Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - #486: BEST OF - Speak It, Believe It, LIVE It With Heather!
Episode Date: December 25, 2024In This Episode You Will Learn About: Shift your mindset by focusing on what’s going RIGHT. Why the key to success is acting like your dream is already happening. Stay open to MIRACLES and sign...s around you. Focus on the GOOD and attract even MORE by practicing gratitude BELIEVE without seeing because FAITH is knowing your breakthrough is already on its way. Resources: Go to ConstantContact.com and start your FREE trial today. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/monahan. Oracle is offering to halve your cloud bill if you switch to OCI. See if you qualify at oracle.com/MONAHAN. Download the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning at NetSuite.com/MONAHAN. Get 10% off your first Mitopure order at timeline.com/CONFIDENCE. Get 15% off your first order at jennikayne.com when you use code CONFIDENCE15 at checkout. Get 15% off your first order at oakessentials.com when you use code CONFIDENCE15 at checkout. Call my digital clone at 201-897-2553! Visit heathermonahan.com Reach out to me on Instagram & LinkedIn Sign up for my mailing list: heathermonahan.com/mailing-list/ Overcome Your Villains is Available NOW! Order here: https://overcomeyourvillains.com If you haven't yet, get my first book, Confidence Creator Show Notes: What if every challenge you faced was actually a gateway to something GREATER? Here’s what I’ve learned: FAITH isn’t just about hoping—it’s about moving, preparing, and SHOWING UP as if your dreams are already here. Life will throw you curveballs, but those twists are just a redirection to BIGGER opportunities. Miracles happen when BELIEF meets BOLD ACTION. Fear might knock on your door, but it’s your choice whether to let it in. Instead, lean into gratitude, TRUST the process, and take that next POWERFUL step forward. The MAGIC is real, and it’s waiting for you to claim it. Are you READY? 01:49 #230: Trust Yourself Success Will Follow With Heather Monahan 08:12 #419: Harness Your Faith Start Preparing For Your Dreams Today with Heather 17:21 #256: Your FAITH Is Stronger Than Your FEAR with Heather 21:33 #395 Embrace Faith Let Go of Fear Make Room for The BLESSINGS with Heather 27:53 #379 The Power of PRAYER The Surprising Story Of Witnessing A Thanksgiving Miracle with Heather If You Liked This Episode, You Might Also Like These Episodes: #472: Fear LESS, Plan MORE, Achieve BIG with Seth Godin, Founder of the Carbon Almanac, Blogger, & Author #468: The POWER of INTENTION with Michael Beckwith, Spiritual Teacher, Ordained Minister, Author, & Founder #451: LET GO Of What No Longer Serves You With Heather!
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But stopping, getting still, being very, very intentional, praying for and asking for what
it is you need and then letting it go. And since I've been practicing this over the last, I told
you the first time I did it was right before Saudi Arabia and every single thing came true that I
prayed for. It was crazy and I just did what it said to do in the book. It was wild, just miraculous,
literally not short of a miracle. And it's so simple. Pray for it and ask for what you
want and need and then let it go and have this knowing in this faith that it's going to happen
and watch that it will. Come on this journey with me. Each week when you join me, we are going to
chase down our goals, overcome adversity and set you up for a better tomorrow.
I'm ready for my close-up. It's that time of the year again.
I hope you're cozy and spending time with your loved ones enjoying this holiday season
as much as I am.
And I thought there would be no better time than today to reflect on the power of our
faith.
You know this plays a huge part in my life and business and it is truly the key to creating
confidence.
Confidence that is unshakable. So I put together some of my favorite solos where I share how having
faith showed me again and again that there is a higher power guiding me and it is always out there.
It is always there for you and it's always available to you and it's so much better than
you ever could imagine.
And I know this can be true for you too. All you have to do is just keep the faith. I hope
you love this episode.
Today I was at church with my son and the message was so incredibly powerful. I'm big
into believing in signs.
I don't know if you are,
but I ask God for signs all of the time.
So I keep looking for these signs everywhere.
And I was given a huge sign at church day.
It was so crazy.
This is surreal.
But I started thinking this week about a new book
that I want to write,
and it's totally out of character for me.
But I wrote down the title.
Like anything, you have to start somewhere, right?
People think that you have this whole big plan and strategy.
I don't have that.
Like a little seed of a thought will come to me and then I plant it in the ground, pour
water on it, pay attention to it, and see what happens, right?
So I was kind of doing that this week, writing some things down on paper, and I wrote down
the title of this book.
Oh my gosh, this is so crazy. All
I'm going to tell you is when I got to church today, they had these cards they were passing
out. It's like this new online journaling thing that they have for people who attend
this church. And the cover art on the paper is the same name that I had written down for
this book that came to me this week.
