Why You Do What You Do

I have to be honest that during and after the event we ran on 22^nd September I felt I had reached some kind of utopia in my role as coach, supporter, inspirer and empowerer (is that even a word..?!).  People were having breakthroughs all over the place!  There were tears, laughter, apprehension, determination and ultimately life changing experiences.  It was truly incredible to be a part of all that and I was buzzing for days afterwards.  It got me to wondering, if I was having such a good time doing what I was doing, why didn’t everyone do it?  I was curious as to what made it so perfect for me?  Why do I do the things I do?

Tony Robbins (one of my personal heros) talks about 6 basic human needs that we all need to achieve.  When these needs are all being met, we are a happy, fulfilled individual.  When they’re not, we will do pretty much anything to achieve them.  So what are they?

1.     Certainty – we all need to know that some things will remain the same regardless of what goes on.  Certainty in our life means survival.  Often called security or comfort we all need a level of it in our lives to feel safe.  As with any of these needs, the degree to which they’re important in our lives vary from one person to the next, but take a look around and see if you can identify those people who need a lot of certainty.  They’ve probably been in the same job for a long time, living in the same house, surrounded by the same people.  Control is another form on achieving a level of certainty.  Do you identify with wanting to control things…perhaps everything?

2.     Uncertainty – conversely, if everything in our lives was exactly the same every day we’d go mental.  We crave a degree of uncertainty, variety, surprise and we will do some very interesting things to get it.   There’s a delicate balance to be maintained between certainty and uncertainty.  Too much certainty we we’re bored and unfulfilled.  Too much uncertainty and we become fearful and anxious.  Mr Robbins mentioned once that the quality of your life is dependant on the level of uncertainty you can tolerate.  I had to think about this but I got what he meant.  One of my favourite quotes is by Anais Nin: “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” We generally don’t need courage in the face of certainty but the more uncertainty we are prepared to invite in, the more exciting (and scary) life gets.  Balance here is key.

3.     Significance – We all want to feel important; that we have some kind of meaning or purpose or that we are in some way unique from others.  As with all of these needs we can do both constructive and destructive things to meet them but the bottom line is we must meet them.  Think about what you do to feel significant or different.  For some its being the best at something or really excelling.  For others it can be creating or enhancing a problem or challenge.  Both can work perfectly to create significance but they don’t always make us feel goods about ourselves.  There is also a delicate balance between significance and the next one.  In order to be significant or unique we must separate ourselves in some way.

4.     Love and connection – Whether its connection with others or connection with yourself, its an essential need that must be met.  Whilst significance requires separation, this one requires the exact opposite so you get what I mean about balance again.  Think about when you were a child and what you were prepared to do to gain love and connection.  Think about how this now manifests in your life today.  We learn strategies at a young age to meet these needs and we go on using these strategies until they just don’t work for us any more.  (Then, hopefully, you go and talk to someone!)  Different people have differing definitions of what love and connection means depending on their experiences.  For some its being part of a healthy, functional, loving family.  For others its an abusive relationship.  Either way, the basic need gets met.

5.     Growth – We’re either growing or dying, there’s really nothing in between.  When we are learning, expanding, developing we feel fulfilled and that our life has meaning.

6.     Contribution – The underlying need that truly brings you joy is contribution.  When you have given something or done something that has made a difference in some way, either to you or someone else, there is a deep sense of joy and satisfaction that’s like nothing else.

I find that the first 4 of these needs become critical when they’re not met or out of balance.  I also find that people are generally pretty well practiced in meeting and balancing the first four.  The issue isn’t the ability to meet and balance them but the vehicle they choose to meet the need and whether its one that serves them in the long run.  The last two are generally what’s missing when they are feeling unfulfilled or aren’t sure what needs to change. 

When I looked back on that event, and actually coaching as a whole for me, it satisfies every single one of my 6 needs and my personal careful balance of those needs.  In the instance of the event, not only were they all perfectly balanced, they were all serving me and others in a very positive way so it was an all round winner.  I feel very fortunate that my job delivers this to me in bucket loads but it didn’t just land in my lap.  I worked towards it and I worked hard.

