Do You Want My Advice on Taking Advice?

Spoiler: you’ll only take the advice given when you’re ready to understand it

Anne Pennington
5 min readApr 1, 2021
Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

After word-vomiting thoughts about the universe, my therapist told me I remind him of Ted Mosby. If you are familiar with the TV sitcom How I Met Your Mother, then you’ll know who this is. At first, I gave a small side-eye because I know he’s ranked as one of the worst TV characters of all time. So it got me thinking (as therapists do), am I, Ted Mosby?

After my session, I began to scour the internet to identify the character’s exact traits he had in common with myself. I came across some quotes Ted said during the show, and that’s when the similarity clicked. Many of his most profound sayings were concepts I attempted to explain to my therapist to rationalize life.

One quote, in particular, hit home with what I tried to explain that day.

You can ask the universe for signs all you want. But ultimately, we only see what we want to see when we’re ready to see it.

- Ted Mosby

My word vomit must’ve made some sense for my therapist to connect its meaning to Ted’s simplified words.

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Anne Pennington

Thought-provoking writings on relationships, mental health, and modern philosophy.