If that isn't a flipping sign, it's crazy. And it's completely out of character for me.
And I walk into church and it's on a piece of paper. So to me, look for those signs.
Be open to receiving those signs out there. And if you think I'm being woo-woo, that's fine.
But at least open your mind to it could be possible and start asking the question, right?
Wouldn't you want that gift to be handed to you?
Wouldn't you want that way to be shown?
When I look back and reflect on my life when I was younger and I was living in this really
linear closed way, I didn't look for signs.
I didn't ask for signs.
I didn't ask for what I wanted, right?
I didn't even know that was a thing.
And I've spent the last few months, like this has been the most incredible year for me because
I've really spent the last few months asking for what I want.
I've been asking God for what I want, praying to God.
Maybe you're saying, Heather, don't talk about God.
This is not a religious show.
Then for you, you could say, I'm going to ask the universe.
I'm going to ask the higher good.
I'm going to ask a higher power.
Right?
There's something obviously much greater than all of us out there.
Whatever you want to label it, that's up to you.
I'm not here to judge you, condemn anyone.
I don't want to be judged.
I don't want to be condemned.
I just think that we all need to treat each other better and nicer and find commonalities
instead of arguments.
So to that point, start asking for what you want.
Start putting it out to the universe. Be really mindful of your words and realize you're speaking things into existence.
You truly are.
I know I am.
I wish you could see this card and then see it sitting next to the paper with what I wrote
on it just days ago.
It's incredible and I'm so excited.
It just shows me that God's working in my life, something greater is working in my life, and I'm on the right path.
So I'm so grateful.
Always get back to gratitude, right?
That's such a great way to center yourself, such a great way.
And especially in this crazy time that we're living in, so many people fighting online
right now and so much upset in the world.
Any way that we can lead with gratitude, lead with joy, lead with kindness,
even in those difficult moments or more importantly, definitely in those challenging moments.
The more good we do in the world, the more good is going to come back to us. So that's what I'm
wishing for you is I'm wishing good and joy for you. And you know, that's what life's all about,
right? Finding joy in every day and finding your purpose
and your passion, I believe is a big part of that
because you're not gonna really be fulfilled
or allow your greatness to shine through
if you haven't found that calling.
So if you haven't found it, start seeking for it.
If you found it, I'm so happy for you.
Spend more time there.
Seek those possibilities and find ways to do more good
because it is so incredibly powerful.
There were plenty of times over the last four years
that I thought maybe I should just go back
to corporate America, especially during the pandemic.
Right?
Like I was thinking, oh my gosh, this is,
who am I kidding?
What am I doing?
But I'm so grateful sitting here today that I didn't.
So everyone wants to give up sometimes, but as long as you're true with yourself, as
long as you're being honest with yourself and that intention that you have is good,
I believe those right doors are going to open for you.
You just have to keep believing.
You have to have that faith, faith over fear.
And the funny thing is, like anything, you can sit here, like let's use the example
I just shared with you, you know, on day one of getting fired, I could have sat there and
for four years sat every day just being scared and saying, this isn't going to work. Or
I could have stepped forward with faith and tried different things and put the post up
and flew to New York and did the Elvis show and wrote the book. None of that stuff wasn't scary to me, but here's what I've
learned is that it's your choice. It's up to you if you choose to move forward with
the faith or you choose to hold yourself back with the fear. And the more you hold yourself
back, the more you limit yourself. And I always talk about fear is a green light that means
go, but I also want you to know it's sort of nonsensical, right? Like when we fill our heads with all
this doubt, here's what I mean by that. Had I just sat in doubt and done nothing, that
would have been a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Nothing would have happened. But if
I had had the faith and step forward with the possibility and positivity of what could come,
that's when the doors start opening for you.
So could it be just as likely that one thing could work out or not?
Yeah, right? We can't see into the future.
We're not clairvoyant. And if you are, please call me, tell me about my future.
Can't wait to hear because it's going to be big. I'm so excited.
But when you think about that, you think about, okay, I'm sitting here fearful, I'm sitting
here doubtful, and I'm projecting that onto my future.
Hmm, doesn't sound like a good recipe for success.
Or I'm going to sit here with faith.
I'm going to sit here and think about other times in my life where things have gone well
and worked out, and I'm going to move forward that same energy and attitude into the possibility
of what could be.
Right? Like, that other option is so much better.
And really, why isn't it just as likely as things could go great as they could go terrible?
Why isn't it just as likely as you could manifest a miracle?
It is.
You just have to start believing.
You have to open your mind to that possibility.
So I hope that you can do that.
It's important to have faith, right? We know that we've got to have faith. And when we have faith, it's also important to expect that the best is yet to come. Right? We talk about that all the time.