If things are feeling out of kilter for you at the moment, take a few minutes to think about whether these needs are being met and whether they are balanced for you.  Are you meeting these needs in ways that are nourishing and supporting you or have you developed habits of meeting these needs in other ways?  Think about the tasks or jobs you do currently and ask yourself how it meets each of these needs.  Which one of your needs isn’t currently being met?

Know that everything you do, good and bad, is done because of your innate need to meet one or more of these needs.  This is why you do what you do.  Now what would you like to change?

Tracey x

What the heck is 'EMPOWERMENT' exactly?

As most of you will have undoubtedly noticed there’s an awful lot of talk of ‘empowerment this’ and empowerment that’ going on and around B|B|B these days.  This coincides with our decision to start offering ‘empowerment’ activities such as firewalking at some of our seminars and workshops.  But, what exactly is empowerment?  To different people it’s different things but I’ll talk to you about what it means to me.

My personal summery of empowerment is formulated in my following quote,

“Empowerment is not the absence of fear.  It is the acknowledgement of personal choice in the face of fear.”

For me this is the biggest part of what ‘being empowered’ means.  It’s not about overcoming fear, confronting fear or curing fear.  It’s about acknowledging the fear and then being empowered to still see ALL the options available to you and not just the one or two offered up by your fear response.  The subconscious will always throw up fear until the day we die, its just part of what it does.  It’s there as a primary survival response and as much as we might have socially evolved beyond the requirements of a strong overpowering fear response, biochemically we’re pretty much unaltered since it was all that stood between us and daily threats of death.  It’s therefore essential, in my opinion, to start accepting fear in our lives.  I like clients to acknowledge that any feelings of fear are merely a sign that they are expanding themselves and to see the feeling as a positive piece of feedback that life is growing for them.  The power is in accepting these feelings of fear whilst maintaining the freedom to still make authentic choices based on what’s best for them.

It’s all about doing the right things for the right reasons.

It may be that the fear pushes us towards the ‘right’ decision for us but unless we ‘make’ that decision then there’s no power in the action.  Empowerment comes from being able to do the things we ‘choose’ in spite of any internal resistance we might be experiencing.  Fear, in its many guises, is the biggest resistance working against us expanding our lives.  Limiting beliefs and limited expectations is another.  Empowerment is accepting that there are these internal resistances but acknowledging that we have the power to choose for ourselves and are not merely ‘puppetted’ by our automated emotional responses.

The good news is that once we start to override these fear responses and ‘survive’, our subconscious starts to be reprogrammed about what represents a ‘real’ threat and we get less fear in these situations.  It is possible to lose the fear response altogether in a given situation but this is only going to happen as the subconscious is ‘reprogrammed’ to respond differently.  But remember, there’s no point fighting your fears for the sake of it - pick your battles wisely.  Empowerment is about being able to take the action and make the choices that are right for you regardless of any internal opposition, even if that action or decision is aligned with the fear response.  Sometimes we get into the habit of always going against our fears as we try to become ‘fearless’ or empowered but the truth is the more we make the ‘right’ decisions for the ‘right’ reasons the more our subconscious will learn to trust us and allow ‘us’ into the decision making process by not releasing the manipulative chemicals of fear into our bloodstream.  To expect to have a life without fear is naive; it’s been instrumental in getting our species to where it is today.

Firewalking along with the education that I support it with is a great metaphor for the process of empowerment.  You stand before red-hot coals, fears racing through your body but you have a choice – the choice to walk or not walk.  Once you make the right decision for the all the right reasons, you take the associated action.  If you walk, you walk purposefully and confidently until you reach the other side and reward yourself for exercising your personal free will.  If you choose to not walk, you walk away from the coal bed and reward yourself for exercising your personal free will.  Whether you walk or not is not as important as excising your power of choice and free will… just like in the rest of your life.

I hope that clear it all up a little :)

Until next time,

 

George

To see our next empowerment seminar dates and events, go to:  www.biggerbrighterbolder.co.uk/Events.html

WEIGHT LOSS

Want a slim and healthy body?

 ...here you go again!

Okey dokey, so where to begin?

Perhaps I could talk about dropping a jean size….or a bikini body diet programme? Maybe I could prescribe a diet empty of any nutritional value and so low in calorific content that you’ll initially lose a ridiculous amount of weight whilst risking your health to the point where your body starts eating its own internal organs and other tissue? Maybe I could start by saying, let us apply some common sense here.

