Tony Robbins is not only a great communicator and coach, but also a master salesman and marketer. A great example of his marketing savvy is adding the firewalk experience to his motivational seminars. You have to admit that a firewalk is a very flashy, colorful, and memorable way to market a seminar!

But is it only a marketing gimmick, or is there actually something valuable to learn from the experience?

For those of you who are not familiar with it, firewalking consists of walking barefoot over a bed of 1,000-degree red hot coals from one side to the other. It is an old tradition dating back to India that has been used for centuries as part of religious festivals for many different cultures. And no, there are no open flames like the cartoon depicts

Some promoters claim that firewalking requires you to be in a special mental state or have an unwavering belief in order to prevent the hot coals from burning your feet. Others claim it is proof of the power of the mind over the body, saying that if your belief and concentration are strong enough, it will actually prevent your skin from burning.

Critics quickly point out that firewalking doesn’t have anything to do with the power of the mind. In fact, it doesn’t require any special mental state, ability, concentration, or other paranormal explanation. It all has to do with basic physics.

They are right, of course. The only reason you can walk on coals is that they poor conductors of heat. It is the same reason why you can touch a cake baking inside an oven without being burned, but you can’t touch a metal plate inside the same oven (you can find some basic explanations of the physics involved here or here.) There are definitely risks involved in firewalking if you don’t prepare the coals correctly, so don’t try it at home!

I don’t think Tony Robbins has ever claimed that you need special mental abilities to firewalk, or that if you don’t believe or concentrate your feet will be burned. That’s not the point he is trying to make. Firewalking is just a tool that Robbins uses to teach some valuable lessons.

While every participant probably gains something different from their firewalking experience, these are what I consider to be the five main lessons…

Lesson # 1 - Your beliefs about what is possible are based on your perception of reality

Your beliefs are a mental model or paradigm that you’ve created based on your perception and interpretation of past experiences, events, and what you’ve been taught by your parents, teachers, religion, authority figures, and culture.

Beliefs serve as a frame of reference that helps you understand the world around you, process what happens to you, decide what actions are appropriate, and interpret the results you experience.

Your beliefs about what is possible or impossible in your life are also created in a similar fashion. They are a reflection what you’ve been taught and of the way you perceive and interpret reality.

Most people that have not seen or experienced a firewalk find it difficult to believe that anyone could actually walk on hot coals without getting burned. Unless you really understand the physics involved, it does seem to go against common sense and our previous experiences with hot coals. When you think about it, hot coals are what you use to cook burgers and hotdogs on a picnic!

Lesson # 2 - Your beliefs can prevent you from taking action

People who’ve never experienced a firewalk are naturally hesitant to try it. If you truly believe that it is not possible to walk across the coals without getting burned, you’d have to be an idiot to actually do it. Even if you accept that it’s theoretically possible to do it, you may believe that it’s something that you can’t do yourself.

Fear is our natural reaction to a perceived threat, and often stops us from taking foolish risks or gambles. This type of “good fear” probably saved the lives of many of our ancestors, which is why evolution has given it so much power over our behavior.

However, fear can also be limiting and prevent us from taking actions that would be very beneficial to us. This type of fear can paralyze and keep us trapped in our current circumstances and behavior patterns.

When we attempt to make a change, either positive or negative, or take some other action that contains an element of risk, our brain can perceive that action as a real threat. The fear we feel can be just as real as if we were risking falling off a cliff, or gambling away our life savings.

The key insight is to recognize that fear is a reaction to a perceived threat, and not necessarily a real threat. Your brain has to first interpret what it sees, then determine whether there is a threat, and then decide how big the threat actually is. Your beliefs and past experiences play a crucial role in this process.

Lesson # 3 - Your beliefs are not always accurate reflections of reality

Because of the way beliefs are formed, they tend to be subjective interpretations rather than objective facts. Beliefs are often based on inaccurate or unreliable information that we accept as true.

Some beliefs form from our own experience, while many others come from what other people, like parents, teachers, and authority figures, have told us. Most of us have had the experience of truly believing something that we later found out to be false.

Because our brain likes to ensure that our perception of reality is consistent with our beliefs, we often interpret events in a way that reinforces our beliefs. We may notice and pay attention to information and experiences that confirm our beliefs, while ignoring and disregarding information that would contradict them.