The best is yet to come because it absolutely is. And we have these expectations that good is going
to come, not, you know,
what's the worst that can happen? No, what's the best that can happen? Right?
Let's shift those expectations to what incredible positive experience could be
coming.
But even to go one step further than that,
our pastor got into this today in church was not only to have faith,
not only to have that expectation that it's happening in this strong belief that it's coming,
this is a knowing that we know will happen, but let's take the preparation for it as well.
That means, you know, if you're wanting to get married and have this committed life,
like start showing up as if it already were that way now, right?
Get your home ready for that. Get yourself ready for that commitment.
Now, don't wait for the day that comes.
If you want to go to France and you're hopeful
that you're gonna get approved into some program
that allows you to go, start taking the French lessons now.
Start packing now, start organizing your schedule.
So accommodate as if it already has happened.
That clarity is there.
That expectation must be met with that preparation
so that you can be ready because things can change overnight.
And when you get that call, you want to be prepared.
It really hit me. It just, you know, there are so many other things I could be doing.
Yes, I have tremendous faith. Yes, I speak so much into existence and yes,
I believe and I know that these things will happen,
but am I necessarily taking the steps to prepare myself as though that time
is now? Not always, right? I even remember when I was selling my last condo,
what that preparation looked like.
Cause there was a dark season there where the market started unraveling and I
started freaking out.
Maybe my place wasn't going to sell.
And I had my hopes up and I so had faith it was going to,
but deals were falling through four times, right?
Things got really shaky for a while.
And that's when I doubled down and just started packing and cleared so much out
of my home and decluttered and gave so much away because I was preparing for a move.
Even though I didn't have the deal done yet. But wouldn't you know, here we are a year and a half later,
moved into a new condo and
loving life over here. So,
not only should you have that expectation, not only do you need to have that vision and that clarity and that belief and the
faith that it will happen, but let's start taking the steps today to prepare for it.
And what does that look like for you?
Pray for and ask for what you need and what you want
and watch it all unfold right before your very eyes.
I've seen it happen so many times.
And I was talking to you the other day
on one of my solo episodes about that book,
Praying to the Heavens.
And I can't tell you how many things have come true that I prayed for from that
little tiny book, which is really just about praying to God, praying to your
angels and asking for the help that you need, the smallest, smallest things,
whether you lost something or you're looking for your soulmate or you want to
know if you should take a job or not, it doesn't matter what it is but stopping getting still being very very
intentional praying for and asking for what it is you need and then letting it
go and since I've been practicing this over the last it told you the first time
I did it was right before Saudi Arabia and every single thing came true that I
prayed for it was crazy and I just did what it said to do in the book. It was wild, just miraculous, literally not short of a miracle.
And it's so simple.
Pray for it and ask for what you want and need,
and then let it go and have this knowing in this faith
that it's going to happen and watch that it will.
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I have faith in you. I'm so excited for you. I do know that the best is yet to come. And I also know that it can all change overnight,
whether it's my pastor's brother-in-law
who's been working on his Broadway career for 12 years
and finally got the call.
It can all change in one day, in one moment, in one night.
And I'm excited to hear how things are changing
and happening for you. I always want to learn and see things from different people's lens, from their perspective,
right? To see what can I pick up from this person or that person or what lands from this one or that.
You know, the more we expose ourselves to knowledge, the more we can change, evolve,
and up-level as a person, right?
It doesn't mean you need to agree with everything that you're exposed to,
but it just helps you to see what's out there,
and then you can connect those dots back to what your knowing is,
your belief system is, which I think is super interesting.
So I love learning from people that are very different than me,
and the Mindvalley experience has been very different stuff.
I'm not, you know, a big yogi, or, you know,
but I love learning from these people because they think so differently than me.
However, and my friend pointed this out to me, she was saying so much about the work that she's been doing around manifesting and
visualizing and feeling the feels and having the belief that these things are coming to fruition and they've already happened.
Sounds very, very similar to me and Christian faith
and the messages I bring to her from the church.
And it was so interesting,
we're always talking about in church, you know,
this faith and this knowing and this belief
that this is happening, even when you can't see it,
this belief and this trust and this knowing.
And she was right, there's a lot of parallels.
And I know this through the lens of the church,
but listening to her, I saw the parallels,
I saw the alignment, I saw that, listen,
whether it's the movie, The Secret,
or you're taking a class at Mindvalley
and learning about how to manifest something,
or there's books going back to literally the Bible, which is
talking about planting the seeds for growth or, you know, the future vision that you're
future casting, very different words, but all of the methodology is so, so similar.