We’re constantly being bombarded with new science or discoveries for weight loss but deep down we already know the answers. We don’t necessarily ‘like’ the answer but do know it. We want to hear how drinking some magic potion with promises written all over it will answer our prayers. We read about it all day long in magazines praying for a painless way of re-gaining our teenage physiques back. We spend a fortune on gizmos offering the latest way to reshape our flagging bodies, hoping in some way that this one will deliver our dreams.

BUT….

We all know what to do to lose weight don’t we? Really?

Com’on, we know there’s only one way of losing our unwanted weight, having the slender body we want, feeling great, having loads of energy, health and vitality and more importantly than anything else….KEEPING IT! You don’t want to admit it and you wish it wasn’t true and you secretly still hold out hope for some miraculous discovery, invention or breakthrough but you already know the answer don’t you!

Do you really need me to spell it out for you?

Okay, so here goes. In order to have the slim body and the heath we long for, we must eat like a slim and healthy person, move like a slim and healthy person and be like a slim and healthy person.

INTERESTING FACTS

When looking into the different lifestyles and behaviours of slim and overweight people, many lifestyle differences can be found. How some of these differences might show themselves is listed below

1)   When chatting in the office, the slim person will generally be the one who stands at the overweight persons desk whist the overweight person sat. Calorific difference: 11 vs 13 per 10 minutes

2)   Slim people walk more per day. Calorific difference: 138 per 30 minutes

3)   Slim people were more inclined to use the stairs if just going up or down a few floors. Calorific difference: 74 per 10 minutes

4)   Slim people would have smaller portions and leave what they didn’t need/want. Calorific difference: 500 (based on the slim person eating just 25% of what an overweight person does eating 2500)

5)   Slim people exercise more than overweight people. Calorific difference 260 (based on 30 minutes jogging)

*figures are based on a 10 stone (64kg/140lb) person. The numbers will be greater for heavier individuals and the difference much increased if compared to someone eating 3000 or more calories per day.

Just these differences alone could comfortably add up to a difference of 870 cals or more per day. That’s the equivalent of eating 3 mars bars per day more then the slim person. This doesn’t take into consideration that overweight people generally eat faster and less nutritionally well than slim people. Overweight people tend to consume greater quantities of processed sugar, processed carbs and salt.

If you ate an extra 3 mars bars a day or equivalent what resultant body shape /weight would you expect?

Does any of this surprise you? Of course it doesn’t. The numbers might shock you (and they’re quite moderate) but the principle is just common sense.

So, if making some simple changes to align ourselves with our slimmer counterparts could give us the ‘miracle’ answers we’re looking for, why do we ‘struggle’ so much?

Unfortunately, the answer is not as simple as the solution to our problem. In short, the habitually overweight have learnt to be that way. It may be the lifestyle that’s been learnt and taken on as an identity or it may be the size, body shape or weight that has been taken on. Either way, it’s important to understand that once we have accepted an identity for ourselves we WILL continue to BE that identity until we choose to change it. You learnt these behaviours and identities unconsciously. It’s what the mind does and does so very efficiently. It’s not your fault. BUT, once you know this and that anything learnt can be unlearnt, it is your responsibility.

The magic solution for your weight issue is YOU. You CAN choose to be different. You can BE different. It doesn’t have to be this way and you and only you can make the permanent changes you’ve been seeking. Stop looking for the miracle product. Stop jumping from one ‘special’ diet to the next. Stop stop-starting your ’health kicks’.

The answer is so simple yet we block it, reject it and continue to live in the pain of being unhappy with who we are.

The answer is so simple, yet you will not like it. The answer to your prayer is to CONSISTANTLY eat healthy, in the right amounts and move and live in a way that becomes a slim person FOREVER. “Woah, woah, Woooooah!” I hear you say. You might associate this living with pain - the pain of hunger or going without. Yet, the slim people you might aspire to be like generally don’t live in that pain.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS

1)   Diet’s work.

No they don’t and this has always been the case. 90-95% of people put all the weight back on and more. Everyone knows this really, yet they continue to throw billions of pounds at it.

