The Obstacle Exercise Right Before the Board Breaking at Generation Hero

The room has just spent a few minutes mingling, strangers introducing themselves to strangers, and William Wood brings everyone back together with a simple claim: there’s someone in this room today who has something you need, and someone who needs something you have. Then he gets to the real work of the session, the part that sounds simple until you actually try to do it. Naming, specifically, what’s standing between you and the next level you say you want.

William teaches this through a framework borrowed from NLP, though he never dwells on the label. A goal only works, he tells the room, if it has a clear direction, a real motivation underneath it, and something he calls ecology: an honest look at how reaching that goal affects every system you belong to, not just you.

What’s actually stopping you, and is it even the thing you think it is?

William draws a line most people in that room have never drawn cleanly before. There are internal obstacles, the thoughts and feelings that show up the moment you start moving toward something. And there are external obstacles, real circumstances sitting in your way. He asks the room to grab a pen and split their answer into both columns, because most people can only name one column and assume they’ve covered the whole problem.

• Internal: a belief about yourself, a worry, a sabotage cycle you’re already running without noticing it.
• External: something happening in your family, on your team, or inside the business itself that’s genuinely in the way, not just an excuse.

What comes back when people share is more honest than most rooms allow. One attendee, Dee, searches for an obstacle and simply can’t find one. She’s happy, she says, and good, and that’s fine too. Kevin, sharing with his wife Melissa, has a different reaction entirely once he starts writing, and says it out loud: “These are things that I have 100% total control over.” That single realization, he says, was the empowering part. Not a fix. Just seeing the obstacle clearly enough to know it was his to move.

Why does the same fear show up at every level, just wearing a different disguise?

Kevin Souza stands up next and admits something he says he’s never said to a group before: fear of the unknown stops him from chatting with the next prospect, even after he personally brought in fifty-three people through conversations he was afraid to start. He knows most of them will eventually go quiet and stop communicating, and the fear of watching that happen again, he says, is what keeps him from reaching out to the next one. Another attendee names something even harder to admit. He’s fallen in love with his own problems, he says, to the point that once something in his life gets solved, he feels an urge to go right back to where he was because that’s what feels comfortable.

William doesn’t offer a slogan in response to either one. He offers the same question back to the whole room: whatever the wall is, financial, emotional, or something else entirely, do you recognize it, and once you do, are you willing to find your own way past it.

we all face obstacles and the question is is do we recognize them and then once we recognize them are we willing to reach down deep inside to find what it is that we need to go over to go through to to dig a tunnel underneath, to walk all the way around it, or just to blast straight through.

Notice what’s missing from that list. There’s no option where the wall disappears on its own. Every path through it still requires you to move.

So what do you actually do with a wall once you’ve found it?

This is exactly where William hands the room off to David Albin, a Tony Robbins veteran brought in to give the abstract idea of a wall something physical to push against. Before the fire later that night, the room is about to break a board with their bare hands, and William frames it plainly: if you’re at home watching this, go find something in your own house you can break too. The obstacle you just named on paper is about to become something you can feel in your hand.

That’s the actual mechanism underneath this whole session. Not motivation for its own sake. A structured way to separate what’s really yours to control from what isn’t, followed immediately by a physical act that proves the wall can move when you commit your whole body to it, not just your intentions.

See exactly how the room answers when asked what they’re ready to stop and start doing, and watch the full obstacle exercise, free, when you Create your free account.

The full session transcript follows below.

Transcript

Welcome back, everyone. Was it good to get to know some people in the room? Yeah. Online, make sure you connect.

A big part of success is connecting with people. And I firmly believe that there's someone in this room today that has something that you need, and there's someone in this room that needs something that you have. And when we come together like this, the greatest power we can have is in really coming together as a community. Same thing online.

You're there in the Facebook chat, you see somebody, shoot them a message, get to know them, and you never know. Today may be the day that you meet your future business partner. Today may be the day that you find somebody that's your accountability partner or someone who you're going to coach with or somebody who you're going to coach just to help them move to the next level. So huge, huge success.

So we're setting outcomes. Outcomes really have four major working parts. And when we talk about a well-formed outcome in NLP, this is the way that I think about it. The way that I think about it.

