How to be Perfect

Has anyone else read this book, “How to be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days”? I was thinking of this story a few days ago, and looked it up on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Person-Just-Three-Days/dp/0440413494

Basically, its about a kid that happens upon a self-help book promising to make him perfect in 3 days. I read this when I was a preteen and the message of the story stayed with me in the best possible way.

There are a wide range of philosophies and techniques in the field of human services. Really, more flavors than ice cream and as many different versions as cars on the highway. Its good, because people are as varied…if not more so.

My view is that some things can’t be changed. There isn’t a book or a therapist that will make you perfect in 3 days or 3 years (Yes! I’m looking at you, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.” Its NOT all small stuff!!!). No matter how much time or effort you put in, you will always have days where you don’t want to get into or out of your car in the morning. Moments when your kids wonder why you have such large veins in your neck.

Therapy can be more of a shifting of perspective. Like a tree that was twisted up in a storm. After the rain stops falling, the tree can’t be untwisted. It will never be the tree that it would have been. Even if it were possible to go back, how would we stop the storm?

We can revisit the past in our minds. Its something that separates humans from bunnies and cows. But we can’t change what happened moments or years ago. Therapy can’t help you alter the past. Only Sam Beckett can do that, and he would really have liked to get home before that poorly written final episode**

When you look up at the twisted tree, you get to decide if it is ugly or beautiful. Whether you will chop it down and burn the pieces or paint a picture showing the way it still bears fruit.

Therapy, good therapy, can help challenge the way you view the past. As well as helping you become aware of how the past influences your reactions to present situations. Prayers, friends, and books are powerful allies in shaping your viewpoints as well. I think that good therapy works alongside the strengths and supports an individual already utilizes.

Happy Saturday! Be Well 🙂

**Quantum Leap was such a good show. Why that last episode? I demand an answer!**