My Philosophy

….You are standing at the bottom of a mountain… you look up and think, “I can’t do this”.

As a therapist, I have a philosophy about how people view their problems, and how that perspective can either challenge them or cripple them. My analogy of staring up at a mountain is to illustrate how people view obstacles in front of them.

When you imagine looking up a mountain, what do you think? what do you feel? what is your next step?

In my experience, research, and life, viewing the end result (the summit) is always overwhelming. If I told you I am going to make that man fall in love with me, or I am going to lose 30 pounds, or I am going to train my dog, Ivan, not to bark at leaves falling to the ground, what would you say? “Good luck!”

With only the summit in my mind, any obstacle, challenge, or mistake is crippling. It is a constant reminder that “you’re not there yet!!”. It makes people, myself included, overwhelmed, and chances of them giving up increase dramatically. People get caught in this cycle, and they blame themselves. I am here to say, “It’s not your fault!!”. There are inherent flaws in this system. You begin to believe that even taking one step forward is futile.

…You are standing at the bottom of a mountain… you look up and think, “I can take one step”.

As one of my favorite motivational speakers, Simon Sinek, says, someone doesn’t fall in love with you at a specific time, date, location. It happens slowly, over time, with consistent behaviors over time (check out my Links page for this inspiring YouTube video). You don’t lose 30 pounds without consistency and attention to detail. Ivan will not learn that leaves are not threatening over night. But every leaf that drops is another opportunity for him to practice and learn. Eventually, he will get it. I just know he will.

Every day, every minute, you think, “what can I do right now, with that I have, as I am right now?” If the answer is, “I can take one step uphill” or “I can put my helmet on” or “I gotta sit down for one minute first”, then you’re already getting it.

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Thanks for reading!