Today’s video is about how you can transform vulnerability into power… …about how you can take your biggest challenge, your greatest fears and go ahead and turn them into a resource that can go ahead and serve you and help you.
Welcome to another edition of Greatness Quest.
I’m Trevor Crane and I help people take their business and their lives to the next level.
Inherently, when I talk to people about vulnerability being powerful, they’ll tell me that when they feel vulnerable, the last thing they feel is powerful.
They’ll say, “What in the hell are you talking about?”
In fact, they call it BS. They don’t believe it at all.
So I wanna give you a couple of examples of how people you probably have heard of or know have actually done this.
One example of this is a story about a woman named Candace Lightner, who in May of 1980 had a tragic experience happened to her and her family when her 13-year old daughter was killed by a drunk driver and I don’t know about you but that’s one of the most horrific things that I could possibly imagine happening. But Candace, while it was devastating for her and her family, she decided, she got mad and actually created the organization called MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers). In the last 34 years, they’ve created a movement that has saved countless thousands of lives around North America.
Another powerful example is one of Oprah Winfrey, who in just 2 years after beginning the Oprah Winfrey show, announced on her stage, in 1986 that she had been abused sexually when she was a girl. And many people believed that it was that confession that sparked the beginning of her greatest success, that people would come on to her show and share their deepest vulnerability because of Oprah’s ability to empathize with people, connect with them at a deep level and many famous people would share those vulnerabilities on her show.
Another example would be Ellen DeGeneres, who in 1997 ‘came out’ and told the world that she was gay – on Oprah Winfrey show. Since then, 70-80% of the accolades that she has received have been since that time that she actually came out of the closet.
This is the same for so many famous people…
One of my friends, Tony Robbins, tells a story about when he was a young boy and his family didn’t have enough to eat for Thanksgiving, that someone came to his house and gave him Thanksgiving dinner and it was a horrible experience ‘cause his stepfather didn’t want to receive the gift and Tony grew up and decided that he was gonna make his life being about making a difference. And now, every single year, he serves millions of people. Every year, he brings them food over the holidays. I think everybody in San Diego County in California. All because he took one of his greatest challenging experiences in his life and transformed it.
SO HERE ARE 3 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO TRANSFORM YOUR STORY… YOUR BIGGEST FEAR, INTO YOUR GREATEST POWER.
1. Tell The Truth.
This is about you being honest and authentic about what that fear or vulnerability or problem actually is. You know, when I was 5 years old, I went to the store with my mother and I came home with a pack of gum that I had not bought in one of my pocket and my mom didn’t even know I had gum until she saw me chewing it. And she made me tell the truth.
I still remember to this day the feeling, the anxiety, that terrifying, paralyzing fear of her making me go back and own up to that fact that I had stolen the gum. The reason that I shared that story is that we have so many opportunities that we can step into our greatness that show up for ourselves, for our children, for the people that we care about most. And they happen all the time. It’s about the big things and it’s also about the little things.
So where in your life can you tell the truth and be real and authentic about what’s going on, about what that fear or challenge is and face it and go on to step number two which is to:
2. Take Responsibility.
This is about you having integrity. It’s about you moving from being at the effective things and being at the cause of things. It’s about you taking control. When I was in my 20’s, I was hired by real Caribbean Cruise Lines to go out to the Bahamas, to stay on this little island and teach the people on the island how to run a watersports and parasail business. And while I was out there, I brought some friends one time and we took wave runners out and we’re riding around through the mangrove swamps out of the Bahamas. It was beautiful. And I made a mistake. We had an accident. And I actually made a wrong turn. We hit a dead end. We had wave runners smashing to one another and I broke one… we broke two wave runners and my friends were gonna help me.
They are gonna try to make up a story with me about how it wasn’t my fault so that I wouldn’t lose my contract.
But by stepping up and taking responsibility for taking that step and telling the truth that I had actually done it and it was all my fault, like all my greatest fears, like went away, like first of all, it was a load off my shoulders compared to the anxiety that I was holding inside. This is about the little stuff that happens on our lives and also the big stuff and about how you can face your fears and transform that vulnerability into a powerful resource rather than having it hold you down and bug you down.
You know the third part of this and probably the most important is that you’ve got to:
3. Take Action.
You know, maybe you’ve told the truth to yourself. Maybe you’ve taken responsibility for this. Whatever this thing is, this fear, this challenge but you’ve got to now actually do something. The first part is that you have to stop doing the old pattern and the second part is you have to start doing something new.
You know, using the example of Candace Lightner you know, she stopped her grieving process and started taking some new action and started to transform that experience into something that would change her life.
Oprah did the same thing. Tony Robbins did the same thing.
A really good friend of mine and if you’re gonna check this guy out, you probably should. His name is ET, The Hiphop Preacher (Eric Thomas). (Check him out on YouTube.)
He’s got some amazing videos and he will share time and time again his biggest challenges. He was a high school dropout. He was homeless and it took him 12 years to get a 4-year degree. He shares these with people so he can connect with them rather than only sharing his biggest successes and his greatest accomplishments.
So you and I have the opportunity to step into our greatness and transform our vulnerabilities and our fears every single day.
You know, just a few weeks ago, I was with my wife and my daughter and I got angry. We were in the car and I got mad and I raised my voice to my wife and I spoke very harshly and I was so angry and upset and it lasted for hours, like I didn’t actually go through the process I just described you for a while because I was so angry and so caught up in it.
But when I finally told the truth, took responsibility for being a complete jerk and getting angry to my wife for something that wasn’t her fault or responsibility at all and then, I had to stop the old pattern of me being a jerk and go to her and tell the truth and apologize and say, I’m sorry and I did it to my wife and my daughter.
When I did this, it made me feel… scared and vulnerable…
…but the end result was that we connected more and we were able to feel more love and compassion for one another as a family.
…and it’s even scary for me to share this with you – now.
…there’s every chance that you might say, well, look at this Jerk!
But instead of judging me, I trust and I hope that we’re able to connect with each other, and we build a deeper relationship of trust with one another, and you can use some of my stories and these examples to help you transform your fears into your greatest power and asset.
So instead of hiding from them, you can face your fears.
So face your vulnerability and transform them into your greatest power, asset and resource.
So I challenge you to go out on your own greatness quest to become your best and remember, as long as you’re alive, you have the power to rise.
So if you can look up, you can get up. So eyes up, chest up, step up, go out and take your life to the next level and I’ll see you again next week.