2)   ‘This diet works where others don’t.

                        No it won’t. They never do.

3)   To lose weight effectively I need to eat very low calories

            Te truth is quite the opposite actually. Eating too few calories will slow your metabolism making it increasingly harder to lose weight and massively increasing the likelihood of putting all the weight back on post-diet. Very low calorie diets can be incredibly harmful to your health.

4)   Eating less calories will make me hungry.

            It completely depends on what and how you eat in your new lifestyle. The amount of hunger you experience is dependent on a whole host of factors. Just eating less of the same foods will obviously make you hungry and most will experience this as painful. But replacing a nutritionally low diet for one with high nutritional value will limit the hunger experienced. Also, any hunger experienced and cravings pass quickly.

5)   It’s all about reducing calories.

Calories are only part of the picture. It’s far more important HOW the calories are consumed and WHAT they are made up of than just the number present. 100 calories of processed sugar will have a very different effect on your body than 100 calories of lettuce, eggs or meat.

6)   Losing weight is painful.

            This is totally within your control. Weight loss can be and should be, extremely pleasurable and rewarding. It may require some adjustment or perspective but it is possible to fully enjoy the experience.

7)   I can’t lose weight.

            This is very unlikely to be the case. Although I appreciate that it might feel like that.

8)   Losing weight is all about what I eat.

            The truth is that exercise, yes I know it’s a bummer, is every bit as important as food intake. An effective exercise lifestyle will make you healthier, slimmer, more toned and give you greater energy. It’s essential.

9)   30 minute brisk walking a day will get me fit and make me lose weight.

Any increase in movement will contribute to your weight loss and fitness goals and is definitely encouraged but the truth is that we should be frequently exercising at a much higher intensity than that. Once you develop a good habit of quality exercise you’ll never live without it. Research suggests that if you maintain regular exercise (4-6 times a week) for 6-12 months that you will most likely keep exercise as a part of your daily life forever.

THE WAY FORWARD

Be aware of all your beliefs around who you are and what your body is in relation to your weight issues. Who you believe you are will dictate ‘what’ you are. The aim is to become who you need to become in order to have what it is you wish to have. In this case a slim, healthy body.

Know your outcome. What is it you want to achieve? Clearly defined outcomes with compelling reasons why they are important is a strong base to start your weight loss from.

Raise your standards. Set yourself new standards in who you are and what you are willing to accept and then stick to them.

When looking at your diet and exercise lifestyle, think in terms of sustainability. Could you live like ‘this’ for a year or two or even forever? If the answer is no, there’s a real risk that you will not stick to it and another great opportunity could have just passed you by again.

Know that nothing will beat persistence and consistence. Being on/off a diet programme or exercise lifestyle won’t deliver the result you’re looking for. Equally a 2 or 3 month ‘fad’ cannot resolve an issue that’s been around for years or decades. Be aware that your body will respond in it’s own way. You might lose a lot of weight early on and then have a period with little loss followed by an increase in loss again. You might find you lose little up front but then weight loss gathers momentum.

Be ‘IN’ or ‘OUT’. The greatest pain in weight loss is being on the edge of it, the ‘trying to lose weight’ place. Decide to either lose weight or chose to be how you are. The halfway house seems appealing in some ways but ultimately it is tiring, disappointing and a struggle.

Live each day in the joy of becoming who you dream of. Reward yourself for your efforts rather than looking negatively of how far you still have to go.

Measure. This is a mixed bag. Sometimes we might get disillusioned if the scales aren’t saying the ‘right thing ‘ for us or if our bodies aren’t responding the way we’d hoped. The truth is that if we aren’t monitoring we can’t tell if what we’re doing is working. Like any goal and plan their must be a way of measuring it’s success so we can stick to it or adjust it accordingly. If it’s too scary to look at the scales then try weighing yourself in kilos and not stone or lbs instead of kilos or stones. This works brilliantly for people who can’t relate to a certain weight measurement whilst reassuring them of their weight loss. Body measurements and body fat ratios are a good way of measuring your results if you’re not into scales or for that matter, too into scales.

