This article relates a motivational conference speaker's powerful personal experience of walking across fire to empowering ourselves through setting goals.
We have walked on glowing, red hot coals in fire ceremonies since our earliest days as humans.
In ancient times, it was common for pagan tribes-people around the world to gather at the communal village fire as the sun went down and wait the magical moment when the gods would urge them to dance on the burning embers.
It was a profound mystical, spiritual and physical experience.
In fact, there has never been a single developing culture which has not developed and followed certain rituals involving fire.
Such fire rituals are intrinsic to human culture.
For it is universally recognized that fire is an essential element for life on earth, to be treated with love, reverence and thanksgiving, and at other times with the utmost of respect.
Modern day humans have, however, lost touch with this most basic of connections and communications with our inner nature and planetary life.
Even to this day, one of the most primitive cultures on our planet, the iKung, a semi nomadic tribe of the Kalahari desert in southern Africa practice the fire-dancing ritual in a way that mystifies the western mind with awe and amazement.
According to many scholars and witnesses, the iKung will stand in fires that have been burning for hours, pick up coals in their hands; putting their faces and heads into the flames, rubbing the coals all over their bodies, even swallowing coals-all with an incredible sense of freedom.
So what has fire-walking got to do with goal setting? Fire-walking, I believe has everything to do with goal setting because it is such a powerful metaphor for getting reconnected with ourselves and accomplishing the impossible! I know this personally because fire-walking completely transformed my life.
When I was ten years old my dad asked me if I would like to fly with him to Washington DC and attend a motivational seminar.
He said that if we went we would be participating in a fire-walk event.
Without thinking, I said, "Of course!" For days leading up to the flight, I kept asking him for more information on the fire-walk.
I was scared to death and seriously felt that I had made a terrible mistake and, even worse, I would chicken out.
At age 10, I knew what it was like to get burned and it hurt and it scared me, especially when my dad said that it was quite possible that I could get hurt.
I vividly remember the three day seminar like it happened yesterday.
My dad and I had seats just two rows back from the stage.
A few hours before we were to engage in the actual fire-walk, the facilitator described it to us as a real-life experience in personal empowerment and a metaphor for incredible possibilities, an opportunity for people to produce results they previously thought impossible.
It was to be an affirmation of our belief in ourselves.
It was explained that the fire-walk experience teaches people in the most visceral sense that they can stretch themselves; they can do things that they never, ever thought possible; that our greatest fears and limitations were all self-imposed.
That the only difference between whether you can walk on fire or not is your ability to communicate to yourself in a way that impels you to take massive action in spite of all your past fear-programming about what should happen to you.
As the time to walk across the coals grew closer, we learned how we could accomplish virtually anything we desired so long as we mustered the resources to believe we could and take effective actions.
This was a chance for me to prepare for the incredible life in store for me if I would only allow myself to focus on accomplishing my dreams.
Let me tell you, for a skinny ten year old kid from Massachusetts this was game changing stuff and I never for a minute forgot any of it.
In fact, I knew then exactly what I wanted to be and what I wanted to do in this life.
I knew at that moment that my dream was to become a motivational conference speaker.
Here I am, years later, continuing to work hard sharing a message pulling from my life experiences.
And that's why a walk across 10 feet of 800 degree scalding hot, burning coals had such a lasting impression on me.
I never did get burned and I vowed to be a goal-setter.
I believed at the moment that there was absolutely nothing that I could not do in my life.
And that's why I cannot encourage you more to take the plunge into the flames if the opportunity ever presents itself.
We have walked on glowing, red hot coals in fire ceremonies since our earliest days as humans.
In ancient times, it was common for pagan tribes-people around the world to gather at the communal village fire as the sun went down and wait the magical moment when the gods would urge them to dance on the burning embers.
It was a profound mystical, spiritual and physical experience.
In fact, there has never been a single developing culture which has not developed and followed certain rituals involving fire.
Such fire rituals are intrinsic to human culture.
For it is universally recognized that fire is an essential element for life on earth, to be treated with love, reverence and thanksgiving, and at other times with the utmost of respect.
Modern day humans have, however, lost touch with this most basic of connections and communications with our inner nature and planetary life.
Even to this day, one of the most primitive cultures on our planet, the iKung, a semi nomadic tribe of the Kalahari desert in southern Africa practice the fire-dancing ritual in a way that mystifies the western mind with awe and amazement.
According to many scholars and witnesses, the iKung will stand in fires that have been burning for hours, pick up coals in their hands; putting their faces and heads into the flames, rubbing the coals all over their bodies, even swallowing coals-all with an incredible sense of freedom.
So what has fire-walking got to do with goal setting? Fire-walking, I believe has everything to do with goal setting because it is such a powerful metaphor for getting reconnected with ourselves and accomplishing the impossible! I know this personally because fire-walking completely transformed my life.
When I was ten years old my dad asked me if I would like to fly with him to Washington DC and attend a motivational seminar.
He said that if we went we would be participating in a fire-walk event.
Without thinking, I said, "Of course!" For days leading up to the flight, I kept asking him for more information on the fire-walk.
I was scared to death and seriously felt that I had made a terrible mistake and, even worse, I would chicken out.
At age 10, I knew what it was like to get burned and it hurt and it scared me, especially when my dad said that it was quite possible that I could get hurt.
I vividly remember the three day seminar like it happened yesterday.
My dad and I had seats just two rows back from the stage.
A few hours before we were to engage in the actual fire-walk, the facilitator described it to us as a real-life experience in personal empowerment and a metaphor for incredible possibilities, an opportunity for people to produce results they previously thought impossible.
It was to be an affirmation of our belief in ourselves.
It was explained that the fire-walk experience teaches people in the most visceral sense that they can stretch themselves; they can do things that they never, ever thought possible; that our greatest fears and limitations were all self-imposed.
That the only difference between whether you can walk on fire or not is your ability to communicate to yourself in a way that impels you to take massive action in spite of all your past fear-programming about what should happen to you.
As the time to walk across the coals grew closer, we learned how we could accomplish virtually anything we desired so long as we mustered the resources to believe we could and take effective actions.
This was a chance for me to prepare for the incredible life in store for me if I would only allow myself to focus on accomplishing my dreams.
Let me tell you, for a skinny ten year old kid from Massachusetts this was game changing stuff and I never for a minute forgot any of it.
In fact, I knew then exactly what I wanted to be and what I wanted to do in this life.
I knew at that moment that my dream was to become a motivational conference speaker.
Here I am, years later, continuing to work hard sharing a message pulling from my life experiences.
And that's why a walk across 10 feet of 800 degree scalding hot, burning coals had such a lasting impression on me.
I never did get burned and I vowed to be a goal-setter.
I believed at the moment that there was absolutely nothing that I could not do in my life.
And that's why I cannot encourage you more to take the plunge into the flames if the opportunity ever presents itself.
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