Walking on fire

I had an intense and incredible experience at the Tony Robbins program this weekend, Unleash the Power Within. The program went from Thursday to Sunday. The highlight of Thursday was the firewalk. It seems counterintuitive that the firewalk would be on the first night - after all, where do you go after you've done the impossible?

I was impressed by Tony Robbins, I expected that he would put in an appearance for an hour or two and that other speakers would fill the remainder of the program. Surely the promoters were just using his name to sell the program, yes? Well, no. Robbins started around two o'clock on Thursday and he kept on going and going and going. He took no breaks (and gave none either!), and kept going for a good eight hours or so. He has an incredible amount of energy and presence.

The bulk of the program on Thursday was used in preparing the 3,000 participants for the firewalk. The top three tools that he used to reinforce the learning were repetition, repetition, and repetition. For most of the afternoon I did not know whether I would do the firewalk or not. I had various reasons for not doing it, but I also could see clearly what was on the other side for me if I did - I saw the rest if my life on the other side.

I thought about the saying, if you want to walk on water you have to get out of the boat. I stood by and watched other people do the walk. I stood by for quite a while then noticed that I was letting lots of people walk past me and do the walk while I just watched. I finally mustered up my courage and moved into line. Soon I was at the front of the line and it was my turn.

It took about five quick steps and it was over. Woo hoo! I did it! I didn't feel any heat at all during my walk. The sensation I felt was like walking on cool ashes. I felt something peel off the bottoms of my feet after I came out of it. Did I sear the skin on my feet? Were the bottoms of my feet all burned and blackened with layers of skin peeling off?

No. It was just leaves and grass that had stuck to my feet before I did the walk, and were now peeling off. My feet were fine, still white. In fact, the day after they felt like I had just had a great foot massage.

I celebrated my triumph with some of the other participants and I texted a few people to brag about what I'd just done and then I headed back to the convention hall to get my shoes and socks. When I got back to the hall, it seemed that I could tell by the look on people's faces who had done the walk and who had not. I was really glad that I was one of the people who did do it.