I had a gun pointed to my head. I stepped towards it and said, “You need love.” And they ran! With no fear! Find out how you can become outrageously courageous when facing the gun and live in bold faith.
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Living Outrageously Courageous
Good beautiful day, you beautiful, beautiful souls. This is Charla Anderson, host of The Charla Anderson Show, collector and connector of fascinating people, and everyone is fascinating, especially YOU. Thank you for joining me. We’re going to talk about how you can be fearless. When a gun is put at your head, you can be fearless. How can you be fearless? I had a gun at my temple. I stepped towards the gun and said, “You need love,” and they ran.
I had no fear. We’re going to talk about that, but first, we’re going to do our little 22-second mini vacation. We’re going to go with the flow, learn how to breathe in calm for 7 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, breathe out gratitude for 11 seconds, and then we’re going to get into the story about fearlessness and courage. Outrageously courageous. That’s who I am. Let’s breathe in our calm first. Here we go. Hold, release, relax. Thank you. Let’s remember to do that a little bit more frequently than we probably do. Put those devices down and be still and know. Take that moment to listen to that still small voice, your truth inside of you.
Coaching Program
It’s been seven years since 2017 when I packed up everything I owned and moved out of my beautiful small house that I love so dearly. I’ve been in there for five years. I moved. I stored everything else upstairs in my ex-husband’s house where I raised my kids. I went on a preplanned six-week trek that I went around and I loaded up my car. I was living in my car, but not in my car. One of my friends, Carlene, had enrolled me in her dream of building a retreat center in East Texas.
This began my trek, my journey. Before I started that, I already had these things that I was going to do. I went to my sister’s and brother-in-law’s place down in the hill country and it was beautiful. They’ve got a donkey, goats, and chickens, a pond, a pool, and a nice serene place. It was precious because I was able to complete this little manuscript for my tiny book with a big message called Candy Bar Hugs. It Doesn’t Take Much To Make a Difference.
It has so much wisdom in there that you would be very surprised, I think that much punch could go in that tiny book. I completed the manuscript for that. While I was there the whole 30 days, I was also considering a name for a coaching program. Here I am and I was in my mid-60s at that time. I’m leaving my whole life and changing everything.
I named my mentoring program, Charla’s Outrageously Courageous Life Mentoring System. Do you think it was prophetic? We’ll see as we move through this story. Leaving there after that 30 days, having completed those two projects, I headed to Memphis, Tennessee for a Survita Conference, the company that I’ve been with since 2008.
I still love them dearly. They got my Zeal for Life, my nutrition beverage, my energy drink, and now we have memory-boosting coffee. I love that company and I love them because of the humble leadership. That’s the key. That’s the only reason I ever even looked at that company, because of the humble leadership.
Held At Gunpoint
Here we are at the conference. I went to the conference and my friend, Sherry, drove and met me there. We were staying at an Airbnb. Saturday night after the conference, we’re all excited. We’re walking up the driveway of our little Airbnb home for the night. The next thing I knew, this Yeti with this big dent right through here was on the ground.
I had two canvas bags. One had my new MacBook, makeup, and things like that. My other one had my cowboy boots, my convention clothes, and my favorite things. I’m living from my car and walking up the driveway. Those things got ripped out of my hand. Very startling and confusing but the next thing I know, I have a gun right here at my temple, “Give me your purse. Give me your keys.” I had a death grip on them.
At that moment, I stepped toward the gun. I stepped towards them and said, “You all need love.” They ran. How does that happen? How can you have that fearlessness or outrageously courageousness in an unexpected moment like that? First of all, I claim Psalms 91, “God’s umbrella protection around me, my family, my life, my home, and my car, all the time.” I live in gratitude.
I constantly speak the mantra, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” For whatever, even if I’m not specific, I’m in gratitude. I also feel like I am surrounded by angels. At that moment, I felt protected by the gut and the shield of protection. Thank you for the shield of protection. I do that all the time. Anytime I’m driving or anytime I’m washing dishes, I’m in gratitude. Thank you for the shield of protection.
Bold Faith, No Fear
I didn’t feel fear. I was shaken, but I did not feel any fear in that moment. My friend, Sherry, who had handed over her backpack, thinks that I’m going to be a chalkmark. What you would think if you saw your friend stepping towards a gun? I knew that I would be okay either way. There is a lot more to that story.
The main piece of that story is I had no fear because whatever you say after the words I am is who you are. I had said, “Who I am is bold faith, no fear.” I had said that for years, probably since 2008 or so when I ran into these humble leaders. Who I am is bold faith and no fear. Every word you say after I am is who you are. It’s so critical that you start realizing that every word matters. “I am” is the breath of life.
Every word you say after I am is who you are. Share on XSince that time, I have now written the Split-Second Transformation, Change Your Words, Change Your Life, 31 daily practices. It went bestseller in 2023. It’s a patch full of hints and tricks on how to do what I’m talking about doing because you are who you say you are. Every word matters. Claim what you want, not what you don’t want. Speak life, not death over yourself, and I’m going to add this. You might have gotten diagnosed with something, but you do not have to claim it. You do not have to say, “I have this disease.”
