A One Handed Blog

This past weekend I attended Tony Robbin’s UPW event in San Jose, 3 years ago this was my first Tony Robbins event…5 events later I’ve come full circle.

The nice thing this time around was I got to sit in the front row, one of the benefits of being a Platinum Partner and as a result I got pulled up on stage to help with a demo…quite an experience to be standing on stage in front of 3,200 people.

It was a fun event, although unlike 3 years back Tony was only there for days 1 & 3 and Joseph McClendon III filled in for day 2 and then came back for day 4 on health and vitality.

At the end of the first day I got a another chance to do the firewalk, Tony’s signature activity at UPW. Three years ago when I did this it was just 4 months after my accident and I was still recovering from my electrical burns.

This time around I knew I could do it and could focus more on the metaphor that it represents, making a break through. It was interesting that last time I got a small burn on my foot, this time around, whilst I felt the coals, I didn’t get any burns at all.

It’s was as impressive as ever to see 3,000+ people lining up to get in state and walk across the hot coals.

Last week I attended Tony Robbins’ Leadership Academy Bootcamp in San Diego. I’ve attended a number of Tony’s events since I first did UPW (read all about it here) in San Jose in 2006 (incidentally, he’s back in San Jose this month after a 3 year absence, if you’re interested in attending call Erica Nitti, 858-535-6367, tell her I sent you and she’ll look after you).

I’ve got a lot of value from Tony’s real world approach to human psychology, it’s helped me and I’ve been able to help others by practicing just some of what he teaches. Anyway, the Leadership event really bought the last 3 years of events home for me and has set me on a new path in life.

As is often the case with his events, they use a physical act as a metaphor for a psychological/emotional breakthrough, at UPW it was the firewalk, at Life Mastery it was climbing a telephone pole. At Leadership Bootcamp it was breaking a 1″ pine board, karate chop-style! There were about 300 people in the room and after a 30 minute rundown by Joe Williams on how to get in state, stand, position our arms and strike we all queued up ready to do it.

Apparently this usually takes someone doing martial arts 6 months to progress to, here we were ready in less than an hour. A great demonstration of the power of getting into state. As you can see in the before photo, there’s a look of total focus in my eyes…this was my second attempt. My first didn’t go so well, but it sure confirmed that it was a real piece of solid wood, up until then I think I still thought that it can’t really be a solid piece of wood (there’s a metaphor for life for you). So on my second attempt, hand smarting a bit from the first, I totally focused and went for it. As you can see from the second photo I broke through, strange thing was, the second time around I didn’t even feel the board, in fact I had to double check since I figured I must have missed it, that’s how easy it was to breakthrough (another great metaphor for you).

All in all, the event was simply amazing, and those who know me know I don’t use that term lightly. Outside of the coaching and training, the speakers they had were first class. Robin Bennacasa is an adventure racer (World Champion honors
in both the Eco-Challenge and Raid
Gauloises) and spoke on the kind of leadership and team dynamics that you need to make it through a 7-10 day, non-stop adventure race of 400-600 miles. Once I get through with my Ironman ambitions maybe adventure racing will be next, not sure if they’ve ever had a physically challenged team or not, maybe it’s time. Jan Hargrave was a blast, she’s an FBI specialist and expert in non-verbal communication (body language) and took us through a riot as she tested and explained how the body doesn’t lie. Want to know if someone is attracted to you, she knows. Steve Linder spent half a day with us on Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), he’s somewhat of an expert on how patterns of mental and emotional behavior affect us. Shore Slocum bought an interesting and more contemplative perspective on leadership and life, a great story teller and compelling speaker. Joe Williams, one of Tony’s master trainers (with an incredible assist from Joseph McClendon), ran the show and did a marvelous job through the 5 days, 12 hours plus a day.

If you ever get the chance to attend a Tony Robbins event, take it: have fun, play full out and you won’t regret it.

Many Thanks to Pete Parker for taking the photos of the event, they are © Copyright 2009 Peter S. Parker, All Rights Reserved, Used with Permission. If you want to see more photos of the event, click here.

Kerry and I have been on vacation for the last 2 weeks, we spent last week in Fiji participating in the  Tony Robbins Life Mastery course and this week with our friend, Julian, in New Zealand.