So that's not by chance, right? I just want you to know that whether it be Napoleon Hill's
famous book, Thinking Grow Rich, or there's these books going back
100 years ago, hundreds of years ago,
and back to the Bible,
they're all saying the same thing.
You've got to believe in order to receive.
You've got to believe it in order to see it.
You've got to have faith.
You've got to have this knowing.
Yes, you need to expect it, expect it
and know that it's going to come, not knowing how it will and being open to that, but preparing
for it now as if today is the day.
I'm a big believer in frequency cells, that which we see often, that which we expose ourselves
to information often, we have a better chance to retain that information and remember it,
right? And so our pastor today was just talking about, we need that reminder that God is good
in our life. God is real and God is with you always. And that's the reminder. It was our
seven-year birthday. I have not been going to the church that long.
This is my first year going to this church,
but they've been in existence for seven years.
And he was taking everyone through how eight years ago,
before the church was formed,
he and his wife were praying to God
to help them find somewhere that they could preach,
find somewhere that they could share God's word.
And they stumbled upon a school, and that school has now transformed into a church
every Sunday and many other days of the week with thousands and thousands of people attending.
And it's incredible what has happened as a result of that vision that they had,
as a result of turning it over to God,
as a result of asking God to show them the way.
And now when you are in this school
and with this community of people, it's pure magic.
It's God at work, and it's just been
such an incredible experience.
So I hope you find some community like that.
I hope you find a church like that. I hope you find a church like that.
If not, check out FoodChurch online.
Okay, so his whole message today was put reminders everywhere,
realize that you are not gonna retain information
that you think you will.
And if you wanna retain it,
keep exposing yourself to that information, right?
You don't just go to church on Sunday,
you can pray to God every day.
You can read God's word in the Bible Bible in so many different works, you know, but make the choice to expose yourself to the
information you want to retain because we are exposed to so much that we aren't choosing.
Let's be intentional about the really good, important stuff so we can bring that messaging
and that joy and that word with us everywhere we go. It's just gonna make your life so much brighter.
It certainly has for me.
Okay, then he went on to say number two,
trust over explanation.
And for me, I don't know about you,
but trusting was a hard thing, right?
If you had a challenging upbringing
or you had personal relationships in your life
where people broke your trust, right?
Those wounds leave scars and sometimes we get triggered by those scars and we have issues
trusting people.
I certainly have had issues trusting and letting new people into my life, you know, for many
of those reasons from challenges, you know, early on in my childhood and losing trust
in people. But I loved his message today my childhood and losing trust in people.
But I loved his message today, you can always trust in God.
God is forever faithful.
And having that knowing and that trust in God is so comforting and so powerful.
And P.S., the more that you rely on that, the more your energy is going to be at that same level of
good and bringing those right people that you can trust into your life and asking God to bring those
people to you. I ask every day, God, please close the doors on that which is not meant for me,
on that which is no longer meant for me, and please open the doors to that which is.
And, you know, always asking for those signs to show me the way.
And I truly believe I saw it in motion this week, so many times this week.
It's crazy.
I can't wait to share with you what happened.
But these really serendipitous moments in my life where I know it's God at work, I
know it's God attracting those right people to me, those right opportunities, and those
blessings.
And I just want, I want that for you too. Okay so that was number two
trust over explanation.
Oh my gosh I have so much on my heart I want to speak to you about today. I just got out of church. I'm actually recording this on a Sunday.
Sometimes I love to record right when I get out of church. By the way, I highly encourage you to go check out VU Church online. Rich Wilkerson Jr. preached today and you
can actually go and view the service I was at so you know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm going
to give you a recap, but if you have time, it's definitely worth watching. He's an incredible
preacher, great message message so uplifting so
Incredible just so moving my gosh so special okay, so I want to share with you that part of his message today
He had a number of messages actually but part of it was about this idea that when you have this God-sized dream and this
idea and
movement and goal and vision
that you don't know how it's all gonna come to fruition.
You don't have the blueprint, right?
God put the promise on your heart,
but hasn't given you the blueprint of spreadsheets
or the game plan or the person to teach you how to do it.
And so often we get scared and we're full of fear
and full of how do we move forward and how do we take
a step and throughout the Bible God always says do not be afraid and it's really about this
understanding that we don't need to fear we can hand it over to God we can surrender to God we
need to surrender to God hand all of our fears over and step forward with faith, knowing a way will be shown.
And it just, it really, God spoke to me during this service today so, so much.
You have no idea. I just really need to surrender and let go of fear and hand it
over to God. And I'll tell you, if you've been with me for a while, you know this is
not new, but over the last couple of years, I've really worked on strengthening my relationship
with God, praying every day,
and spending as much time as possible in church.
And it's helped so much, right?
So first having that intention.
