Thank God. No, Thank Tony Robbins!
Sometimes in life, we don’t know why we are drawn to do certain things. We simply know we must do them.
We sense an overwhelming feeling of urgency to attend an event, go to a workshop, join a retreat, participate in a coaching program, go on a journey or do something else that is out of our comfort zone and we put ourselves on the line financially, emotionally and in relationships to do that thing that we know will move us forward.
We may not know at the time WHY we need to it, we simply can’t NOT do it. It’s almost as if we have no choice, but to do that thing. And often times, it isn’t until months or years later that we realize how critical our choice to do (or not do) this thing was in shaping our destiny.
This is the story of that “thing”… and how it changed my life.
In 1998, I was a 24 year-old Pre-Masters student living in San Francisco and barely making ends meet with a $12 an hour job as a preschool teacher and as an exhibiting artist (which generated unpredictable revenue at best). In my spare time, I loved (and still love) to read personal growth books like The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra and The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. But after a while, I wanted something more than the books to help me take big leaps of growth.
It was time to walk on burning coals with my bare feet. Yes, it was.
So naturally, I went to the Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within Weekend Retreat in San Francisco. It consisted of three full days in a hotel ballroom with 1000 people and Tony on stage… cheering, crying, laughing, singing, dancing… learning about psychology, exploring belief patterns and life purpose and seeing firsthand proof of the power of the mind… by walking on the burning coals.
Talk about being pumped up. This was being pumped up on steroids.
Big time.
And then it was time to go home…
After three solid days of transformation and personal growth all I wanted to do was talk about my discoveries. I’m telling you, this was ground breaking, hard work, soul-searching type stuff. There was nothing passive about this event. And I felt like I had won a marathon. I wanted to celebrate, but everyone around me wanted to laugh this “woo-woo” stuff and mock the lessons I had learned.
“Great Britt. Good for you. “ They would say as they rolled their eyes and snickered. But I kept on smiling and spreading positive thoughts.
This was a turning point for me where I went from always doubting my contributions to truly feeling empowered to help others. Now, I could clearly see solutions for people’s problems and rather than giving them answers, I would recommend a book, an exercise, a weekend retreat or a CD that would help them. I turned into a walking, talking self-help billboard that promoted Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Don Miguel Ruiz, Dale Carnegie and a host of other self-help gurus. (If only I had known about affiliate marketing back then, I could have added another revenue stream this way!)
And then I heard there would be another UPW in Chicago a few weeks after mine. No, I didn’t go again. But, I did encourage my boyfriend, Bob (who at the time was lacking in career focus) to attend. Before we knew it, Bob was in Chicago walking on burning coals and shouting out, “I’ll do it!” at the top of his lungs.
Back in California, I would await Bob’s phone calls every night so I could hear his renewed enthusiasm for life. In a way I was living vicariously through his discoveries. But boy oh boy, was his zest going to come in handy for the whopper that dropped while he was getting his soul pumped!
As I said, I was 24 years old and about to begin an intensive 2-year double Masters program in Marriage and Family Therapy and Art Therapy. However, our lives as we knew them and as we had carefully planned were about to change in a way that Bob and I could never have imagined.
The last night of UPW, Bob called to tell me about the power that was unleashed within him that weekend. While I listened with love, things were different. Amidst his overflow of excitement, Bob paused…
“Is everything ok?” he asked.
Silence.
“Um. Yup. Everything is fine.” I responded.
“Are you sure?” he overlapped.
“Everything is fine. I just need to talk to you in person about something.”
Silence.
“Are you pregnant?” he said and I could hear a smile in his voice.
Oh shit. Now what?
Are we ready for this? Is he going to want to keep this baby? Is he going to be mad? Are my parents? How are we going to afford this? Shit. Shit. Shit!
“Honey, I really just want to see you in person… so we can talk face to face.” I murmured as tears streamed down my face.
“You’re pregnant! That’s awesome! We can call him Arthur after my dad! Are you crying?”
Bare in mind, for all this guy knew… I could have been planting the seed for a break up because I never really answered his question. However, the beauty of this moment was that he knew exactly was what was going on and he was STOKED! Thank god.
No… thank Tony Robbins!
And so it was. A week later, we got engaged at a beautiful lodge in Big Sur. Three months after that, we were married in the mountains in Idaho. Four months after that, our first beautiful baby girl was born.
And the rest is history.
We still talk about UPW and what we learned over that weekend. It was truly life changing and the best $2000 we ever spent.
Are you wondering why I am sharing all of this with you?
Good! Because I am going to tell you right now…
Do you think it was UPW that made Bob and I step up and handle an incredibly difficult situation with grace?
I’ll answer that for you… As much as I would like to say that it was UPW that made us step up, the reality is… it wasn’t. We certainly learned valuable lessons and discovered a lot about ourselves at UPW, but what made us step up was the choice we made to grow into a new level of existence. Our old patterns weren’t working for us and we needed something to create a shift in our mind. UPW may have given us the tools we needed, but what made us blossom was the freedom of making that choice to be who we wanted to be in that moment.
So, my question to you is…
Do you have a thing that is calling to you and that you know on some level will help you to step it up a notch or two?
What is it that is holding you back from saying YES?
And is there anything I or someone else reading this blog can do to help you step it up?
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