We had a great time at Life Mastery, it’s one of Tony’s full immersion courses focused on health and well being, and what better place to be than Fiji. It was our first time in Fiji and it’s a beautiful place, particularly where we stayed at the Namale resort (owned by Tony Robbins). Life mastery is part cleanse, part education and part relaxation, as you go through a process of  stopping the poisoning of the body,  cleansing and detoxifying and then rebuilding. It’s an incredible experience that teaches you the tools and techniques that you can practically apply in real life to improve your state of health and mind.

As is typical for Tony’s events the day we arrived we faced a physical challenge, in this case climbing a 50ft telephone pole and jumping to a trapeze 8-10ft away…all without ropes (only kidding we had safety harnesses on).  Prior to my accident this really wouldn’t have been a big deal, but only having one hand added a new twist to the whole thing.

Kerry ended up going first and showed incredible determination as she got to the top but couldn’t quite stand up. She must have hung on for 5+ minutes before she finally managed to push up and stand on the top. When she came down she told me how hard it was and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it…I knew I’d do it or if nothing else give it a damn good try.

As it worked out I ended up being the last one to climb, no additional pressure – since everyone else by that point had managed to at least nearly stand on top. I approached the pole calmly and knew that it was all in the legs (as with most climbing). I just had to find a way to hang on to the pole as I moved my feet to the next peg…hugging the pole with my left arm worked out pretty good…and I just keep stepping up one peg at a time.

Once at the top I had to jiggle around a bit to get in a position where I could stand and then from there I was on top of the world (opps, sorry I mean the pole). All that was left then was to jump for the trapeze. I figured it would be pretty unlikely I’d be able to hold on to the bar with just one hand, but I gave it a go anyway.

I reached the bar with my right hand but couldn’t hold on…but that really didn’t matter, as I’d conquered the pole. There’s nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it!

For those of you that know me you’ll find this hard to believe…but I’m going to become a vegetarian, yes, yes, I can hear the laughter already thank you. For those that don’t know me I’m about as far from being a vegetarian as you can get, I’ll literally pick the meat out of a dish or eat around the vegetables on my plate, my only concession is I don’t mind salad, but cooked vegetables are a no no.

So what’s prompted the change I hear you ask, well it’s all the fault of that Tony Robbins guy. On the last day of the UPW event Joseph McClendon III, a close friend of Tony’s, took us through "Living Healthy", which consisted of Joseph intermixed with Tony on video.

Basically they laid out "The Ten Fundamentals Of Living Health" and as you have probably guessed, number 8 is eliminate animal flesh and number 9 is eliminate milk, cheese, and all diary products. Now if it wasn’t for the fact that Tony and Joseph exhibit more energy and vitality than you can imagine I’d have dismissed it, but instead I’m going to accept their 10 day challenge and not just follow a vegetarian diet but a vegan one!

I’ll see how it goes and after that I’ll decide if I’m to remain a vegetarian or perhaps even a vegan…I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Kerry and I attended Anthony Robbins’ "Unleash the Power Within" in San Jose at the weekend. It’s a four day event focused on personal development. For those who haven’t heard of Tony Robbin’s he’s one of the preeminient personal success coaches in the world. I first came across him about 3 years ago when I saw his infomercial, not being one to normal go for this type of thing he piqued my interest enough that I ordered one of his personal development courses to check him out and have been a fan ever since.

When I saw he was coming to San Jose I couldn’t miss the opportunity to see him in person and I must say that he is 100 times more impressive in person than he is even on CD.

The whole experience was life changing and beyond mine or Kerry’s expectations. Friday night’s (the first day) finale was the fire walk. You can’t see too well from the photo but the glowing red spots are burning coals, between 1200 & 2000 degrees Fahrenheit! Close to 3000 people proceeded to walk across these burning coals that night including myself.

Might seem a bit daft for someone who already has serious burns and skin grafts to both legs to go fire walking, but hey, everyone else was doing it so what the hell! Kerry went first, she put herself into a peak mental state and proceeded to walk across the coals as if they weren’t there. Given she had quite a bit of trepidation about the whole thing it was amazing to she her just go for it. I didn’t fair quite so well and came away with a couple of minor blisters (which goes to prove it was for real), but all in all It’s amazing to see the power of the mind. It really was an incredible sight to see so many people fire walking, normal, everyday people.

To give you an idea just how compelling the event was, on the Sunday the doors opened at 8:30am, we didn’t break to eat until around 7:00pm that evening and Tony didn’t stop until 1:30am the next day…and all this time you are just completely enthralled in the process he takes you through as you transform your life and expectations. If you ever have the opportunity to see him live take it!