I’m barefoot on the sidewalk in New Jersey at 1:30AM. I’m freezing. I’m apprehensive. I’m aggressively assessing the situation and contemplating getting the hell out of there. I’m surrounded by about 10,000 other barefoot people all clapping and chanting a slow “YES. YES. YES. YES.” as we walked out of the building to the fire pits where we would walk across burning coals. We had been in the arena all day—since 9:30AM. About 14 hours later at 11:15pm, he turned the lights off and hypnotized the entire room of thousands. Did he SAY that’s what he was doing? NO. Was that what he was doing? YES. Luckily, I’ve seen GET OUT. So I was not about to let this man drop ME into a tea cup. I kept both eyes open, both ears perked, vigilantly staying on guard, combing through every word he was saying, making sure he only spoke light. He does. But still I do not allow myself to fall under the spell. It was not easy—I really WAS so sleepy, hungry, and now the room was dark and calm.
I silently wondered to myself: Could I still walk across burning coals if I’m not brainwashed? Cut to the sidewalk at 1:30AM—I was about to find out.
There were so many people outside that I couldn’t see the firepits. Andrew is PUMPED and making sure we stay together. We’d made two friends who were also sticking close by to us. They were nervous like I was but still excited. We were getting closer to the front.
In an instant, the energy shifted from inquisitive and cautious to FULL OUT INTENSE. I tricked my heart to calm down by convincing myself that the coals would have cooled down significantly by the time it is my turn.
We are now at the front and Andrew is next. He was hyping himself up, when we both watched in SLOW MOTION that the person in charge of our lane noticed that the coals had cooled down. The girl next to us had just told us five minutes prior: ‘I did it before. It’s not hot. You’ll be fine.’ And now—Andrew and I are watching the guy put FRESH burning red coals on the path, TAKING HIS TIME TO DISTRIBUTUE IT EVENLY.
My eyes grew the size of golf balls. My Botox could no longer hold my forehead down as the strength of my eyebrows stretched to the sky. My jaw was so far on the ground that someone almost tripped on it. I was SO shook. Those coals looked HOT. The air FELT hot. I WAS freezing but wasn’t anymore.
Andrew, my sweet, adrenaline junky husband was so excited. Off he went, leaving his precious wife to fend for herself. My thoughts: Oh my god. He literally just did it. Now that means I have to do it. bleeeeeeeeeppp
And so there I was. At the front of the line. It felt like all eyes were on me. And all I could think was:
How can I get out of this.
Can I go around the side?
Can I walk wide enough so that I don’t touch the hottest coals?
Oh Lord. There’s no way out of this.
Somebody save me.
How did I get here?
I knew I should have passed when I counted only 4 black people out of 10,000.
THERE IS LITERALLY NO WAY to get to the other side except to walk across the firey hot coals!! The only other option is the walk of shame and going back the way I came, weaving through a huge crowd who KNOWS you chickened out—ultimately getting separated from Andrew. eyeroll This is so dumb. Okay Salisha. You gonna be a little punk or you gonna do this and get it over with. Baby girl, you canNOT trip. You canNot fall on these freaking coals. You can’t let any coals get stuck between your toes.
And then….BAM!!! Something clicked.
Get out of your head. Get out of your own way. What have you learned in the last 12+ hours from Tony Robbins himself? The whole point of the conference is to fix your mental state. To train your mind to be able to do anything. You literally have the tools you need to walk across this pit of burning coals and not get burned. THAT’S THE POINT. YOU CAN DO THIS. You can do hard things. You have DONE hard things. You have to change your energy from “I’m afraid” to “BABY IT’S GO TIME.”
This is the shift that happened in the moment. But the lesson didn’t hit me until the next day. I walked across those burning coals like a BAD BITCH. I didn’t tip toe. I faced it head on. Before the woman at the front gave me the green light to go, she looked deep into my eyes and said: LOOK UP. Now GO!
Yes. I walked across. Yes, I felt the heat. No, I did not get burned. That woman telling me to look up was her basically saying: stop staring at what you’re afraid of. Stop FOCUSING on what MIGHT burn you. Look UP—where you’re help comes from…look to where you’re headed and where you’re going. What you focus on will increase. So focus on what you want. Not on what you fear.
This Tony Robbins conference changed my life. Day 1, I got all the tools I needed to take on this next chapter of my life. Day 3, I got a full blown break through. I wept and sobbed a like a baby. Andrew and I having our own individual experiences right next to one another. It was incredible. It was worth every penny. Tony Robbins, the OG of the self-help industry took the stage for 13 hours at a time, the first day without a single break. No lunch. No dinner. No ‘everyone let’s take a 10.’ None of that. Like if you personally needed a break, you had to leave the room on your own accord and miss whatever he was saying. He spoke for 13 straight hours. THAT IS LITERALLY SO WILD.
At the beginning, I wasn’t sure if I liked him. He was kind of an asshole. But there I was, taking a MILLION notes. By the end of it all, I liked him slightly more as a person, but he wasn’t there to be my friend. He’s a coach. And if he can teach me how to get my shit done… well baby, that’s all she wrote.
Did I just join a cult? Maybe.
Am I ready to take on the world? HELL YEAH.
Comments