July 27, 1999. San Bruno, CA
in a file cabinet in my closet i have a folder with “gung-ho stuff” written on it.
inside are 2 notebooks, a bunch of loose papers, and the program from tony
robbins’ “unleash the power within” seminar i attended in 1999
the seminar was in a large convention-type room at a hotel near the san francisco
airport. on the evening of the first day he took everyone outside – a couple
thousand people – to see several huge bonfires made of stacked railroad ties. he
told us that later that night, when the fires had burned down to coals, we would
all walk across them.
it was ten or eleven when we went back out. the coals had been raked into long
walkways. everyone lined up in front of one and waited their turn. the first
person in each line was coached on what to do, and evaluated for their readiness.
when i got to the front of the line and passed the readiness test i was sent walking.
it was probably fifteen feet to the other side. at the end a small ember stuck to the
side of my foot and burned a little, but the bottoms of my feet were fine.
the transformational part of the experience was that we were all supposed to have
a newfound confidence in our ability to do things we previously thought impossible.
i can’t say that that happened for me. maybe in a subtle way, but nothing dramatic.