Are you ready and willing to walk through fire to achieve your dreams? Those that participate in the famous Firewalk at the Unleash The Power Within event at the end of October are. Attendees are counted among those seeking more from their lives than settling for the mundane, beige, vanilla lives so many lead. One weekend can change everything.

I’m not sure when I first became aware of Tony Robbins, but by that time he was already famous in self improvement circles. He was, and is, a larger that life figure, bordering on parody at times. I’ve bought several of his products over the years, including books and tapes (remember those?) The first time I “saw” Tony Robbins speak was actually through a video played at a seminar through The Learning Annex at the Dallas Convention Center. I’m still amazed how he can electrify an audience, including getting them to take several actions during the presentation without actually being present. Thats some serious mojo.

On a personal level, I’ve taken a few things from his teachings:

First, the idea of turning your “shoulds” into “musts.” Many of us go through life with a long list of things we should do, but we rarely make time for, or have it hurt enough that we take action. Tony Robbins hammers home the point of if we truly want to change in those never-ending “I’d like to do that, but….” list is to make it a requirement. No more, no less. No more, “I should lose those last 10 pounds”…..”I should ask for that raise”…..”I should take that trip”
Rather it becomes “I MUST go hit the gym 3 times this week”…….”I MUST have an action plan for as compensation adjustment at work” “I must start saving 10% from each paycheck, so I can take that dream vacation within 12 months.”

I also took away the idea of knowing your outcome, and taking “massive action” to achieve it.  This is about creating the life you truly want, your heart’s desire, rather than a life settled for. Knowing your end result, be it the corner office, that Ferrari, or epic charity donation, and being willing to change your approach but not your destination is powerful. It’s a personal belief of mine that most folks go through life basically asleep. Morning work traffic is proof of most folks being borderline-zombies (braaaains?). It takes something else to raise your sights, and ask for that thing you really, deeply want. It also takes something deep within to overcome obstacles, and never letting go of going after a thing, regardless of setbacks or discouragement.

The concept of a time in the morning to workout and/or time to center yourself and prepare for the day is another teaching of Tony’s. A true “power hour” if you can spare that much time. If not, it can be as little as 15 minutes. First you recite the things your thankful for.  Next, you think through how your day should go, and visualize the things you will be doing that day, and how you expect them to go. There’s verified power in “mental practice” before you do an action. (Trust me, I’m a Psych major, and I’m here to help) The last part to this process seemed a bit odd to me and still does…..stating personal “affirmations” out loud. This can be as simple as “I love my life!” This is predicated on the idea that what we think about and declare becomes reality.

One weekend can change everything, and you’re invited.

The Dallas event for Unleash The Power Within will be held at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center from October 23-26th. I’ll be there. I hope you will be too.

For every ticket sold to the UPW event, Robbins Research International, Inc. will provide approximately 90 meals to local families in need through Feeding America®, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization. With expected attendance in excess of 4,000 for this event, they aim to donate more than 400,000 meals to the Feeding America network of food banks!

For more details and tickets, click here.