Know what you’re eating. We often consume much more than we think we are. For example, are you really aware of how many calories are in your favourite speciality coffee or that ‘skinny’ muffin? Do you ignore the mayo when adding up your intake? It is often very helpful and enlightening to keep a comprehensive food diary of everything that passes your lips. There are some great apps now to make this easier for you. You must know what you’re consuming. You should be measuring calories, fat, sugar, carbs and protein. If you think salt could be an issue for you, then monitor this also.

Be willing and ready to accept the new you and take full responsibility for all the changes that it may bring including possibly some perceived negative changes. I’ve had people concerned that they will need to buy new clothes but can’t afford them or fear how their ‘larger friends’ will view their changes.

Know that if you persistently continue to hold your desires in you mind whilst you consistently do the ‘right’ things, that the outcome you desire is inevitable.

Get support. The answers ARE simple but applying them can be difficult. If you struggle to exercise, get a disciplined training partner that will hold you accountable. Maybe consider hiring a personal trainer you gel with and who understands your personal circumstances and goals. If you’re struggling with what to eat, hire a nutritionist or dietician. If you are struggling with self-belief, self-esteem, self-control, discipline or fear of change or failure then hire a personal coach (life coach) who truly understands the psychology of weight loss.

Good luck,

 

George x

NB: Nothing in this post should be constrewed as specific advice. Anyone embarking upon a weight loss programme or excercise regime should first seek appropriate medical advice.

Persistent Consistency

Wanting to live a more successful, happy and purposeful life?

In this worthy pursuit, there is one thing above all else, I’d like you to be mindful of.  It’s what I have taken to calling the power of persistent consistency.  The universe loves consistency and persistence and rewards accordingly.  Most of us flit from one thing to another as our fancy changes or at the first sign of difficulty or perceived failure.  It’s been widely noted that many stick with things but quit just before the actualisation of goals and dreams.  Throughout history, many of the world’s most successful people have claimed their greatest success lay just a little ahead of where they had seriously considered quitting.  Others do ‘stick with it’ but go on constantly doing the same things over and over, regardless of the feedback from their actions, wondering why they never achieve their desired outcomes.

If there’s one thing that has proven time and time again to create success, it’s having clearly defined goals and consistently taking steps towards them whilst persisting when things don’t go exactly as planned.  The attainment of goals and change is inevitable as long as you consistently take positive action towards those outcomes whilst persisting through the ‘tough times’ and consistently and persistently adjusting your approach as required as you start to accumulate feedback from your actions.

Once you apply this tried and tested method for creating success and start to see your goals manifest, you will become addicted to creating your life, not simply living it.

George :)

BiggerBrighterBolder.co.uk

What Do You Want NOW?!

If you haven’t yet been through the process of setting goals for your life, you are simply a spectator watching your life unfold before you with no say whatsoever in what its going to look like.  You are a victim rather than a creator.  Harsh words I know but unless you take an active interest in what your life looks like, no-one will!  If you have goals in your life but aren’t moving  forward, here is a simple technique to get you moving.

1.     Write down your goals.  This may sound simple but the difference between writing goals down and just having them in your head is immense.

2.     Put a time limit on them.  I think it was Napoleon Hill who said a goal without a deadline is just a dream, or something along those lines.  Anyway, he was right.

3.     Pick your top 6-8 goals.  Decide which ones are your most important or will have the most impact on your life.

4.     Make sure these goals are what you want NOW and not something you’re hoping for way off in the future.

5.     Underline the top 2 or 3 goals.

6.     DO SOMETHING DAILY ON THESE TOP 2-3 GOALS!  This might sound a bit extreme but the thing that generally gets in the way of moving forward is good old fashioned lack of action.  As George mentions in his blog post this month, the Universe rewards persistent consistency (I sound like a stuck record here but its true).  If you moved forward, even a tiny bit, every day, you will inevitably reach your goal.  If you aren’t prepared to find  some daily activity that you could do for these goals then they are the wrong goals or you’re blocking having these outcomes.

7.     Underline the next 2 or 3 goals.

8.     DO SOMETHING WEEKLY ON THESE GOALS!

9.     Review your progress in 1 month’s time.  This timescale can of course be changed depending on how big the goal is but seriously, do you expect instantaneous results?  For some goals this is realistic but for most of the goals that really mean something in our lives, instantaneous results aren’t realistic.  It’s a systematic approach that will get you where you need to be.  Stick with it and keep focused….daily.

