Optimizing

When people talk about optimizing, they are usually excited about a profitable new business strategy. It entails taking something that already exists and using it in a new(er) way to gain even more benefit and efficiency. It entails cutting out inefficiencies, redundancies, and uneeded steps. It's about leverage. It's about re-imagining usage, and it's oftentimes about word choice.

I'll take this moment to pluck the successful business strategy out of the business world and plop it right into therapy and mental health. We each have our own stories. Our stories are our business. There are the things we did and the things that happened to us. There's our family life, our choices, and our beliefs. Word choice matters. A lot. I'd say it matters more than anything else.

I task you with optimizing your word choice when you tell your stories to others and to yourself. Whatever happened or is happening, tell the story using the words that most accurately describe how you felt/feel. Cut out unnecessary words and phrases. Here are some examples of those: "should, fault, if only, don't deserve, can't, no choice". Optimize by being accurate, truthful, and simple. Optimize by updating often and telling the most current version of your stories.