“I’ve been diagnosed with this thing. I’m going to mention it very seldom. I’m going to do what I need to do, and I’m going to continue to see myself as healthy and healed.” Don’t claim what you don’t want. If you do say things like that, say, “Cancel. I don’t want to claim things I don’t want because every word matters.” Who I am, who Charla Anderson is, I am outrageously optimistic. I am bold faith, no fear. I am healthy, wealthy, wise, fit, fabulous, and fun.
I have a whole page of declarations and I noticed the date was 2011. I wrote out all these affirmations or declarations and I had claimed them over myself over the years so many times. One of my favorite ones is “I attract successful people willing to invest in me.” It happens when you speak what you want, not what you don’t want. You are who you say you are.
Who do you say you are? What do you say about yourself? It’s incredibly critical to get that in your head and practice. If you want that declaration page, email me or go to my website, CharlotteAnderson.com. There’s an email form on there. Shoot me an email and I will send it to you like I did someone the other day.
This is so fun. For months now, I’ve been teaching my soon-to-be three-year-old, little grand blessing to say, “I am.” She says, “Happy.” Recently, I’ve added several more to her words and I’ve been very proud and impressed that she remembered them the next day and still remembers all of them. We’re adding it more every time. She learned, “I am happy. I am healthy. I am helpful. I am smart. I am strong. I am kind.” I believe the next one she’s learned is “I am respectful.” I want her to understand what these words mean. She is all of those things. She’s incredibly smart. Ask me. I’m her Nana.
Get In Touch
You get to say who you are. You are who you say you are and every word matters. If that’s a little hard for you, it’s difficult for you, or it’s something you can’t understand, need to grasp, or want to change your words, and change your life, reach out to me.
I’ve got resources, programs, books, and coaching or whatever it is that you need to change your words or change your life. Every word matters. I invite you to go to my ever involving website, CharlaAnderson.com, and grab a copy of those two bestselling books that I’ve held up, as well as I’ve got a chapter in the Change, Insights Into Self-Empowerment, book number 21 with Les Brown on the cover with some amazing stories and authors in this book series.
I invite you to take a look at that, grab that book, and glean this wisdom of twenty of us. If you’d like to have that credibility factor of being in a book with Les Brown, shoot me a message. We’ll connect you. I have a free gift for you. This is on my website at CharlaAnderson.com. It’s called 7 Ways To Transform Your Life By Changing Your Words. It’s an amazing workbook or eBook. It’s one of my free resources on there. Please let me make a difference in your world.
Upcoming Book
Also, here I am, Charla Anderson. The Charla Anderson Show, collector and connector of fascinating people, and everyone is fascinating. You can find out more about the Win-Win Women Network. Find out about that. It’s a global initiative to bring information to 3.9 billion women. That’s pretty broad. Paula Fellingham is a visionary and it’s coming to fruition now after all of her years of work. This Win-Win Women Network is powerful. I would love to share more information about that.
I have a forthcoming book. Guess what it’s called? Outrageously Courageous: Bold faith, No fear, Step Towards The Gun. Sherry will have a piece in that. That’s the story we’re talking about here. How do you step towards a gun and have no fear? Who I am is bold, faith, and no fear. If you say it often enough, it’s who you become in the moment. At that moment, I can’t tell you how impactful that has been and I still say it all the time. Why not? Why not speak what you want? I want to be bold. I want to be faithful. I want to have outrageous faith. That’s what I think.
After The Incident
I’m going to go ahead and tell a snippet of the rest of the story, so when that book comes out, you will want to get it for sure. For Sherry, it was very inconvenient to have to go through insurance. Her keys and a little bit of money were stolen. Everything in that backpack, she handed over. It’s a lot of work to figure out all that stuff. Fortunately, I did not release my purse, my phone, and my keys. It would have been a whole different story. It is a big inconvenience, and we had it back.
After this conference was over, I had another conference the next week in Tennessee as well. I drove on over to the Nashville area and I went to another conference. I stayed with my sister Marsha who lives not too far from Nashville. I stayed there for a week or two because trying to deal with all the insurance, police reports, and all that.
It was nice. Going back, I headed from there. I’m driving back to East Texas. To make a long story short, it became a big story. As I was driving, I found out that the room I was going to rent was not available anymore. She changed her mind. What had happened? Carlene’s dream had motivated me to take new action and move, but it wasn’t where I was supposed to be.
I went and stayed with her a day or two and I said, “This isn’t it.” I got out of my beautiful comfort zone and my little house and had some adventures, and then another transition. Here I am. All my stuff is upstairs at my ex-husband’s house where I raised my kids. I said, “How about if I move into one of those bedrooms upstairs and help with the rent or whatever.”
I came back and moved in upstairs with my ex-husband. It turned out to be a blessing for both of us in a lot of ways. It was a chaotic mess amid all the boxes and all the stuff. Miraculously, I ended up getting my book self-published. The Candy Bar Hugs: It Doesn’t Take Much to Make a Difference, got self-published. Interesting? I couldn’t even begin to tell you how that happened during all that time, but it did.
