The Tony Robbins firewalk is one of the most exciting experiences you may take part in at his Unleash The Power Within seminar.
The purpose of the Tony Robbins firewalk is to change your limiting beliefs about whats possible. The process of going from extreme fear to empowered action within such a short space of time serves as an experience that you can call upon to take action in all the other areas of your life where fear is holding you back.
My Experience Of The Firewalk
It’s been almost 17 years since doing the Tony Robbins firewalk but the Unleash The Power Within weekend is one of my most vivid memories.
The first thing I realised being at Tony Robbins event was that I felt so old for an 18 year old at the time. I was so stiff, self-conscious and afraid of being judged while dancing, clapping away and having a good time. Luckily that quickly changed and it ended up being one of the most fun packed weekends of my life.
It was a three day event and I was expecting that the firewalk would take place on day three, after I had learn’t some new techniques.
But I was caught off-guard. On the very first day, within hours of the seminar starting I remember Tony saying we were going to be doing the firewalk that night.
Fearful images entered my imagination straight away. My heart rate quickened and I was panicking inside thinking of all the negative consequences of an unsuccessful firewalk.
I saw images of myself getting burned, not being able to walk, ambulances and police everywhere, my mum coming and shouting of Tony Robbins for harming her child…
Then Tony said “And let me tell you if you’re afraid of getting burnt you’ll most likely get burnt”.
That only made me more fearful and more images started flashing up in my head of everything that could go wrong.
I was trying to stay cool on the outside, trying to put a smile on my face and look like I was still enjoying it all but on the inside I was figuring a way how to get the hell out of there.
But all that changed within the next hour!
Start With A Strong Why
It started by getting a strong enough why. Getting enough powerful reasons why I absolutely had to follow through.
Tony instructed all the attendees to write down all the things it would cost us if we didn’t follow through and take action and then all the benefits for following through.
It’s a simple yet powerful process to get yourself motivated. Using the two forces of motivation – pain and pleasure.
Doing this process allowed me to harness my fear and use it to fuel my motivation and take action. Simply asking myself what it would cost me if I didn’t follow through, now, in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years…and so forth really flipped my fears on their head.
Breaking Through Fear
But the images where still there. That fearful feeling was still there so what did I do to take those away within the hour?
For that Tony Robbins instructed the attendees to follow a vizualization process. In essence it was the Scramble Pattern from his book Awaken The Giant Within. He covers the process in his Personal Power 2 course too. It’s a variation of the Fast Phobia Technique taken from Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP).
Getting Into Peak State
We also used our focus, language and physiology to get into a peak emotional state and anchored that in to remain feeling powerful and confident of creating the outcome we wanted.
I used the combination of the above techniques to go from extreme fear to saying to myself “I don’t even care if I get burnt, I’m following through and doing this!”.
That might sound extreme and even a little reckless but how many times have you allowed your inner dialogue and fear talk you out of doing something you really wanted to do?
The Tony Robbins firewalk was a controlled and calculated risk. There were 9000 people at the event. Safety was a priority and in reality the chances of anything going wrong were very low.
While doing the actual firewalk we discovered the power of incantations as Tony instructed us to say “cool moss” out loud.
I successfully completed the Tony Robbins firewalk and had a great time at Unleash The Power Within but did it change my life? Was it a life changing experience?
The firewalk did serve it’s purpose. It showed me how quickly I could change. It showed me that the only thing really stopping me from having what I want in life is my own thoughts. And I walked on fire! It’s pretty cool to tell people that I walked on fire.
But I also found myself still doing the same old things and procrastinating on my goals after the Unleash The Power Within Seminar. A common experience for many people after the event.
How To Create Lasting Change After The Tony Robbins Firewalk
Tony Robbins provided the tools for change and by doing the firewalk demonstrated their effectiveness.
But if you’re to create lasting change its comes down to changing your subconscious thoughts. That means your habitual thoughts. Your subconscious limiting beliefs and associations that are holding you back from taking action.
Take Full Responsibility
If you want to create lasting change then it starts with taking full responsibility for everything in your life. When you take responsibility you retain the power to make things the way you want.
Change Your Subconscious Thoughts
The second thing is to change your subconscious programming. Consciously we all know what we should be doing but its our subconscious thoughts, our habits, that ultimately dictate what we’ll do on a consistent basis.
To change these the tools are out there. Affirmations, visualization, EFT, NLP…whatever it is, you need to apply them.
From my own experience I didn’t change for so long simply because I didn’t apply all the great tools out there. Why didn’t I? I didn’t have a strong enough why.
Using pain and pleasure in the correct way motivated me to do the Tony Robbins firewalk. So use your fear by asking what it will cost you if you don’t follow through right now. What will it cost you in 1 year, 3 years…what if things stayed the same?
If you do that and apply the tools and you will create the lasting changes you want.