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F*ck Labels: An Introduction, Part 2

Last week, I shared some of the wins and losses with you.

This week, I want to continue the introduction and talk about some challenges I’ve gone through.

I remember it like it was yesterday.

My wife and I had just been married and moved to Bermuda to work for two years.

While it looked like it was all smiles, it wasn’t.

I didn’t care about anything at that point.

I’d wake up in the morning, pull the covers over my head and try to go back to sleep.

It was hard on my wife.

She didn’t know what to do.

She had no idea what to say to me.

I won’t tell you how dark it got, but it was bad.

It all changed one night when one of the Senior Managers at KPMG took me for a beer.

He’d heard about me from his girlfriend, my wife’s cousin, and he wanted to check in with me. I still remember his words that night

Clint, I don’t know you well, but from what I’ve heard, what we’re seeing at the firm doesn’t match who you are, mate.

Then, he asked me the question that changed my life.

Have you ever heard of the EAP we have at the Firm?

He went on to explain that the Employee Assistance Program was a free confidential hotline I could call to get help with any mental challenges I may be dealing with.

I’d never thought of my mental health.

I’d been a psych major for 1-1/2 years before converting to accounting, but I never thought of my mental health.

Something in what he said, though, stuck with me.

Somehow, I was able to have enough energy to realize something was wrong.

I called the EAP line, took their assessments and met with a psychiatrist.

I was diagnosed with two mental health challenges:

ADHD
Depression

It all started to make sense.

My challenges in school as a child.

The way I’d been acting the year before our marriage and through our first six months in Bermuda.

I was lucky to see almost immediate positive impacts from my prescribed medication.

I didn’t only rely on medication, I also changed my lifestyle over the years:

Better diet
Mindfulness
More time outdoors
Focus on balance & family
Cognitive behavioral therapy

With a focus on medication and lifestyle changes, I’ve been able to build the life of my dreams from the moment he and I had that conversation 20 years ago.

Too often, we’re afraid of labels.

Too often, we let labels define our limits.

Your diagnosis or labels don’t need to define you.

The only thing that defines you is the actions you take.

What still strikes me is the conversation.

He didn’t have to have that hard conversation with me.

And, I’m reasonably sure I wouldn’t be here if he didn’t have that conversation with me.

Where in your life should you be having these hard conversations?

Where in your workplace should you be having these conversations?

When your family or your friends are struggling,

Have a hard conversation
Ask them the difficult questions

You never know the impact you could have.

TGG Podcast

This week on the Podcast,we talked to Ryan Hawk, author of The Pursuit of Excellence: The Uncommon Behaviors of the World’s Most Productive Achievers.

If you want to achieve excellence, you need to learn from the world’s highest performers.

Ryan has interviewed hundreds of the most productive achievers on his podcast, The Learning Leader Show, to discover the best practices for pursuing and sustaining excellence.

In The Pursuit of Excellence, Ryan shares some of the uncommon behaviors that will set you apart: