25 November 2020
For years I have thought of counselling, therapy, and self-questioning as the most profitable enterprises in which an individual can invest. This, because such investment is in that which we only leave once: the self. If 20 constructive meetings, with a person able to see how and why you see the world as you do, costs 20 x $150 = $3,000 this is a trifling sum in relation to how much those with addictive behaviours spend destructively. In short, that investment of your time, attention, and funds has the potential to change the way you see, and thus live, the remainder of your life.
Because I have been invested in this perspective on therapy, I read the business section of my paper with atypical eyes. An article by Peter Hodson, Five Mind Tricks to Help Investors (17 October 2020), is our current subject. His issues are bolded and numbered.
1. You must sell two stocks. The point of selling two stocks, when your portfolio is
performing better than expected, is to sharpen focus. What is the primary target (recovery? lower anxiety? health?) and what are the means of attaining it? Remain focused.
2. Do you take the buyout price or hold? A takeover bid is announced yielding a 30% return on investment; surely, you’ll take the 30% and run? Surely not, as you entered this race to change your life, not indulge in short term lapses or relapses. Tempting offers are unnecessary distractions to those who have well-plotted courses.
3. Would you invest more in that stock? This returns the focus to self-examination (Socrates: The unexamined life is not worth living) and self-betterment. Of course, you will seek every possible route to further the meaning and purpose of your one and only life.
4. Are you just hiding from the taxman? In mental health terms, are you going with the flow only to postpone what you know must be faced = denial? It is ostrich behaviour: with your head buried in the sand it is unlikely self-respect, self-knowledge, or self-control will improve. Face adversity (acceptance); make a plan (resilience); and move forward (live).
5. Are you holding that stock in blind hope? Is there something in your life that you know, deep down, must change? Face it, plan the exit, move forward with a lighter load and real hope.
Dan Chalykoff facilitates two weekly voluntary group meetings, as well as private appointments, for SMART-based counselling services at danchalykoff@hotmail.com
Comments