As Otto and I sat at John Glenn Columbus International Airport waiting to board the plane to Denver for vacation last September, he excitedly told me that he had just signed up for a personal development workshop called Lamron (“normal” spelled backwards ) in Scottsdale, AZ on February 1, 2024 led by Sachin Sharma.
I pissed myself! The coaching school that Otto enrolled in was expensive, not only because of the tuition, but it also meant 3 trips to London from September 2023 to March 2024.
While I fully supported this experience for him, but when it came to another trip, this time to Scottsdale for a long weekend, I thought it was too much of a drain on our finances.
I could have signed up, but everything inside me was screaming ‘no’.
Although I knew it would be fun to do with Otto, I didn’t want to spend the money I would need for tuition, airfare, and food.
Otto and I talked and he agreed that he wouldn’t sign up for anything else without talking it over first, so I quickly got over my confusion.
Fast forward to this year in mid-January – as Otto was making arrangements for the trip to Scottsdale, he asked me to go with him because it would be a good experience for us to do together and that I could benefit from it.
By 2023, the two of us have done over 100 or more personal development and business trainings together in the 26 years we’ve been together and it pushed me to say yes.
Since I hadn’t seen the sun in 2 weeks in Ohio and thought it would be sunny in Arizona, I finally said yes, being the sun lover that I am.
If I didn’t say “yes” I would have missed one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life.
I would have missed the workshop experience, meeting the wonderful 11 people on the team and most of all, I would have missed being with the ultimate coach, Steve Hardison, who came on the Saturday of the workshop.
A few words about Steve…
In the training circles we travel, he is considered the best. A book called The ultimate coach written for him by his wife, Amy Hardison and Alan D. Thompson. An entire “Being” movement grew out of it, including gatherings in various cities around the world, workshops led by others, and zoom book readings The ultimate coach. It grew because Steve always urged us not to read the book about him but to read it for how it applies to our lives.
In every public address I’ve seen, Steve cautions everyone not to put him on a pedestal but to read the book for themselves.
His energy is great and strong. He is such an example of love, appreciation and service and goes the extra mile for the people who come his way.
In the lab, Otto gave Steve a copy of us Big Fat Love book because we included a quote from it, read it and posted it on social media recommending it.
He didn’t have to do any of that and yet he helped our ideas reach far more people than we had before.
Would everything have turned out this way if I hadn’t said yes to the lab?
Maybe, but I would have missed such a rich, loving experience that I share with Otto and the people there would have missed meeting me.
So now I’ve also said yes to going with Otto to London for his last training weekend. While I won’t be going to the sessions, I will meet some of the people he spoke about and have the exciting opportunity to wander around London on my own.
In my life, I have allowed fear to automatically say “no” to opportunities that cross my path and keep me small.
I now see that by doing this, I not only limit opportunities for myself which limits my experience in life, but I also close off opportunities for service and love that could benefit someone else.
Of course, if there continues to be a strong “no” that comes from my wisdom deep inside instead of fear, I need to hear it.
But I’ve found that if you know that fear is underneath your “no,” saying “yes” instead of hearing that fear reveals possibilities can be much more fun and loving for you and others.
