidly, the diver’s judgment and perception are clouded by the disoriented state, leading to dangerous and destructive behavior.

Sometimes there is a great risk in ascending too fast in many other areas of life as well. Don’t be frustrated with slow progress or overly eager to rise more quickly than you should. Patiently enjoy the time life gives you to adapt and adjust to the gradual but steady advancements in your life. It’s often much better to come up too slowly than too quickly.

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