Tracey x 

BiggerBrighterBolder.co.uk

Money and Fear and the Law of Attraction

It’s been an interesting few weeks observing my own madness and being confronted with several situations to remind me how vulnerable I can be at times, even as a Confidence and Empowerment Coach!  August is notoriously a quiet month for us.  People put their lives on hold to enjoy the sun, their families, a little well-earned rest from the daily grind.  It’s generally a time of peace when people remember what’s important and that life doesn’t need to be quite as difficult as we make it for ourselves.  For some business owners however, like George and I, the summer can bring its own challenges.  In this particular instance primarily in the form of …… CASH FLOW!

I quit watching TV news and reading the newspapers many years ago.  Quite frankly it was just making me miserable and apart from the occasional hiccup, like the time I showed myself up when I didn’t know who David Cameron was, I don’t feel I’ve missed a thing. It’s hard however, even for me, to miss the constant reminders of the current economic climate and the fear associated with it.  There is a general feel that its impossible to make money, that there’s a scarcity of it, not enough, less in circulation than there has been in previous years. 

I’m fully aware that money issues and concerns aren’t limited to the business owner.   All of us at some point have worried about bills, increasing debts and rising expenses.  For some of us though, it’s an obsessional past-time…!

I’ve watched The Secret.  I’m aware of the Law of Attraction.  Of how everything is energy and we “vibrate” at a particular frequency based on what we’re thinking and feeling and we attract things on a similar frequency, i.e. negative attracts negative and positive attracts positive.  I’m aware of the power of the mind and of positive thought and how we need to be clear on what we want and stop focusing on what we don’t want.  I coach my clients on this all the time with alarmingly powerful results.  Oh yes, I am well up on all this.   Why then did I find myself worrying uncontrollably about money again?!!

Put plainly and simply: habit.  Despite regularly learning, practising and teaching the techniques and implementing the tools, when the big challenge hits I, like almost everyone else, reach immediately for what’s familiar and that is often the old habit of worrying and focussing on exactly what we don’t want.  The effects of this were dramatic.  Before my very eyes the situation was worsening through a series of events that seemed way beyond my control.  Whilst it was rather frightening, thanks to the work I do, I was able to observe what was happening and my reactions to it with a bit of detachment.  This is the first step to creating any kind of change: getting awareness.  Now it was time to take action.

The next thing I did was to stare the fear straight into its beady little eyes!  What was it I was actually worried about?  What was the worst that could happen? What would it mean?  How would I handle it if the worse did actually happen?  Once I understood what was fuelling the fear I was feeling and faced it head on, it immediately released its vice like hold.   The relief…!!  It was fascinating to watch the situation change, without a single outside factor changing at all.  It was simply my perception of the situation that changed.  This isn’t the first time I have experienced this but it never ceases to amaze me when I watch the clouds clear.  (In our subconscious, often hidden away, are our core beliefs.  These are about every aspect of our life.  If there’s an area of your life that isn’t working for you, it will be interlinked to a core belief that isn’t serving you.  Examples of this might be I don’t deserve success/money, the current economic climate makes it difficult to make money or money is the root of all evil.

George mentions in his blog this month that the Universe rewards persistent consistency.  I wanted to find a daily practice that would keep me focused on where I wanted to go rather than the opposite.  One of the key components of the Law of Attraction is visualisation.  In general we totally underestimate the power of visualisation.  It’s an extremely powerful tool in manifesting what we want and keeping us focused in our activities.  I often hear people say they can’t visualise.  If I asked you now to remember the colour of your bedroom, you would visualise it just before you remembered it.  There are a few techniques however to create really powerful visualisations: 1. Make your visualisation and big, bright and bold as you can.  The more detail, colour and vibrancy you can add the better.  2. Make your visualisation a movie.  Fro example, if it’s a lifestyle you’re after, visualise driving in the drive in your new car, walking into the house and seeing it exactly as you want it in each room, seeing the people around you, checking you bank balance and seeing money continually coming in.  You can be as creative here as you like.  3. Add some emotion.  As you run your movie, feel the feelings associated with each step of it.  Really let them run deep.  4. Feel gratitude for this lifestyle, as if it has already happened.  (Just trust me on this.)  5. Practice this daily for a few minutes.