And my experience is that there's nothing bad
that comes out of this.
It's only good, right?
I mean, it's really about reframing your relationship
with fear, letting go of control, you know,
just ending this idea that we can control everything
and surrendering to God.
You know, some people say universe, whatever it is,
for me, it's definitely God.
And I'm so grateful.
I'm thankful every day for God.
So, okay, that's been a big part of my life
over the last two years years and it's affected
Me in such profound ways. I can't even articulate it for you right now
Okay, so part of the message today at church was about God's put this big
Vision on your heart and how do you move forward and we need to really?
Surrender and trust that God will show us the way and move forward without fear, letting go of fear.
Doesn't mean you're not gonna have fear.
Oh my gosh, of course we're gonna have fear.
But letting go, surrendering to God,
handing it over to God and moving forward.
Anyway, now it hit me so strongly today
while I was in church I started crying
because in some ways I hadn't done that
in some parts of my life, right?
I definitely had done that with business.
So let me give you that example.
When I got fired, I was 43, I had an 18 month non-compete,
I had to leave the industry I was an expert in
and start over as a rookie somewhere, right?
And I didn't know how I was gonna make money.
Well, thanks to Elvis Duran who spoke this truth
and belief into me that I could write a book,
I wrote Confidence Creator, bestseller, killer book.
If you haven't read it yet, check it out.
I narrated, if you wanna listen to the the audible, which I'm super proud of,
I narrate both my books, but anyhow, so I didn't know what was going to happen.
I moved forward with faith, not knowing that book Trump, Donald Trump,
for number one in the business biography list. The first week it came out,
it's actually sold more copies to date than my second book,
overcome your villains,
which is so crazy because my second book is with Harper Collins leadership and my second book,
I have a million followers, just so weird how things happen. But again,
I just turn it over to God. I trust that whatever's meant to happen,
it's going to happen. Let go,
let God and stop trying to control everything.
Things do not always go the way that we think they will.
And it's always to our advantage when we allow it to be. So anyhow,
so I didn't know, you know, what was going to happen there.
I Googled how do you sell books?
It said speak.
I started speaking and then my speaking business blew up and then COVID hit.
And then I didn't know how I was going to make money.
So I launched an online coaching program, which is what led me to my board seat currently
at Health and Corporation, which led to so many incredible relationships and friendships,
which actually led to me speaking virtually like five times a day, which landed me top 40 female
keynote speaker of the year 2020 and then top 50 keynote speaker of the year 2022. None of these
things would have happened. So like all these redirects, all these could be seen as challenges,
obstacles ended up being blessings in disguise. So the more I look back and experience that again
as a positive, the more I can let go and say, okay, whatever new challenge I'm facing today, I can welcome it in my life and be grateful
for it.
It's going to redirect me to something bigger.
And when you make that small shift, it's a huge shift and it's a huge blessing.
And one of the ways I've been able to do that is through my relationship with God, through
going to church, through reading scripture, through prayer, for sure through prayer.
But you know,
another part of it is doing the things I love and letting go of the things that
are holding me back. And I've talked to you about this before, you know,
I was super tired today.
My really good friend had a 50th birthday party last night and we stayed up way
too late. It had the best time ever. Oh my gosh.
Always be there for your friends, your ride or die.
They will so appreciate it. And it's always so, so fun and so worth it.
But this morning I'm tired.
And I remember I opened my eyes and I said,
get out of bed right now and go work out.
I'll feel better about who I am.
I'll feel better.
I'll have more energy.
And I do.
And yeah, I'm sure it would have been easy
just to stay in bed too, but I didn't.
Like I've learned through discipline.
I'll be more proud of myself.
I'll feel better if I get up and do the harder thing,
which in some moments is going to work out, right?
So I'm so grateful now that I'm sitting here
that I went to work out.
I'm so grateful that I went to church.
I'm so grateful, right?
That I did these things, write that down.
Like remind yourself, rewire your brain,
go to your gratitude journal
and write down the things you're grateful for.
It can be as simple as I went to work out this morning. I'm grateful for that choice.
I'm grateful that I went to this incredible sermon today. I'm grateful for my pastor.
I write down all these incredible things and the more you sit in gratitude,
the more you attract things to be grateful for. Fact, it is true. I promise you that.
So if you're having a day, maybe you're saying like, oh, things aren't going well for me.
Start thanking God for those challenges because they're going to redirect you to something
bigger, better.
I don't know what it is yet.
I don't know what my challenges are redirecting me to yet, but I keep looking back at getting
fired.
I keep looking back at these other seemingly horrible things that ended up being blessings
in disguise.
I just didn't know it at the time.
You can always connect the dots looking back.
You can't connect them looking forward.
That's where you have to have faith, right?
