Friday Debrief

The strongest thing on my calendar is a standing appointment

I’ve got a standing appointment on my calendar that 25-year-old me would have been mortified by. Therapy. Every couple of weeks, plus my wife and I sit down with a counselor together. The guy who spent his twenties proving he didn’t need anybody now pays a professional to help him need people better. Life’s funny like that.

In the SEAL Teams, getting help was practically a fireable idea. You did not raise your hand. You did not say the wheels were coming off, because the wheels coming off could mean losing the thing that gave you your whole identity. So you buried it, and a lot of good men buried it right up until it buried them. I came close enough to that to respect it.

Here’s what I believe now, after plenty of years doing it the hard way. Asking for professional help is the most self-respecting move on the board. It’s maintenance on the one machine you can’t trade in. You take the truck in for the noise before the engine drops. You get the weird mole looked at. Somehow the one system we’ll let run straight into the ground is the one between our ears.

So this is the Friday debrief. A few honest questions before the weekend.

What have I been white-knuckling that a professional handles for a living?

Whose number have I been meaning to call, and what story am I telling myself to avoid it?

If my best friend were carrying this, would I tell him to tough it out or to get help?

Then why do I hold myself to the crueler standard?

You don’t earn bonus points for bleeding privately. Book the appointment. It’s a rep like any other, and it might be the most important one on this whole list.

So what’s the call you’ve been avoiding, and what would it take to make it this week?

See you Monday. Peace.

Before you go, most people think they're sharp. The score usually says otherwise. Find out where you land. —> Take our FREE Awareness Self Assessment