The Power to Grow

Everyone knew me as a someone who radiated joy and happiness regardless of what life challenges came. My energy and enthusiasm was always infectious.

However in September of 2015 I hit an all time low in my life to a point where I had used sick days at work to stay home, I wasted those days of my life. I  cried for days and had no energy to do anything because I let my emotions overtake me. My soul felt crushed, I felt helpless, I felt alone more than ever before. Because of my childhood I had gone thru a life of never letting anyone get close to me. The past year I had for the first time in my life let someone. Continue reading →

This morning I decided to do what John Mace and I call the “shame exercise.” You identify an event where you felt shame, and then you go through basically three steps. Shame is a feeling of powerlessness. Forgiveness falls short in dealing with it long term. That sense of powerlessness is the feeling you get when you are penalized for breaking a rule you don’t understand. In other words, you don’t know what you did wrong.

As you can imagine, this happens a lot when we are small children. So we enter our teens pretty much with a lot of it (shame).

I went back to a time when I was applying for a job at an insurance company when I was 18. At the time, I was working, making phone calls, and talking people into going to a show room. One day, a man who thought I was really good offered me a job Continue reading →

I chose that title because I wanted to give this post something big to live up to.  This site is new, but the techniques have been developed over 30 years.  Some by myself, but most by my mentor, John Mace.   John has a double masters, and a PHD in the field of psychology.

My name is Vance Williams.  I have been involved in the field of human potential going back to the mid 90’s.  I have been fortunate enough to be able to have lived the life of my dreams, not once, but twice.  The first time, when I was 28, I exceeded my own expectations in life.  But it didn’t take long for me to realize that most of what I had financially did little for me.  I didn’t have what I really wanted. Continue reading →

Why did you begin work with Vance?  Were you struggling with issues?

Honestly speaking, no! I’m a happy person, healthy, successful in my personal life and at work (Vance often refers to me as “the happy guy”).

What attracted me to this work is that I still have a bunch of dreams that I would like to realize.  I thought that working with Vance I could move steadily and consistently toward my dreams. Continue reading →

What issues were you struggling with that led you to the program?

For about nine months I worked in a job that from the outside seemed easy, but from the inside I was experiencing more anxiety than I ever have. I felt micromanaged and had daily self-doubt and legitimate worry that I could be jeopardizing my future somehow. After losing the job I was intimidated out of seeking any financial assistance, and was relying on my loved ones to pay rent and buy food. Although I felt very fortunate to have help, because lord knows not everyone has this luxury; my dignity was taking quite the hit. It wasn’t the first time I’ve eaten top ramen twice in one day because I felt too proud to ask for help to buy some bread and eggs. I called Vance, a trusted friend, to seek any advice that could be offered. I was applying for every job I could find, regardless of wage or travel distance, with no luck. It seemed like struggling through college and all the help my family and friends had given me was for nothing; I couldn’t even get a minimum wage job because I had no experience, let alone something decent that was once the likely product of a Bachelor’s degree. The one area I had experience in was the one I was desperate to get away from; I felt that settling for the another job that had given me so much anxiety would be selling out and admitting I wasn’t worth more. Continue reading →

I created this site so that you can read about my work with others. More importantly so that you can see what is happening in their lives from week to week. You will see that people I work with are writing posts, sharing their experience. I felt it was important to make them anonymous for a few reasons. But most importantly, we don’t live our lives by ourselves. Our stories are connected to others. Perhaps at some point we are struggling in a relationship. If we write who we are, we are also telling the world who we are talking about, and we might not have permission to do that. That said, if you feel that you need to validate that what is written is true, that can certainly be arranged.

The most rewarding part of my work is seeing people grow and thrive. By following their posts, you will be able to share in that experience. Perhaps you might even be inspired to let your own light shine brighter.

learning to live your true potential, and grow in all areas of life