The first thing that we do is we get into a direction. And we start looking at what is it that we want, what specifically do we want. Dave does some great training on that in the inner circle. You do some great training on that.

I have it all over. All over the place, like everywhere. Like you get really, really clear on direction. We didn't want to start this mastermind without knowing what you wanted.

I think that both Dave and I have updated. I know I've updated my piece of what I'm going to do over the weekend just based on the process. And the feedback that I got from you guys. And I think that Dave has probably done that as well.

And so we've spent a lot of time on what. And it's really important to get there. The second thing that you want is you want something about motivation. And we just spent a minute connecting to your why.

Why it is that you're here. Also got to share. So we got to create a sense of community a little bit. The next thing that we really want to get to is we want to get to basically what we call in NLP ecology.

And ecology is the study of systems. It's how does one thing impact another thing. And we all belong to systems, right? I have an internal system.

Part of me wants to move forward. Part of me isn't so sure it's time to move on. Part of me wants to break through. Part of me feels really safe and comfortable where I'm at.

And so that's an internal system. But then we belong to like an external system, right? How do my choices as a man affect my wife? How do they affect my kids?

How do they affect? How do they affect the little team that I've got built around me? And then, of course, we've got all of them power network. But the reality is, is that in moving forward towards a goal, there are obstacles, right?

Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about, right? In fact, this is like the little secret that nobody talks about is that like you start going towards a goal and stuff comes up. Now, most of the time, at least in my experience, it's me getting in my own way. Okay.

My wall is composed. I have thoughts and feelings, but other obstacles can come up. Sometimes we have financial obstacles that come up. Very real ones, right?

I think we had another comment back here. It's like, wow, I'm trying to move forward, but I'm on welfare. And I don't know like, and I'm $70,000 in debt. And how am I going to come up with enough money to buy the product so I can get the training so that I can move forward?

And I know that your story resonated with somebody online on the live cast. And so all of these things come up. And so whether it's an internal obstacle, whether it's a thought or an emotion that you're trying to overcome, or whether it's some real life obstacle, a financial challenge, or some other circumstance that's in your way, we know that there are obstacles. And so for a moment, what we'd like to have you do is we'd like to have you ask this question.

What is stopping you right now for moving forward? What is stopping you internally? And is there something externally in the way of you really being willing to reach down deep inside and commit fully to the next level? So what are the obstacles that you're facing?

And we're going to take just a minute, and this is for you folks as well on the live stream. We want everyone to go ahead and pull out a pen, pull out a paper, or pull out something that you can take notes on and write down what are the obstacles and divide them into two sections. One is, is there an internal obstacle? Do I have a belief in myself?

Do I have a belief in my way? Do I have a thought in my way? Do I have a worry in my way? Am I torn?

Have I got a sabotage cycle that I'm running? Is there something in me that's keeping me from moving forward? But then also look, what is it on the outside? Is there something in my family system?

Is there something on my team that's going on? Is there something inside of Empower Network right now that is keeping you from being willing to really reach down deep inside, now committing to move forward in a positive way? In a powerful way? So what is that?

So reach down right now, grab it out and map it out because that thing will continue to control you until you identify what it is. So go ahead, take a minute, identify. If we get some music, if online for the live stream, we get some music for those folks as well, that'd be great. So what's stopping you?

And when you're done, look up and make eye contact. That'll let us know we're on pace. I feel like I'm in an elevator. We are in an elevator with Elvis.

Well, it's velvet here in the mansion. Velvet cabinets. Velvet cabinets. Turn me on for a good 30 minutes today.

Yeah, I think it's what we're saying. Okay, now we're not going to hear from everybody, but we would like to hear from a few of you and then we're going to bring in, I think David is in the back there. And David, we're going to do the board break here in just a quick minute. But we'd like to hear from a few of you.

What are your obstacles that you've got going on? What are the obstacles that are keeping you from moving forward internally or externally? Oh, wait, we need mics. Mic runners.

That's so that we can make sure that all our people can hear us. All our people. Dee. Here you go, Dee.

