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My Story
Years ago, it looked like I was living a pretty good life…that is if you just had a quick snapshot from an outsider’s vantage point. I was a successful psychologist with a Ph.D. from Lehigh University and I had completed an Ivy League psychological residency at the University of Pennsylvania. I had taught writing at Lafayette College, a highly selective institution, for 17 years and I was about to start a new role as Director of Counseling at my alma matter Muhlenberg College. I was in fairly decent shape and generally speaking I was happy. I had an amazingly close relationship with my twin daughters and many of their friends considered me an important father figure able to step up when things weren’t quite right in their own home.
“Your second life…your best life starts today.”
Yet, the day arrived when I came face to face with a stark reality: that despite all of my hard work, my best life wasn’t going to just magically materialize. It’s not a coincidence that many people report a similar awakening in their mid 40’s or later. Believe it or not, there’s some actual human neurophysiology at work here, but the details of that are for another piece of writing. There I was, age 45 facing an existential dilemma: Should I continue to coast along as I entered my second half of life, or should I use all of the wisdom, skill, insight, and character that I obtained in the first half to fully rock my second half?
Here's the hook you might not have seen coming. It turns out that this is precisely the experience that many or most highly successful people report having. There is a moment when they realize that effort takes you far, but not all the way. In order to succeed at the highest level, one must not only establish a bold vision, but more importantly engage the stepwise, multidimensional processes that will produce the end result. It was at the age of 45 that I fully landed into the realization that we must self-author success. If you have a serious goal then you must take it seriously. It won’t just magically materialize from hard work.
Fast forward 10 years later. I am now a Spartan Champion in the 50+ age group and highly ranked on an international level, an ultra-endurance athlete who at 55 did back-to-back ultras in one week, happily in a romantic relationship with a person who is healthy and who brings both peace and intimacy into my life, a doting father, and a CEO of a company whose mantra is “impact is our profit.” It doesn’t matter what age you wake up to the realization that success is the direct result of an effective process, but it’s clear that if you want to achieve your greatest aspirations then that moment must come.
“Success doesn’t just materialize from hard work.”
Whether you’re entering your second half in life or you’re still in high school, the highest level of success mandates that you stop focusing on producing effort and start focusing on the effort that will produce actual results. In doing so, success requires that you pay equal attention to: (1) personal growth alongside skill acquisition; (2) being coachable alongside the perseverance to push yourself; (3) obsession for knowledge acquisition alongside the system building required for action; and (4) strengthening your physical self alongside building the effective mindsets that create mental strength.
“I bring physical conditioning into the therapy office and therapy into the gym.”
My work with people entails building not just their mind, but their body as well. It makes little sense to become emotionally centered, but incapable of being physically functional nor does it make sense to become a stronger quitter. Your second life…your best life starts today. That’s what I’m fully committed and deeply passionate about helping people achieve. There’s a lot of problems that exist in this world and my mission is to enable people to thrive at a level that they can impact our world in positive ways. Reach out and I will help you achieve that.
About Dr. Tim Silvestri
I’m Dr. Tim Silvestri. I help people to self-author their next life…their best life. I’m a psychologist and the creator of Thriving Based Therapy: A new approach to therapy and performance coaching that brings the therapy into the gym and the gym into therapy.
The research has overwhelmingly demonstrated that having a sound approach to nutrition, functional movement, and sound psychological mindsets are all essential to maintain physical and emotional well-being throughout one’s lifetime. If you’re not doing both, then you’re not maximizing either one. Yet for far too long these elements were kept completely separate. As a psychologist, highly competitive athlete in my 50’s, and emotionally centered man of integrity and trust, I’ve brought all of the factors of highest impact into one seamless approach.
If you’ve already geeked out on all of the books on mindsets, habit building, leadership, grit, etc….if you’re a big fan of folks like Adam Grant, Brene Brown, Alex Hutchinson, Malcolm Gladwell, Ryan Holiday and others…then let me help you to put that knowledge into the highly detailed and effective action steps specific to you. Afterall, as essential as knowledge is, it only accounts for about 10% of the ingredients for success. Application, systems building, and persistent action is the other 90%.
I help people self-author their next life…their best life, by turning knowledge into the stackable, stepwise processes that will enable you to effectively be, do, think productively, relate to others, and have impact. We can all recover from past injuries and injustices. We can all be physically strong and capable. We can all have a significant and positive impact on the world. But to do so requires the knowledge and the systems to get you there. My mission is to enable you to self-author your best life and maintain it for all of the years that you’ll walk this planet.