Like you've got to, you've got to believe.
You just have to believe.
And that's my word of the year this year.
Last year it was faith and this year it's belief.
And so combining for me, and this is what works for me, but combining my faith and this
ultimate belief
that things are always gonna work out
because they always do,
has such a positive impact in my life.
And I wanna share that with you
so that you can put that into motion in your life too.
Give it a shot, just have some faith,
even if you only can for a finite window of time,
just do it, believe it, own it, feel it.
And I promise you this,
things will get so much better for you.
You'll start to see the way, right?
You might not have that blueprint or roadmap today,
but it will start to appear when you truly, truly believe.
It just will.
Trust me, please trust me on this.
I want good for you.
I want you to chase your dreams.
I want you to be able to have that God-sized dream
and vision for your life and go after it
and make the world a better place. The world needs your light, amplify your light, make the world a brighter
place. We so need you to do it.
So our first night we get there, we're having a great time, blah, blah, blah. Okay. Now
it's Thanksgiving day and my best friends have, you know,
their extended family over, friends, et cetera.
So it's a, you know, pretty big group of people.
My friend's father had just had a heart attack
five months prior to this.
And so I was so excited to see him.
I was commenting on how good he looked.
You know, he had lost weight.
He just looked great, vibrant.
I was so happy for him and just so grateful he was there that he survived this,
you know, awful situation.
And one of my girlfriends and I are at the island in the kitchen.
Everyone's about getting ready to eat.
You know, it's in the late afternoon.
We hadn't eaten yet.
And all of a sudden we heard a thump, like nothing I'd ever heard before.
As I looked over, I could see my friend's father down, face down on the
hardwood floor. The thump was his head hitting the floor, his whole body. He was out cold.
I didn't know if he was alive. Okay. So pause for a second. I've never been in a situation
like this before. However, thankfully I was a lifeguard for all through high school and college.
And one of the trainings when you're a lifeguard, and I share this with you
because I want you to remember in case anything like this ever happens to you,
one of the things they train you on is wherever there is injury, chaos, challenge,
you're supposed to run into it.
Everybody else is running away from it.
Like if you're at a beach, right, And you run into it, that's your job.
But the other thing is you're supposed to always stay calm
and they do a lot of things to you
when you're training for it to be a lifeguard
to ensure that you can do your best to stay calm.
I mean, it's hard, but like anything,
if you practice it over time, if you see the movie,
you know what's gonna happen, you know, the outcome.
It's your job to stay calm.
Well, here's what's weird.
I almost said I'm 39, lies.
I'm 49 and I haven't been a lifeguard in over 20 years,
20 something years, right?
So I don't remember exactly, but it's kind of cool.
Immediately in that moment,
my lifeguard training popped into my head.
And I remember thinking my job is to go over there
and save him.
However, I don't remember, I couldn't remember in the second,
like I hadn't taken a CPR class in a while and I just started thinking, shoot,
like I don't know what the counts are. My brain shifted to next thing is call
911, call someone who knows how to do these things. Right?
I was shaking so profusely. The phone was falling on my hands.
Like this was not me showing up as my best calm, cool leader in a moment of chaos and
crisis.
No, definitely not.
I got the phone in my hand, everyone's screaming, people are crying.
It was horrible, so chaotic.
Everything seems really slow, which is another weird thing in a moment of crisis like this,
but it's not.
I'm sure it's moving just regular, but to you who are in it, and I'm telling you
this in case this happens to you, it's totally normal to feel like everything.
I felt like me dialing the phone was taking, I don't know, 20 minutes.
It just, everything was so slow in your brain.
So all I could do was I got the phone in my hand.
I dialed 911.
The next thought that came into my mind was get out of the house because what if the phone call drops and I can't, my one thing I could hold onto
is I have to get through to 911 and get the EMTs here. Cause he was out cold. He was not
getting up. And so I didn't know if he was alive. I didn't know if he was breathing.
And I just thought to myself, get out of the house. Don't lose your cell signal. Mind you,
I'm in Boston, right? And it's, I don't know, 20 degrees out.
And so I just walked outside.
I'm shaking profusely.
My best friend, who it's her husband's father
that had fallen down on the ground and passed out,
at this point we didn't know if he was alive.
We didn't know what was going on.
She follows with me because we're both shaking, crying.
I'm on the phone with 911.
Okay, so here's what happens. They say to you, 911, what's your emergency?
I said, an 80 year old male,
I think he just had a heart attack.
I don't know if he's alive or not.
Someone needs to get here immediately, right?
That was something like that.
I don't know.
It was like the best that I could get out of my mouth.
And the lady started asking me all these questions.
Super interesting.
So I didn't have the answers to them, right?
