Dr. Daniel Crosby

The third E is encouragement or sort of coaching.

That's really where an advisor adds value, right?

Because even if you're educated, even if you're in the right environment, all the research shows that things like education are actually quite a weak predictor of behavior, right?

You know, when you look back on some of the studies, it's called the knowing-doing gap, like the gap between what we know we're supposed to do and what we actually do.

You see that at least in the U.S., doctors and nurses smoke cigarettes at a rate significantly higher than the general population, right?

So these people who all day, it's their job to tell you not to smoke,

go home and then smoke at a rate much higher than the average person.

They know you're not supposed to smoke.

They know it's not good for you.

And yet they do it anyway because of this knowing-doing gap.

So that encouragement is where a good advisor comes in and sort of is that last roadblock between you and a poor decision at the moment when you're feeling scared or

or you're feeling greedy or thinking of doing something with your money.

So education, environment, and encouragement, I think, are really the three big things that folks can get right.

It's a great question, and it's a foundational competency to get right.

So if I go back to my time working with women with eating disorders, when I was doing this clinical work,

The first thing we would do when we were working with a new client or a new patient

is we would help to educate them about the unrealistic beauty standards of society, the unrealistic beauty standards of Hollywood, right?

Because they would see the end product, they would see the magazine, they would see the music video or the whatever with the flawless, perfectly put together model.

And they would say, oh, that's not me, right?

So you're comparing every minute of your life