Seeing Where Your Journey Can Take You

I honestly can’t believe that this is my 300th SFBT Moments blog video. And it has me thinking about the origin of this journey, but not just the journey of the SFBT Moments blog, but the journey of my life.

I’m standing here right now on the corner of 84th and Seeley. And this is where I was born. This is the first house I knew on this planet. It’s right there. And I think about my experiences in this house. I think about my experiences here in Chicago, where I spent the first years of my life. And I’m back in Chicago now to speak at a conference. Speaking at a major conference in a much more upscale area than this. And I think about little Elliott and playing here.

Like if you see there’s this little like brick thing that had plants in it, that was there when I was here as a kid, like I can remember playing here. If you look down the street, there’s a tree. I was only allowed to go as far as that tree. That house, next door, my best friend, a guy named Wilber lived in that house.

And I think about like who I was then, and I never would have imagined that I would come back to Chicago, like giving lectures and, you know, being a well-known guy in the field, writing books and all those things. Cause my life started so far away from that.

And so as I think about this 300th video, I just reflect on journeys. And the reason I share this kind of stuff with y’all because I want you to see my life and see my journey. And think if Elliott come this far, then I can come this far. If Elliott can overcome his obstacles and I can overcome my obstacles. Because right here, like this is literally where the journey started. So tomorrow I’m going to go to this big old conference and meet people.

I’m going to do my thing this weekend, I’ll deliver my lecture. But I’m not just thinking about like the first video, because I mean, that’s cool too. Like I can show you the first video the SFBT Moments blog and talk about how far the journey has come. But the journey actually started long before then. You know, I was talking to a group of students today and they were talking about like, why I do Psychotherapy. And to be honest with you. It started, it started right here.

This is where I started noticing the impact of anger. This is where I started having my first experiences with abuse. This is when I started having my first experiences with parental miss treatment. And I really think that that’s what kind of sparked a fire in me to inspire people and help people to overcome their journey. And all of it started right here on the corner of 84th and Seeley Street. This is where the Elliott Connie journey began. So let me show you where I am now.

So now that you’ve seen how it started, this is how it’s going. It’s so shocking to me that I get to come back to Chicago doing major presentations at events like this. When the journey started about as far away from that, as you could possibly think. And why do I tell you this? Like, I’m not telling you this to show off and all that. Tell me this is I’m telling you this because I want you to know that if I could go on this incredible arc in my life, then you can too, I’m telling you this to inspire you.

Like, I want you to work as hard as you possibly can, but I want you to do it with this knowing in yourself that if I put in the work and I put in the effort that things will work out for me, because I don’t think I’m special. To be honest, I’m not a unicorn. I’m not different. I’m just someone who just kept working.

And then eventually this is where I arrived. You know, tomorrow, like look around this room tomorrow. And this room is going to be filled with people that I get to lecture to. And I get to talk to them about the things that I’m passionate about to help them live their very best life. And I hope hearing a bit of my story here in this 300th video in the SFBT Moments series helps you live your very best life too.