She's like, is he blue?
Is he breathing? Is he this? Is he that? And I'm outside now. There's so many
people inside and there's chaos inside. Like I can hear some people are crying. I don't
know. It was just everything's so confusing in that moment. And I just said to her, I'm
like, lady, I don't know, just get the EMTs here now. Please. I'm begging her. And my
friend is as well in the background and so
she's like give me at the address again I gave it to her again and my friend
keeps yelling where are they where are the EMTs where are the EMTs so anyhow at
some point my friend starts getting upset like more aggressive and so we
said please tell us when are they gonna be here she said you have been on the
phone with me for one minute and 15 seconds. I need you to stay calm.
What was interesting is when she said that I was very grateful and I thanked her
because in my mind, I thought we had been on the phone for 10 minutes and that he'd been laying in
there for 10 minutes and we don't know if he's alive or not.
And I didn't know what to do to save them.
But I guess when you panic to that level, everything's distorted.
So I'm just telling you this in case anything like this ever happens.
Number one, focus on just picking up the phone and calling 911,
listen to what the 911 operator tells you to do.
And so she started saying to me,
get someone else Heather to go into the house and see if he's breathing.
So my friend's mother-in-law ran in and checked and he seemed to be breathing.
He was not blue, right? These are all good signs, right?
But he's still not coming to, he's still out cold.
OK, so all I'm seeing is what's happening on the outside
and what they're yelling back to me to report back to 911. So 911 just says, leave him on the
floor. Don't touch him. The firefighters actually are the ones that get there first to a situation
like this, or the police, but not the EMTs. And I didn't know that. So it was interesting. And so
don't be surprised if you ever are in a situation like this, that the firefighters or police will come first.
Obviously they're trained on CPR.
They are very well versed and trained in this and they see this all of the time.
And actually they had just come from another call, very, very similar,
like almost exact same thing, not the same outcome that we had.
So anyhow, what I didn't know is I didn't know what was going on inside the house.
And I'm going to tell you about that in a minute. So all I see is what's happening on I didn't know what was going on inside the house. And I'm gonna tell you about that
in a minute. So all I see is what's happening in the outside.
I have no idea what's happening inside. I just didn't want to
lose the cell service. I didn't want to lose the call. And I
wanted to flag down the team coming in to help him to get
him in the house as fast as possible every second counts.
When you're in a crisis situation. All of a sudden, I
see the fire truck first and they come running in, you know,
we had the door open for them They went running right in another thing
They said to do is secure all pets get all pets out of the home so that you can have the doors open and the firefighters
EMTs police don't have to worry about managing pets coming after them makes a lot of sense, right?
They wanted to know the vitals whatever we could tell them about my friend's father and so that they know what they're walking into
But again, we didn't really know what we're doing, right?
So anyhow, cut to, I see them all going first the firefighters, then the police arrive next,
the police go running in and we're still standing outside waiting for the EMTs.
And we ask how long till the EMTs get here?
And they said probably another four or five minutes.
Oh my gosh, when you're in that situation, just let me tell you how scary that is.
The good news is once the firefighters are there
and the police are there, I mean, again, they're not rookies.
They've seen this many times and they know what to do.
So we can hear them talking,
but we don't know what's going on.
Then the EMTs arrive.
And so we yell, the EMTs are here, the police come out
and they start debriefing them,
which was interesting to watch it
and telling them what situation they're walking into,
what he looks like, what they've observed, what they've done.
The EMTs listening intently, there's two of them and they go running in the door.
They get him into a chair.
They put a neck brace on him because obviously it hit the floor so hard.
He's now awake.
I don't know how long this is at this point from the time he actually hit the
ground and passed out.
I have no idea. Anyhow, we're now back in the house and I can see his granddaughter is praying. I can
see my son's praying and I don't really know what else is going on. There's just so much
chaos, so much crying, so much upset, but he's now sitting in the wheelchair miraculously
with a neck brace on and
he's speaking a little bit. Okay. So this, first of all, miraculous,
now it's happening fast now that he seems to be getting better and that they're
there. Cause you feel so safe once the police,
the fire truck and the EMTs are there, you know,
the best hands in the world are on him, right? That they can handle this.
They know how to handle this. So this happens pretty quickly.
The EMT says you've passed every single check I need to give you.
You're now speaking clearly. How do you feel? And he says,
I actually think I feel pretty good. Can you, you know,
do this test with your hands, this test with standing this test, you know,
who keeps testing him and over a few minutes time, he says,
I think that you're fine to stay.
I think he just had potentially passed away.
I'm so beside myself at this point,
but obviously I'm not the professional they are.
So they're saying it's up to you.
If you wanna go in, we'll take you in in the ambulance.