I went through that. It was the end of 2017. Seven years ago, it’s hard to even fathom how much has happened and continues to happen. Everything in our world has been changed. I ultimately was able to buy the house back from Ed and I’m living here as we speak. It’s been 30 years since we originally bought this house. I’m grateful for all of those situations that brought me where I am.
God’s Love And Being Present
Where I am is all I have and that’s what I’m going to tell you now. I want to remind you that you are perfect exactly who and where you are right now. You are loved. God loves you. If God is love, you can’t be not love. I love you. You are loved. If you are loved, if you can receive that, if you can’t receive that, if you don’t feel loved or lovable, let’s talk because you can’t do one thing to make god love you more or less. You are perfect exactly who and where you are.
I’ll add this first. Unconditional love, unconditional forgiveness, not unconditional boundaries. The harder people are to be loved, the more they need it. Is that you? You might want to take a look. Is there a reason? Many of us were hurt when we were little. All of us were hurt when we were little one way or the other, but many of us say, “I will never be hurt like that again.” You start building walls.
The harder people are to be loved, the more they need it. Share on XSometimes it takes some digging to get back to that, “You are perfect and exactly who and where you are.” I want you to begin hearing that if that’s not how you feel right now. When you embrace it, you will realize that right here, right now is the only place you have to take the next step. You can’t change that. You can’t change that week. You can’t change that mistake. You can’t change anything that has happened in your past. You can’t change your grandparents’ meeting or anything.
Everything has divinely brought you here for this message right now. There is nothing else you can do. Nothing to change that. Whether you’re in the gutter, whether you’re in the castle, whether you’re in the jet, where you are right this second is all you have to take the next step from.
If you listen to me much, I’m going to continue nailing that in. If you ever say, “I get it now. You don’t have to keep saying it,” let me know. I’d like to know because I think it’s a reminder we all need, but you cannot change anything there. Everything is a choice. Where you all are is all you have. You might as well love it. You can change the next step, the next word.
If you don’t like where you are, that’s your opportunity to change the next step, the next word because it’s all a choice. You get to choose if you speak life, not death. You get to choose who Charla is, and who I am. I choose gratitude. I choose in everything, to give thanks. I choose unconditional love. I choose to be outrageously optimistic, outrageously courageous, and outrageously bold, faith, and no fear.
I know some people say, “That’s not the reality.” I will say it’s my reality because I chose it. Do I know stuff is going on out there? I know stuff is going on. Do I like it? No, but I believe that it’s getting better despite the craziness. I don’t have to walk in the fear of it, the confusion of it, or the divisiveness of what the media is trying to keep us divided. If you don’t believe that, we can talk.
I don’t watch TV. I don’t watch the media. I have a lot of good sources of information that do not include propaganda machines. I know it’s controversial. I am outrageously courageous. I am bold faith, no fear. I want to change that to a question. Am I outrageously courageous? Am I both faith and no fear? I like you to say, “Who I am is absolutely what I am.”
Prophetically, my name means to chat in Spanish and joy in Greek. I named my coaching program, Charla’s Outrageously Courageous Life Mentoring System a week before I stepped towards a gun. What do you think? Is it prophetic? Do you think my parents were prophetic? They didn’t know. I didn’t know for most of my life.
I am who I say I am. I choose to spend time with my friends at Bri Talks and learn how to learn with Terri Lee Harrison and I am very grateful that she’s helping me learn how to step on stage and be a better speaker. If you want more information about that, it’s for faith-based speakers, Bri Talks. Amazing group of folks globally.
Episode Wrap-up
As I always do in all of my shows, I’m going to go ahead and end this. When I fly solo, I end it in less than half an hour. I appreciate that you would take the time to listen to this little 70-year-old lady. Those guys in Memphis think two little old ladies walking up the driveway were easy targets. Don’t mess with Texans is what I say. I am who I say I am. I am bold faith. I am outrageously optimistic. I would love to hear who you say you are. Who do you say you are? Check out my ever-evolving website. Reach out to me. How can I support you? Remember to always choose joy.
Important Links
- Candy Bar Hugs~It Doesn’t Take Much to Make a Difference
- Split-Second Transformation~Change Your Words, Change Your Life: 31 Daily Practices
- The Change: Insights Into Self Empowerment
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I’m Charla Anderson, host of The Charla Anderson Show, Collector & Connector of Fascinating People (and EVERYONE is Fascinating!) on live TV, streaming, and podcasts. As a Ziglar Legacy Certified Trainer, a retired award-winning flight attendant, Olympic Torchbearer, a personal development junkie, Inspired Speaker, a Published Author, and Your Courageous Coach, I want to share my passion for living life full-out, saying YES to intriguing opportunities, and encouraging YOU to do the same. Let’s jump on a discovery call and get to know each other. Find all things Charla at CharlaAnderson.com/links.
On The Charla Anderson Show, We discuss Mindset, How much Your WORDS matter, princess-to-queen energy, mantras, HOPE, Faith, Miracles, Overcoming, and much, much more, including learning from amazing guests.
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