The firewalk experience is a perfect example. The belief that walking through the bed of hot coals without being burned is impossible turns out to be flat-out wrong. The truth is that not only is firewalking possible, but anyone can do it.

A useful acronym for FEAR coined by Zig Ziglar is False Evidence Appearing Real. This is the “bad” form of fear that is not grounded in reality.

Lesson # 4 - Changing your beliefs about what is possible can help you conquer fear and take action

When you change your beliefs, you also change how you interpret and perceive the world. Depending on which beliefs you change, you can often see dramatic and profound effects on your future experiences and behavior.

One of the most important set of beliefs you have are the beliefs about what is possible for you in life, because these beliefs not only influence your choices, behavior, and actions, but they also influence the risks that you take and what you are willing to try. If you believe something is impossible, or more important, that it is impossible for you, what’s the point of even trying?

Once you start believing that something is possible, it opens up a whole new set of avenues for you to explore.

The more you believe, the more self-confidence you get. Once your belief is strong enough, you can conquer the fear that is holding you back and take that important first step.

Does that mean that the fear disappears completely? No, because fear of the unknown is always present in some form or another. But your new beliefs often do provide you with enough courage and self-confidence to act in spite of the fear that you might feel.

That’s usually what happens in the firewalk experience. The coach may go first in order to show everyone that it is possible to do it without injury. Then a few other brave souls may try it. Eventually, after enough people have walked through the coals, almost everyone starts to believe that it really may be possible for them to do it too.

All they need then is a little encouragement and prodding to try it for themselves.

It is important to realize that we do have real limits on what we can accomplish. Believing that you can do absolutely anything is simply unrealistic. However, most people have self-imposed limits that are far more constraining than any real limitations they may have. Plus, you can often expand real limitations through training, education, knowledge, persistence, and practice.

Lesson # 5 - Changing your beliefs is easier when you use the right tools

Tony Robbins says that beliefs are like tables. The belief itself is the surface of the table, and all the supporting evidence, experiences, and other reinforcing beliefs are like the legs of the table. The more “legs” a belief has to stand on, the stronger it becomes.

So how do you change a belief?

The first thing that you need to do is become aware of the belief you want to change. Most people are unaware of many of the beliefs that hinder and limit their progress. You can’t change a belief that you don’t acknowledge.

The next step is to start knocking down some of the “legs of the table” that are supporting the belief using questions that create doubt, expose false assumptions, and show contradictory evidence. It’s important to do this first so you can weaken the belief you want to change.

In the firewalk example, this is what happens when people start walking through the coals. Since you can see with your own eyes that other people are doing it without getting hurt, this immediately starts creating doubt in your belief that it is impossible. How can it be impossible if other people just like you are doing it?

Another way to create doubt would be to explain why it’s possible; that it has nothing to do with spirits, mind over matter, or any other paranormal activity. It’s just basic physics.

These are some questions you could ask yourself to create doubt in beliefs that you want to change:

• Am I absolutely positive that this belief is true or is there any room for doubt?
• Do I see or have any evidence that this belief could be wrong?
• Are there any examples or past experiences that may contradict this belief?
• What assumptions have I made to support this belief? Could they be false assumptions?
• How did I first learn about this belief? Could the source or information be wrong or inaccurate?

As part of this step, you’ll also want to identify any payoffs that you’ve been receiving from holding on to this belief. It may be difficult to imagine that you are getting a benefit from a limiting belief, but many times these beliefs keep you safe and comfortable, or prevent you from facing rejection, or the possibility of failure. Being aware of the payoff will help you let go of the false belief.

• How am I benefiting from holding on to this false belief?
• What payoff am I getting from it?
• What is it preventing me from facing, experiencing, or realizing what I want?

The third step is to use pain and pleasure as leverage for change. You want to associate pain with continuing to hold this belief, and pleasure with changing to a different and more empowering belief. The pain/pleasure principle can also help you take the first actions that support your new belief.

