Standing in Power

Imagine yourself hungry and then imagine yourself with all of your family at the dinner table with all your favorite food.  Laughter is in the air.  Everyone is eating, re-connecting, and loving on each other. In this moment, you feel 360 degrees of fullness.  It is a moment of abundance.

 

This is the feeling I began describing in my last blog post when I attended the Speak and Write 2016 conference.  I shared some of my breakthrough out loud moments and I will continue from where I left off.

 

Next, the woman of the hour Lisa Nichols took the stage, she came standing in power!  From head to toe, she is beautiful, stylishly clad, and radiating abundance.  She shared a fascinating story of how she invested in her own dreams.  For three and a half years, she wrote herself a check every two weeks and on the memo line, she wrote funding my dream.

 

Even without complete clarity about how her dream would unfold, she continued to save.  Lisa focused on her hunger to buy her freedom and transform her life from average to abundant.  She made sacrifices, sold her car, lived with a roommate, became a hermit, in order to write a bigger check to herself.  What she discovered after three years shocked her.  “When I went into the bank for my balance, the tellers were excited because they had never seen me before.  I had always mailed in my checks,” she said smiling.  “They called me the Funding my Dream lady.”

The teller wrote the balance on a piece of paper and showed it to Lisa. With disbelief, Lisa told her the amount is a mistake, since no one in her family had even saved $10,000. Lisa invited her mother to join her on stage and with her arms around her, she told the audience, “The teller happily advised me that I saved, $62,500!” She took radical action and became her very first investor for a business that would soon transform the lives of millions.

 

At that point, I am clearly impressed. She challenged us with this statement, “You are your own hook-up!” BOOM! That right there is reason for pause; I needed to meditate on the words for a bit. I am experiencing a Breakthrough Out Loud moment or for the purposes of social media #BOL.

 

Lisa’s intention is to build holistically abundant people and transform them in the areas of relationship, finance, career, and spirituality. For example, why should I accept just having great fiscal responsibility but at the same time, I am living with broken relationships? Oh no, at the end of the conference, she planned to release an army of holistic unicorns back into their chaotic reality to shift it.

 

There were multiple valuable lessons, like how to outline a book in twenty minutes. Yes twenty minutes with publishers on site who guaranteed international bestseller status. So if anyone had a book in them, someone could help them get it out. One author explained that writing a book brings an instant expert status, almost like a glorified business card.

 

One activity required us to practice saying no, in order to overcome rejection. They showed us how to create our SNAP. It is what others call the Elevator Pitch. They also showed us how to incorporate the DIP theory into our stories.

 

This theory is why my girlfriend wanted me to attend the conference. She heard Lisa talk about it online, and I had trouble sharing the various dips in my life. The DIP is when an individual introduces himself or herself as they are in the present moment. Then describe a time when he or she hit rock bottom and how they got out. After the definition, Lisa instructed the audience to break up into groups of threes. In two minutes, each person had to share his or her DIP. Obviously, I had difficulty with this exercise… First off, I did not want to do it and then when I did, I could not get out of the valley and so I ran out of time. This became the beginning of another #BOL for me and I am certain others in the audience experienced the same thing.

 

 

It turned out that getting great content meant no one in the audience wanted to leave for breaks. I witnessed people hurrying to the bathroom to rush back into the session. They barely took lunch breaks. With each passing day, I could feel the emptiness filling up— to the overflow. But by the end of Day 2, it felt like drinking water from the hose of a fire truck. On one occasion, I even exited the room, sat in the lobby, and took deep breaths for a few minutes to process. But I went back.

 

Two significant encounters began to shift my paradigm. One I will discuss now and the other in my next blog. In an early morning session, I met Dr. Ray; my term of endearment for him is Dr. Wisdom. When he spoke, every single word came forth like flowing olive oil of wisdom. One thing he said struck me. “I tried to fit into different boxes but realized I could not because there were so many sides of me. How could I be uniquely me in an already created job? I found out that I could create my ideal position without eliminating any of my experience, training, strengths, and passions. So I did,” he said. I had to meet this man.

 

I also wanted to meet coach Erica who talked about transitions. After the panel discussion, as I joined the line to meet Erica. I began filling out a connection card. My hand began to shake, but I did not know why. As I told my girlfriend, I noticed Dr. Wisdom is freed up. I sprung to my feet and introduced myself by sharing my DIP. He looked straight into my soul and said, this is what you will do, and he names it. He said, “I have never heard that before, have you?” I nodded, no. It just came to him, right there. In that moment, all my trembling stopped and I stood there in peace. With tears in my eyes, I walked away in silence, pondering my new truth.

 

How could I unpack the specifics of my new path? That answer came later when I bumped into Dr. Wisdom again and he offered to coach me with an execution strategy. Mind fully blown! Heart and eyes continued to overflow! I am getting solid help and moving with it. Chapter two of life, here I come.

 

Like me, you can climb out of your DIP? We are in this together, until next time, Happy Thanksgiving! I am truly thankful for you and you and you.

 

 

Action Challenge

Greatness is in you and me. It is in all of us. Sometimes you can feel it in your mind. Sometimes you feel it floating around in your chest. Then there are other times when life beats your down or other people speak their negative beliefs about you, that makes you forget how greatness feels. Close your eyes and see the greatness that you feel. Then with the feeling and the vision, say from your lips seven times, “I was born for something greater than myself.” Now own it, stand in it and walk in it from this day forward.

 

UMMMMMMMMM

I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. (John 14:12)