You asked for obstacles, so I was like closing my eyes, waiting for breakthrough, breakthrough, and I'm like, I'm just so happy. Like I'm good, I feel good. I was like trying to find something in my way. And I'm like, oh, there you are.

But I couldn't really find it. I just feel very happy. I feel good. And I'm excited.

So I'm good. Okay. So you're good. Thank you, Dee.

Thank you, Dee. No obstacles. I was looking different. I just, I don't know.

I feel good. Good. I feel good about moving forward. I always felt good about moving forward with Dave.

And I thought, you know, like I can try to go and like dig and try to find something. But who cares? I got 99 pounds of money. Money ain't one.

Thank you. Thank you, Dee. Yeah. Give him a big round of applause.

Thank you. And we'll hear from about four or five people and then we'll move on. Kevin, Kevin and Melissa. Just what Dee was saying, I realized I was writing down a couple of things.

And I realized, wait a minute. These are things that I have 100% total control over. And that was empowering just to realize it's all up to me. So I'm grateful for that.

Yeah. So there are things, but there are things that you have control over. Yes. Now, no one has to share.

Is there anything on your list that you don't mind sharing? I would just say. We have family dynamics, kids, all of this drama and trauma with older kids. And I allow that to control my day at times.

And I realize that's up to me. Maybe I'm the only one. Maybe I'm the only one. Yeah.

Time. Anybody else? Anybody else ever have time challenges? Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. They're real. Okay.

So thank you. Okay. Okay. Let's go over here and then we'll go to the back.

Kevin Sousa. Sousa. Okay. This is called transparency and honesty with myself.

What's stopping me? Fear of the unknown when chatting with prospects. Stops me from chatting with that next prospect. That's honesty.

Yeah. Fear of doing all the steps to sign people up and knowing they're going to quit eventually or most of them. That's honesty. me from approaching that next prospect and speaking with them now I'm damn good at what I do real good at getting people inspired and motivated to take action to join me she can attest to that two months ago I brought in 53 people by chatting but not wanting to face those who join and work with them and then eventually they become you can't find them anymore they don't talk to you they don't communicate they do nothing and they stop communicating and they quit me not wanting to take action to get somebody in because of those external boundaries those external obstacles that stop people I never thought I would admit something like this to a group of people but that's it yeah huge let's be honest who faces fear sometimes yeah and the fears that show up at what at one level you can totally conquer but to get to the next level there's a whole other barrier fear and so the question isn't do we face it the question is is are you ready to face the next level of fears that keep you from the success that is coming your way right so thank you Kevin thank you for leading the way on that that's huge appreciate it okay we have somebody back and we need a mic runner here that be that be like super handy thank you well I didn't have to think a lot about that because it's very clear to me for a long time the main thing that keeps me from achieving whatever I want it's that I I think I fell in love with my problems it's hard to let them go you know it's hard you know once the things start to be solved I I feel that's something is missing and I I need I feel the need to go right back to where I was because that's what I feel comfortable and that's it thank you from one more if anybody else has something right in the back you know just like do you over there just thinking and you know feeling happy and feeling good but I still want to find something because you never stopped working on yourself so displaying my best possible self is something that I like to get out of this you know because privately we're awesome and there's more to give to the public into the people in our lives the newcomers the people who don't even know us yet you know displaying my best self to the public to family members as well something that I'd like to achieve to get to the next level with yeah thank you so to be able to we all face obstacles as we moved through if I could have if I could have the marker here for a minute whether the obstacle is a wall that separates you from some financial goal or whether it separates you from some happiness goal or whether it separates you from another goal we all face obstacles and the question is is do we recognize them and then once we recognize them are we willing to reach down deep inside to find what it is that we need to go over to go through to to dig a tunnel underneath, to walk all the way around it, or just to blast straight through.

Because wherever you are today, there's a way through the wall. There's a way to get to the other side. And towards that end, we have brought in an expert who's going to help us have an amazing experience here to help us break through our obstacles. And if you're at home, we want you to watch this, and we want you to imagine going through the process.

So come on up. This is David. You can also try to break something in your house. Yeah, you can.

I'm doing it. Honey, bring me the table. So this is David.