I have been practising this visualisation exercise for just 2 weeks now and the effects have been quite dramatic.  Money is flowing again, in and out, and there is always enough just at the right time. The truth is there is no scarcity of money.  There is no less money in circulation than there was before the “recession”.  I bought a lottery ticket just a few weeks back with a chance of winning £150M.  Does that sound like scarcity to you?  There is an abundance of money in this world but our attitude towards it is what determines what proportion of it we attract. How much do you intend to attract?

Tracey x
BiggerBrighterBolder.co.uk

“You must be crazy!”

If I’d had a pound for every time I heard that this past week, I’d be off to Barbados for an extended holiday right now.  What they’re referring to is the Firewalk Instructor Training  I recently completed and specifically, the 108 consecutive firewalks I undertook in order to be ingratiated into the F.I.R.E (Firewalk Institute of Research and Education) ‘Tribe’ of instructors. 

The truth is, I’m not mad but I have felt the amazing feeling of overcoming the seemingly impossible or fearful.  The feeling of pushing your boundaries and going beyond your comfort zone is one that lasts long after the event.  For some people it is empowering and fills them with self-belief.  For others, the 8-12 foot burning coal bed is a metaphor for stepping beyond the known and into the unknown.  Additionally, many find the act of walking on the hot coals a spiritual one.  I personally have experienced all of the above and being that BBB is all about breaking through barriers and embracing possibility, I wanted to be able to offer others the same experiences.

There is much more to firewalking than the act of walking across hot coals.   Anyone, within reason, ‘could’ walk a firewalk safely.  However, the barriers needing to be overcome to complete the task are self-belief, trust and fear.  Even those who ‘know’ they can walk the fire have a moment of doubt or fear when faced with the skin melting temperatures (even if this shows itself as bravado or simple excitement).  Breaking through fear, self-limiting beliefs and trust issues is the first step towards creating and leading an impactful, purposeful and successful life.  Whilst firewalking is relatively safe, the fire and the coal bed MUST be respected.  In my experience if you fail to respect the task at hand, it can ‘bite’ you.  As it is with obtaining anything in life, you must know your outcome, have a plan, approach it with the right mindset and purposefully step forward confident in your abilities, knowing that you will succeed and trusting that whatever, you’ll be okay.  For this reason, the firewalk is a wonderfully empowering tool, which lends itself as a powerful metaphor for achieving the life of dreams.

Other empowering challenges that we can now offer include glasswalking, board breaking, breaking arrows with your throat, bending steel bars with your throat, breaking concrete slabs as well as many simple but very effective tasks such as trust falls and team building exercises.  All have their place and have their own powerful and positive impact and effect on the participant.

Contact us if you are interested in hosting, organising or participating in a firewalk or empowerment seminar.

I look forward to meeting some of you at our forthcoming empowerment events and offering you the positive breakthroughs I’ve been privileged in experiencing myself.

George

(Principal Coach and Certified Firewalk Instructor)

FIREWALKING FACTS:

Tolly Burkan is known as the father of the international firewalking movement and is the founder of F.I.R.E with whom I trained.

The coals are usually approx. 1200 degrees.

Walks are typically 8-12 feet.

Great care needs to be taken to provide the most safety whilst maintaining the whole point of a ‘firewalk’.

Different woods have very different burning and walking characteristics and the instructor must ‘know’ their wood.

Scientific opinions vary on how firewalking is possible but nothing, in my and my instructors’ experience, influences the likelihood of receiving blisters or burns more than an incorrect mindset.

The small red marks or blisters sometimes received from firewalking are known in the firewalking fraternity as ‘fire kisses’ or ‘hotspots’.

Safety is always key and takes precedence over any other factor.

A WORD OF CAUTION

Never undertake any of the activities discussed here without proper professional instruction.  Firewalking, glasswalking and all of the aforementioned activities have their own inherent risks associated with them.  A qualified, highly trained instructor/facilitator will know how to minimise these risks but the participant always assumes full responsibility whether to participate or not and acknowledges the risks of doing so.

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