This past July I attended Unleash the Power Within New York with Tony Robbins. It was definitely a life changing experience.
It was my cousin’s idea. He is a Tony Robbins fan. I love and respect him very much so I said why not! I knew of Tony Robbins, I’ve seen him speak on Oprah’s Super Soul Sessions and watched his documentary on Netflix but I never really followed him myself.
So I attended completely curious, with an open heart and mind. I was ready to unleash my personal power. The convention was four days long. We started around 8 am and usually ended at midnight or later. It was intense.
Fear is Fuel!
I did a previous post devoted to fear and goals, but my experience at UPW took conquering fear to a whole other level. Early morning day one I learned that my night would end with a fire walk across 1000 plus degree coals. Wait what?? I’d heard it was part of the process but I didn’t realize it was the first day. So you’re just going to throw me right on in there huh?
So day one in a sense was prep for the walk. How do you prep to walk over fire?? You address the only thing preventing you from doing it. Aside, from common sense your fear. Fear is a powerful agent. It can render you powerless or give you infinite personal power. Once you realize this…the world becomes your bitch!
The Voice of Fear
So we talk about and address fear. There are few on this earth who are truly fearless. The bravest and most successful people have learned to use fear as a catalyst to achieve what fear says is not possible. Fear becomes that person that says you can’t.
Picture this…If someone stood in your face and said that you couldn’t do something because you’re too old, too young, not smart enough, you’re not the right skin color, the right sex, you don’t deserve it, you’ve made mistakes in the past so you should suffer forever what would you do? Would you agree? Or would you tell them don’t believe me just watch!
That is what fear does. It is what stands in the way of your personal power. It’s the voice that tells you what you can’t do and why.
So you have a choice. Let that voice win, or do what scares the hell out of you and win! What I know is that when I do what scares me, everything I was scared of turns out to be false or disappear. What if I fail? If you don’t try you’ve already failed. What if people don’t like me? Everyone isn’t for everybody. You will always encounter people who may not. That’s okay and that’s their choice. But for every person who won’t there’s a person who will.
What will people say? So here’s a human tip. While you’re worried about what people will say, the people you’re worried about saying something are worried about people saying something about them too. Did you get that? It’s a vicious and annoying cycle. Doesn’t matter if it’s at work, in your family, social circle or house of worship. It’s all the same.
Be Your Own Cheerleader!
The time leading up to the fire walk was surreal. As a part of the pre-coaching, Tony gives you disclaimers letting you know there is a chance that you may be injured. We are talking about hella high heat after all. In hearing the warnings I felt myself trying to convince myself to be scared.
It was weird. What should have terrified me didn’t. When you step up to the line of fire, your adrenaline mixed with a coach screaming in your ear get you so fired up you feel invincible. They yell go and the next thing I remember is being on the other side. The other side of fear and limitations. It was such an empowering feeling.
Now, whenever thoughts of fear or doubt come into my mind I remind myself that I walked on fire! Everything else is easy compared to that.
Walking on fire is not a requirement to get there. I am grateful for the experience, but I won’t be jumping off bridges or out of planes any time soon. What I will do is face any fear that comes my way. I will acknowledge my feelings about it and coach myself right on through to the other side. We can be our greatest cheerleader or our own worst enemy in that way. That is what defines your personal power.
Reflection
So I sat on fear for a minute because that’s a biggie. Before doing that fire walk, I was determined to not to let fear defeat me because I am more powerful than any thought trying to defeat me.
After the firewalk I knew that I had won and I will always win any battle between me and fear. I know now that there is nothing I cannot do. NOTHING! The only person stopping me from achieving my goals and embracing my personal power is me. And that is not something I will be doing.
There was a time when I did. I allowed stories and lies I told myself to convince me that I had limits and there were things I shouldn’t even try. Then I woke up and learned the truth. Doesn’t matter how many times society or anyone else says it.
I have chosen to defy every odd that I believed existed. I am not exceptional in is this way. You can too. If you choose to. It’s not easy to unlearn what fear has trained us to believe. But it is very possible. Get your life and embrace your personal power!
My cousin actually recorded the fire walk for me but the video is way too dark. Here’s a video of Oprah doing the firewalk with Tony. I literally screamed just like she did. It was awesome!
Originally published at www.karimamiller.com