In the firewalk experience, Tony Robbins uses peer pressure to create this pain/pleasure leverage. If you continue to believe that firewalking is impossible, or that you just can’t do it, then that means that you won’t go through with it, which means that you’ll end up being the only one who doesn’t do it, which will make you feel the pain of isolation and peer pressure, etc. The pleasure side comes from all the celebration and encouragement given to the people that do make it across the coals.

In order to apply the pain/pleasure principle to your own beliefs, try these questions:

• How is holding on to this false belief creating pain and misery in my life?
• How is holding on to this false belief creating pain and misery for my family and loved ones?
• How do I feel when I think about that belief? Good or bad?
• How would getting rid of that false belief make me feel? Better or worse?
• How would my life be better if that belief turned out to be completely wrong and I completely stopped thinking about it?

The fourth step is to start adopting an empowering belief as an alternative to the one that you want to change. Your brain likes to have continuity in its beliefs. Replacing your old belief with a new belief that replaces it creates a conflict that your brain needs to resolve. Eventually, one of the beliefs will win and your brain will discard the other one. You have to make sure that your new empowering belief is the one that wins!

It is very important that your new belief is something empowering (works better for you than the old belief) and is something that you can reasonably accept. You can’t trick yourself into believing something that you can’t really accept as true.

For your belief to truly be empowering, it has to be consistent with reality and its universal principles. For example, believing that gravity doesn’t exist and you can just walk off the roof of buildings without falling is not empowering because it can get you killed. Deluding yourself with false beliefs is not empowering, even if it does makes you feel better.

The fifth and final step is to reinforce the new belief. You want to add many “legs” to the new belief so that you can make it stronger and stronger. You can do this by finding supporting evidence, examples or past experiences that support the belief, cases where the belief is true, and other beliefs that reinforce it.

The strongest way to support a new belief is to simply act on it and make it become true for you. This is the acting as if technique that I described earlier.

Behave, think, feel and act as you would if you had absolute certainty that your new empowering belief was true. If you need to practice, learn something new, improve a skill, or break a habit to reinforce your belief, then create a plan and just do it. Take action and make your new belief become true.

You can also use visualization and mind sculpting to help you practice and gain confidence in your new belief.

Could some of your limiting beliefs about what is possible in your life be wrong or inaccurate?

This is perhaps the most important overall lesson of the firewalk experience because it challenges your assumptions and forces you to consider that some of your limiting beliefs about what is possible (or impossible) for you to do, be, or have might be wrong.

After all, if you were wrong about believing that the firewalk was impossible, or that you just couldn’t do it, you could be wrong about other limiting beliefs as well.

Here is a simple process you can use to help you become more aware of your own limiting beliefs:

1. Think about something that you really want but that you haven’t pursued or attempted. Alternatively, you can think about an area of your life where you are disappointed with the results you’ve produced. For example, let’s say that you really want to become a manager in your company but you haven’t applied for the position or even pursued additional training.
2. Now imagine that your very best friend comes by and asks you some tough questions: Why haven’t you pursued or attempted what you really want? Why did those disappointments happen to you? Why haven’t you produced the results you expected?
3. Now write down what you would tell him or her. What are your reasons & explanations for the results you are producing? Be brutally honest.
4. Dig deeper in your answers - If you come up with a simple excuse like “we’ll, I haven’t had the time” or “I keep forgetting” then dig deeper and ask yourself “why?” Why haven’t you made the time?

Now analyze your responses. If you look carefully enough, you’ll be able to spot some of your limiting beliefs.

These limiting beliefs could be things like:

• I’m not smart enough to be a manager
• I don’t deserve to get promoted
• I don’t deserve to make more money
• I don’t need the stress of more responsibility
• I’m too old to start a new career
• I’m don’t have enough education/experience to start my own business
• I’m too busy to get fit and lose weight
• I’m too fat and out of shape to start exercising
• I don’t have a choice

According to Tony Robbins, the firewalk is an experience in belief. It’s goal is to teach people that they can change, they can grow, they can stretch themselves, they can do things they never thought possible.

Which of your self-limiting beliefs about what is possible for you to do, be, or have in your life might be wrong?

How can you go about planting that first seed of doubt and replacing them with more empowering alternatives?

 

This article deals mostly with self-limiting beliefs about what is possible for you, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. In later articles, I’ll continue exploring how beliefs play an important role in your attitudes, behaviors, and actions.