I AM: The two most powerful words in the world

My commitment to changing the level at which I live my life, deepened about four years ago when I decided to embark on the biggest personal transformation of my life. And the most important thing about personal growth and transformation, is that you never arrive. There is never a point of completion. The deeper you go, the more you start to value and appreciate the journey. You fall in love with the process, because you realise that’s all there is.

So, as I write this, I’ve renewed my commitment to being 100% committed to the process and 0% committed to the outcome. I cannot control the outcome. So, there is no point on focusing my energy and attention there. I won’t get me what I yearn for most anyway. So, instead, I fall in love with the process of learning and growing, and I stay on the path towards mastery. I choose to be a student of life and I accept and embrace never arriving. For the rest of my days here on earth, I am a student of life, and I am here to soak up as much love, learning, joy, growth, awe, and inspiration as is available to me.

These renewed commitments stem directly from my attendance at a Game Changer Event with the ultimate mindset coach, Devon Bandison. Devon is a force to be reckoned with. There are few people who love as fiercely, as boldly, as humbly as he does. Devon has a presence that cannot be ignored. Getting a tongue lashing from Devon, is like being showered with love, because if you’re getting a tongue lashing from him, it’s probably because it’s what you need most. And I honour who Devon is in the world and for the impact he has had on my life. There are no words to describe my gratitude.

So, what I will do instead is live into who I know I am meant to be every day and serve the people in my world to the best of my ability. I will share my gifts generously, I will continue to love fiercely, and I will remain a student on the path, always.

There are a lot of nuggets I might share with you about The Game Changer Event. And I probably will share them all, either in conversation serving a client, running workshops, or writing to you. And today, I will leave you with what was created from this event.

A few months ago, I read The Ultimate Coach by Amy Hardison, about her husband Steve Hardison. The book is about Steve Hardison’s life and how he came to be The Ultimate Coach. Two powerful things that stood out for me about Steve’s work with his clients, is that every client has their own flag. And their flag is raised outside his house on the day that they have their session with him. Steve does all his coaching in person at his house.

In preparation for the client’s arrival, Steve brushes the carpet in his office so that there are no footprint indents, and he raises the client’s flag. So, every client feels like he/she is the most important person in the world when they arrive at Steve’s house, because their personal flag is flapping outside, and they are the first person to walk onto the carpet in his office that day.

The second thing that Steve invites all his clients to do, is to create their own personal manifesto or declaration. Essentially, your personal manifesto is a declaration of who you are in the world or who you are choosing to become. What is powerful about it, is that you create yourself, before you enter any room. You choose who you want to be, by putting words to it. You essentially describe your being, and you then live into that vision for yourself every day.

Now, as simple as this may sound, it’s not always that simple. It’s hard to create your personal declaration if you are disconnected from your most authentic self, and if you are running untrue stories about yourself in your unconscious that stop you from showing up as your best, most authentic, and highest self.

And, yet, sometimes what is required is that we drop the story we are holding on to, and consciously choose who we want to become. Everything is a choice.

I read about this manifesto, and was inspired by the idea, and yet, struggled to get myself to a point where I could write my own. I also remember how much I struggled writing a life purpose statement, and for me, I know it was because of untrue stories I was running in my subconscious. Stories that did not serve me and that kept me deadbolted to a place I did not want to be, which was an outdated version of who I was.

The most powerful lesson I have learnt in my lifetime, is that your past does not define you. It doesn’t define who you are or who you become. It’s simply your story about where you started, but it doesn’t have to have any power over your future, unless you let it. So many times, I hear my clients get stuck in stories about who they think they are, stories that don’t serve them and that has them playing small.

And the only way out of it, is to drop the story. Let it go. Completely. So, you can start from a blank slate, because there is no other way. You cannot create something new if there is already something on the page. However, on a blank page, ANYTHING is possible. Nothing is there yet. So, anything is possible. You are only limited by your own imagination about what’s possible. And so, I invite my clients to drop the story that doesn’t serve them, and to create anew from a blank slate.

The two most powerful words in the world are “I AM”. Whatever follows these two words, creates your world, and your lived reality. Try it, I am tired. And what will unfold? You will show up tired, your life and results will feel tired, you will live into tired. I’m confused… I’m unsure… I am hopeless… I am stupid… I’m such a klutz… Or, I am health… I am vitality… I am prosperity… I am wise… I am committed… I am love…

Two stories will serve here. One of my clients was in a lot of debt when we started our work together. In our work together, we discovered an unconscious soundtrack – a story she was running about who she thought she was. The story was, “I’m irresponsible with money.” That had her create the debt she was in, and it had her struggle to believe that she could get out of debt.

Then we changed the game. We changed the perspective she came from. She chose to drop the story that she was irresponsible with money, and she chose to recreate herself as someone who is fierce, courageous, dedicated, responsible, and creative. After a whole year of deep money work, she not only paid off her debt, but she also started a business, and after another year, she has now exceeded her financial goals. She is now someone who creates what she wants, AND she has evidence in her life that tells her that she is responsible with money, that she spends her money on the things she values most in life, and that she can create money whenever she needs to.

This version of who she is was not available to her a few years ago, because her past told a different story. Had she tried to change the past, she would simply have been recycling the past. What we did instead, is we recreated who she could be in the world, by starting with a blank slate. She dropped the story that wasn’t serving her and that was getting her stuck, and she became someone who could create money and live with deep gratitude and appreciation for money.

Another client was running a story that he is other people’s emotional punching bag. It was a story that wasn’t serving him, that had him playing small, and acquiescing when he really didn’t want to. So, in our work together, we recreated who he is in the world. We worked through the stories that had him show up as a punching bag, and he became a leader who is masterful at connecting and creating relationships. He became someone who asks for what he needs, and who speaks the truth to others when it serves them to hear it.

If you take nothing else from this letter to you, except for the wisdom that your words create your world, then you will have walked away with a goldmine. I AM… Whatever follows those two words will create the world you live into. So, make them count.

Lastly, we tend to think that we are our names, or our titles, or our careers, or our roles, or our achievements and accolades. We are none of those things. Those are labels to describe what we have done or created, but it’s not who we are. You are not your name, because your name could never encompass all that you are.

So, whenever someone asks Devon who he is, he clarifies, “Do you want to know my name? Or do you want to know who I am? Because those are two different things.”

So, since today is my birthday – the day I entered the physical world – I will share who I am with you. And my hope is that it will inspire you as much as it inspired me to listen to Devon creating himself for us.