In his Comic Strip, POGO, Cartoonist Walt Kelly, wrote, “Yep, son.  We have met the enemy and he is us”. He was reflecting on how we create our own problems without realizing it.  The same cartoon is just as relevant today as it was in 1971.  His cartoon was about how we trash our planet.  Today, I’m talking about how we trash our minds and create our own problems.  I was debriefing a client recently about a behavioral assessment he had recently completed.  Without reading the results, he had already determined that he knew all he needed to know about himself.  I encouraged him to read through it with me and an hour and half later, he was engaged in the results and on his way to self-discovery that frightened him and at the same time opened new opportunities to him. He found that his behavior was perceived by others as flippant and careless, while he thought he was entertaining and glib.  He found that the way he approached life was the way everyone approached life.  He began to understand that others did not view the world as he thought they should.  He found that his approach to problems solving was different from others on his management team. The assessment was in-depth and comprehensive.  It allowed him to reorganize the clutter in his mind and gain clarity in how sees the world and how he sees himself.  Whenever we encounter anger, confusion, confrontation, frustration, or depression it’s a good idea to take a peek at what is really going on inside our minds.  We didn’t start out with all that clutter on our birthday.  It’s a collection of clutter that we’ve picked up along the way.  The best way to deal with it is to know about it.  If you want to identify the clutter in your life all you have to do is ask for help.