I have come to a decision. As I go through a transitional moment in my life, I have decided that I need to talk to someone about it. I have decided, for the first time in my life, to go get counseling.

As I begin a search for answers, I suppose this could be called a training period. Folks have told me that going to see someone can make me stronger in the end … and when boxers train for a fight they get stronger in the end … so maybe it is indeed the same thing.

There’s many many lines in the movie Million Dollar Baby that I like and won’t go through all of them right now, but I want to share this one with you:

To make a fighter, you gotta strip them down to bare wood. You can’t just tell ’em to forget everything you know if you gotta make ’em forget even their bones … make ’em so tired they only listen to you, only hear your voice, only do what you say and nothing else … show ’em how to keep their balance and take it away fro the other guy … how to generate momentum off their right toe and how to flex your knees when you fire a jab … how to fly back and up so that the other guy doesn’t want to come after you. Then you gotta show ’em all over again. Over and over and over … ’til they think they’re born that way.

Is this what I should expect from my sessions with a shrink/psychiatrist/counselor? Is this person going to strip me down and make me so tired that I’m going to just listen and accept what they tell me? Is that the right way to fix what might be wrong with me (assuming there is something wrong with me)?

I do know that this is a new thing for me and I’m a little scared about it … and usually it’s just clowns that scare me.

So let me wrap this one up with a shout-out to Million Dollar Baby (I highly suggest that you see the film if you haven’t), and ask that you keep me in my thoughts as I start my training.