I go to therapy once a week, sometimes twice, and I have for most of the last six years. I’m talking counseling, therapy, a.k.a seeing a shrink.

Therapy is about working with missing, broken, or undeveloped parts of me. When I left home at age 19 and headed to college, I took with me a lot of good skills and valuable life learning that came from my parents. I also took with me some problematic gaps in my development, some hurts from things that didn’t go well, and some unfinished growing-up business.

Over the next several years I took on the responsibilities of a marriage, kids, and business leadership. As the demands of my life increased, the gaps in me caused bigger problems. They showed up in my relationships, my work results, and how I felt every day. I had too much anxiety, not enough confidence, insecurity in some relationships, and a handful of other problems.

I wanted to live up to my potential, not be held back by the gaps and broken aspects of me. I wanted to feel well and function well. I invested in my growth. I went to conferences, group cohorts, and a whole lot of individual therapy. I chose my helpers carefully. (I’d advise you to do the same.) I’m grateful to have worked with some of the best human beings I know as my coaches and therapists.

The more whole, healed, and mature I am, the better I function in relationships and in work.

I don’t expect to always be in therapy to fix broken things in me. Like physical therapy after an accident, it should not last forever. Therapy should end when healing is complete and functionality has returned, or when all progress that will be made has been made. Perhaps I’ve been a little more broken than most, because it’s taking me a while. I’m getting there.

Unlike therapy, I do expect to continue working with coaches as long as I live. Coaches can help with the broken things, but more than that they help take what’s good and make it great. Like an athlete who is always training for the next level of competition, I always want coaches helping me reach for the next notch of my potential.

As I look back on all the hours sitting on the couch of someone older, wiser, and better at seeing me than I am at seeing myself, there’s no doubt it has changed me for the better. There’s something beautiful about restoring and developing to one’s full potential. This is undoubtedly one of the best investments of time and money I’ve made.