When was the last time you stood in front of a blazing fire, approximately 2 feet wide and 20 feet long, removed your shoes and socks, rolled up your pants and took a leisurely stroll through 1200° burning embers?

If your answer is “never” then you have not yet rewarded yourself with the opportunity to benefit from one of the most life-changing, belief shattering, confidence building, fear destroying experiences that life has to offer.

Here’s How it Feels to Walk Through Fire

You have not enjoyed the awesome and instant change that comes with completing a firewalk, something I have done, and taught others to do.

Many of us have first-hand experience of the challenges in attempting to bring significant change into our lives and we have come to believe that most change is slow-paced, incremental and occurs over a potentially lengthy period of time.

All too often we give up our efforts at implementing change when our expectations of rapid results go unmet and we begin convincing ourselves that whatever method we are using to achieve this result is simply not working.

Many years of working with hundreds of clients have taught me that few of us will endure the pain and challenges of change long enough to reap the rewards that successful implementation of change brings and I’m often reminded of the old saying that suggests that heaven resides on the far side of hell.

Having the most elementary knowledge of basic physics is all one needs to understand why it is easily possible to walk barefoot across 1200° calls without any injury or reduction in height.

And none of that knowledge matters one bit when you are standing at the front of the fire working hard at convincing yourself to take that first step.

The 20-foot length of the fire suddenly seems like 10 football fields placed end to end, the heat from the coals feels like it is peeling your skin away and the smell is more like that of an out-of-control wildfire then a pleasant fun filled campfire.

Your mind is flooded with every fear you have ever had and your brain is racing out of control as it presents you with the possibilities of every one of your worst nightmares becoming real.

You swallow hard, stand as upright as you can, take a deep breath, utter a silent prayer and with great determination, take the first step across red-hot coals and then the next and the next until you reach the end and step off the fire on to cool land while experiencing feelings of invincibility, strength, confidence, elation and powerfulness as you realize that your possibilities are boundless, your potential is limitless and your abilities are immeasurable.

Surprise! It’s a Metaphor

Fear has long been an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real and as you realize that none of those things you feared would happen, did happen, you instantly find yourself questioning where else in your life you have allowed false evidence to hold you back from achieving the greatness that you have always sought.

Many years have passed since I last taught a firewalk seminar and yet, on occasion, I still run across a person who attended one of my more than 200 firewalks and invariably, I hear of the massive changes that the experience brought to them and that changed forever the direction of their lives.

Most of our fears and doubts exist only in our minds and contain zero trace of reality. How we operate our thoughts and emotions is the strongest predictor of where and how we will end up and I know of nothing that will remove fear and doubt more rapidly and permanently than a relaxed saunter through 1200° coals.

All it takes is a burning desire to change.

Till we read again.