If you don't, you can go in on your own
or you can stay home with your family
and see how you feel.
You can always call us so we can come back.
He says, if you think I'm fine, I'd like to stay.
It's Thanksgiving, I'd really like to stay.
They said, okay, that's your choice.
So they all go outside for a minute.
The EMT is still inside with them,
but everybody else goes on the front lawn.
They're talking, we run out to ask them to stay for dinner.
Can we give you food?
Can we do anything?
We're so grateful for you.
I mean, literally these guys saved us, thank God,
for first responders and the work that they do,
the fact that they work on holidays,
how fast they responded,
how gracious they were to us being so crazy
and not making sense and just how amazing they were.
Okay, so now we go back inside
and my friend's father is saying,
I wanna walk out and thank everybody.
Of course emotional, everyone's so emotional,
everyone's crying. And all he wants to do is thank everyone for saving his life, right? And it course emotional. Everyone's so emotional. Everyone's crying.
And all he wants to do is thank everyone for saving his life. Right? And it was just, it
was so beautiful. I've never felt so full of gratitude in my life. Going from in one
moment thinking we just lost someone that we love to literally minutes later. I mean,
maybe it's 15 minutes later, he's talking. I still can't even wrap my head around it.
It was the biggest miracle I've ever witnessed in my life miracles are alive and well okay that's
what I'm just gonna say open your mind and heart to miracles they are all
around us and we saw one and even the team of firemen police and EMT said that
to us they said you just witnessed a miracle we hope you know that because we
just left another call this is when they were out in front after everything had
happened and he was not outside with us they said we just left another call. This is when they were out in front after everything had happened and he was not outside with us. They said we just left another call very similar.
It did not turn out like this at all and you know what that means, right? So, wow,
we felt so grateful. Their perspective was so powerful because they see this so
often that this is not how it turns out 99% of the time. When an 80 year old man
who just had a heart attack recently unexpectedly passes out and
hits the floor, typically they're not going to come too. And for what I believe, there's the very
clear reason why this happened, and I'll share that with you in a moment, this outcome was very
different. Regardless, we were so grateful. They were so kind, so generous of spirit, so good at
their job, so giving.
And then my friend's father was so amazing. All he wanted to do was to thank everyone
and be grateful for everyone. And it was just, I don't know, it was pure magic, miracle in
motion. I feel so blessed. I'm so grateful I was there. I'm so blessed for the outcome
that we had. Okay, here's what I found out. And this is what is so crazy,
is that we didn't know this was happening inside because remember we're outside on the front lawn,
we didn't want to lose a cell signal. Well, come to find out when I ran out front and then my
girlfriend followed right behind me, her daughter, who's 24 years old, ran to the cupboard to get the
holy oil, brought out the holy oil, got down
on her hands and knees to pray and put her hands on her grandfather and started praying
out loud with the holy oil.
And it was after she started doing that for a couple of minutes, he opened his eyes.
And if you don't think that that is a miracle from God, I am telling you it is, right?
And so she sat with him with her hands on him praying to God to save him and within a couple of minutes his eyes
opened and then within a couple of minutes the firefighters were there and
then a couple of minutes the EMTs were there. Everything changed and she never
stopped praying from the moment she put her hands on him and got down her hands
and knees. Even when the firefighters arrived she moved herself to the corner of the room and
continued praying out loud. And so she was telling us a story, everyone was
telling us a story after because they were all in there witnessing this, we
were not. And I was just so proud of her that this young woman of 24 years old
could have the foresight, the clarity, the knowing to do this. And it was
interesting, my 16 year old son was saying to me later on in the afternoon, mom I knew that was the right thing to
do what she did. He said but for some reason I didn't activate and go do it.
And I of course gave him grace. I said don't worry, first of all she did the
right thing. She knew to do the right thing. She's a lot older than you, but now
you've seen the experience and now you know that that's a power you
have within you that you can offer to someone else, that you can put your hands
on someone else and pray for them and play some role in being a conduit to
access God in this moment and bring prayer to light and the possibility of a
miracle. And so it was just this incredible experience and to see this
grandfather and granddaughter together
for the rest of the day, I couldn't stop crying.
I have to tell you, I just felt so grateful.
We had just witnessed a miracle.
The power of this young woman and her healing power
and her relationship with God and God's ability
to provide and heal and just miracles, it was miraculous.
And it ended up being the most incredible day,
so grateful, and he's doing incredible.
I'm gonna make it all over again.
I decided to change that dynamic.
I'm gonna make it happen.
I couldn't be more excited for what you're gonna hear.
Start learning and growing.
Inevitably something will happen.
No one succeeds alone.
You don't stop and look around once in a while.
You can miss it.
I'm on this journey with me.