If you haven’t heard me say it before, Sarah and I have “spent house deposits” on personal growth whilst our friends have been putting deposits down on houses.
Some believe we’ve pulled the right rein whilst others believe we’re a bit cuckoo.
I’ll let you by the judge!
Regardless, having been a consumer of personal growth products since the age of 19 it’s quite clear to me that there are some true living legends in this space and some downright shonks.
The living legends
The inspiration for this article came when I saw that Dr John Demartini is coming to Sydney, Perth & Brisbane later this year for his signature event, The Breakthrough Experience.
Sarah and I did this event together in 2011, at the peak of Sarah feeling unfulfilled. In her own words Sarah felt like an average chiropractor and an average mother. One Monday morning, Sarah said goodbye to Maya when she was 8 weeks of age to return to work 3 days per week at our wellness centre, Pure Wisdom.
I’ve never seen her sob like I have on that day.
It’s days like that you feel (or at least I did), “this is not what life’s about. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Doing The Breakthrough Experience together allowed us both to realise even more that we are the scriptwriters of our life. We are the directors AND the main characters. John Demartini helped us realise this more than anyone else.
I doubt we would have had the courage to decide to leave family, relocate to the Byron Shire, sell our thriving business, etc if it wasn’t for what we had both experienced in 2011.
If you ever have (or make) the opportunity to do The Breakthrough Experience, you know what I’m going to say! Just do it.
The dates are: Sydney on October 22-23, Perth on October 29-30 and Brisbane on November 5&6.
Before Demartini we did a lot of work with Tony Robbins. In 2005, when Sarah & I had been going out for about 9 months, we headed up to Sydney for Unleash The Power Within. We booked in for Mastery University, which included three retreats – Life Mastery, Wealth Mastery & Date With Destiny.
Between 2006-07 we completed those events in Fiji, London and the Gold Coast respectively, and then went on to enrol in Leadership Academy – another three events designed to learn “how Tony does what he does”. You can probably see the $$ raking up now, but again, I wouldn’t take any of it back.
The lessons learnt and the foundations the teachings of both Tony Robbins and Dr Demartini have set for Sarah and I in both a personal and professional setting have been priceless.
The shonks
I’m not going to name names; all I want to say here is this (as a word of warning and reality) – life is not always as it seems. Social media, the stage, and the euphoria of events make it easy for us to think that some people “have it all”.
I know personal growth “icons” who have had drug habits, borrowed large amounts of capital from family only to blow it all (and their reputation, their business and their family life).
I know of others who are great people “on stage” and simply dismissive, egotistical and plain unhelpful off it. They epitomise “personal growth” on the stage and “personal asshole” off it. Nothing riles me more than inconsistency in people on and off the stage. I have no doubt it’s a lingering hangover from my days in mainstream media.
I’d work with celebrities who were di%kheads off camera, and then Mr Nice Guy / Girl as soon as the camera was rolling. It’s the same in personal growth, as it is in many, if not all industries.
“We become who we hang around” is perhaps as important in the personal growth field as it is in our families, friendship groups and our workplaces.
Choose your mentors wisely, ensure they are incredible people both in their personal and professional lives. You deserve nothing but the impeccable best. So only listen to those who are being this and doing this, and to those who have “reached for the moon and ended up in the stars” as the saying goes.
