Still jet lagged from my trip to Thailand and with so little sleep, I board a 2 am flight from Abu Dhabi to London. Soon as I arrive, I hit the ground running, catch the tube to get to my hotel, take two minutes to throw my bag in the room and then head to the registration desk to get my badge and my book and get into my 5-day business seminar.
It went for roughly 12 hrs with just a short break for dinner. And that’s something I do again and again. That’s the kind of dedication to continuous education that I expect of myself in service of my own personal growth in order to be of even better service to my clients. Every year I set in advance what I want to further improve on or add to my toolbox and then I play it out.
So today I want to express gratitude to my gurus, teachers, idols, role models, and sources of immense inspiration and motivation. Tony Robbins, Byron Katie, Oprah, Keith Cunningham, Richard Branson, Cialdini, and many more than I can list here. But what I also love and am so grateful for is the people I meet along the way at the courses, seminars, and events that I go to. Like-minded people who only push me higher and further. They become my chosen family. People I trust and care about. They see my potential, believe in me, and expect even more.
The people you hang out with impact you in so many ways, you may not even realize it’s happening. You become a reflection of your peer group’s expectations of you. Tony Robbins said ‘proximity is power!’ A lesson he learned from one of the richest people on the planet, back when Tony was still very young and at the start of his career, a time when he felt he ‘didn’t belong’. An outstanding peer group is one who would say, ‘Why Not?!’ when you tell them you want to fly to the moon. Apollo11 didn’t land on the moon because they believed it impossible. It was an idea and had people supporting it no matter how outrageously weird exactly 45 years ago!
So to every single person, I met along my personal and business growth journey, thank YOU! I know I can and I will because of your impact on me.
Among all my gurus, I want to express special gratitude for Grace Cirocco. Deeply lost in a marriage that was not working, we went to seek help at Grace’s highly recommended couple’s retreat in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. Taking place at the vintage Pillar & Post Hotel, it was an experience I will never forget. We walk in and Grace was there with wide open arms to greet us and give us one of her heart-to-heart hugs. I notice a circle of chairs with little cards on them. We were supposed to just gravitate to one and sit. My card said Release… there was more, but that one word just stuck in my mind. That was the one lesson I took over the 3 days that followed.
I also ended up going to her women’s retreat a few months later, and that was where I had my second major takeaway lesson, which was to ‘Trust my Heart’! It was at that retreat that I associated myself for the first time with ‘being’ a woman…and where I met new friends who became my soul sisters…and where I had the dream on that last night, that changed my life forever. I trusted my heart, I trusted my dream… and I followed that path.
So Grace, thank you for being hard on me. Thank you for pushing me well beyond my comfort zone. Thank you for opening my eyes and for providing that safe space for me to grow. Had it not been for that, I probably would have never stumbled upon this path to becoming who I am now. I’m forever grateful. Tashi Delai!