Ep 6: My Sneak Peek Inside The Hurricane Harvey Relief Effort and How It Rocked My World

My husband left this week to go fly rescue and support missions in the Houston area after Hurricane Harvey. The day he left, I had the opportunity to bring him lunch and check out their readiness effort so I pounced on having that extra time with him. It was incredible and this episode is what I’ve been thinking about since then…

If you’re looking for a way to dig deeper into this week’s topic, I’ve created a beautiful gift just for you. Get yours now at unsabotage.com/tryit.

For your convenience, here’s today’s transcript:

Hey, Gorgeous! Ginny Townsend here, founder of UnSabotage, and I am coming to you from sunny San Jose, not New York like I did last week. I want to thank you so much for joining me today, wherever you are. I actually have a little bit of a confession. I had planned a topic to talk about today, that up until this morning, I was very excited to talk about. Then, when I woke up this morning, my first thought was, “No, that’s not what I need to share today. That’s not it.” So, I’ve spent this morning really digging into what I think we really should be talking about today, and it actually has to do with what I’ve seen with the Hurricane Harvey relief efforts like you might have seen in the tease above.

My husband is actually one of the pilots that is out there flying right now, looking for people who are on rooftops, or cars, or in boats, or wherever, out in the Houston area. If you would join me in praying for their safety as well as those that they are working to rescue, that would mean the world to me, so thank you for standing with me in that. Really, yesterday I went to go bring Drew lunch, my husband lunch, before he left. I took one more opportunity to see him before he left town. I pounced on it, so I packed up lunch and then I brought it to him, and we got to hang out and talk a little bit more before he left town.

When I got to the area where they were getting everything ready, I just noticed a complete change in energy. I mean, something was activated. There were so many planes, and there were all of the helicopters that were ready, and there were so many people working hard to get this effort to Texas where it needed to be. There were at least three or four planes, and like I said, a couple helicopters. The thought that struck me as I drove by, and just was amazed, was that these are men and women of action. They did not get stuck in some kind of “analysis paralysis,” thinking, “Oh, this is so big. There’s so many people that need help. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know where to start.” They know what they’re uniquely capable of doing, and they were prepared, so when the call came, when they were tapped on the shoulder, they were able to act.

It got me thinking. It got me thinking, as often things do. Because they were called up by a larger relief effort, something you could say is a national scale, or at least has national awareness, I don’t think that people need to wait until there is some type of national level awareness for us to step into what we’re uniquely capable of. However, there are times in which what we are uniquely capable of is called upon, and we are tapped. We obviously need to be ready, and then we need to act. I have a couple quotes for you. If you know me at all, you know I loooooove quotes.

This first one talks about that external tapping, and it is by Winston Churchill.

“To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder, and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them, and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.”

So yes, Sir Winston Churchill was talking about being tapped by the situation, by the world, by the circumstances, saying, “Hey, you are uniquely capable of doing something that really matters right now,” that tapping on the shoulder.

But I think that there’s also times in which we aren’t necessarily tapped on the shoulder externally, but we know what we’re uniquely capable of is needed, and we almost need to be the one that taps ourselves on the shoulder. But that fear, and that “analysis paralysis,” like I mentioned a little while ago, can step in, and be like, “I don’t know, am I ready? Am I the person for this?” I have a quote for that, too.

I have the quote for the internal side of things, and why we maybe don’t tap ourselves in. It’s by Marianne Williamson. It’s one of my favorite quotes. I share it with as many people as I possibly can, all the time. It goes:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God, and you’re playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do, and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t that absolutely beautiful?

There are these two times, like I’ve said, where we tap in and become men and women of action, doing what we are uniquely capable of, and it’s either someone else, our situation, our world, an emergency like what is happening with Hurricane Harvey, taps us in. But then, like I said, there are times when we could tap ourselves in, but we don’t, because we have this fear, like Marianne Williamson said, that we were supposed to play small, that somehow us shrinking back makes everyone feel safe. I wholeheartedly oppose that thought. Because I believe that you have a shocking amount of greatness in you.

I challenge you, and I know this is a little bit of a shorter video today, but it’s what has been on my heart from the moment that I got up. I challenge you to do not let your light dim, because maybe it’s the first time you have a chance to step out and tap yourself in to being the person that you need to be in the situation that you’re in. I encourage you, and I challenge you, do not play small either. I encourage you to be prepared, like my husband and all of the different units around the country are, that have activated and that are out there actually doing what they are uniquely capable of, and literally saving people’s lives.

I know that what you do is valuable in your own world, even if it’s not at that national level. I really challenge you to tap yourself in. If you see an opportunity where what you do is really needed, I would say don’t wait. Don’t wait for someone to offer you the chance to make a difference in your world. Tap yourself in. Tap yourself in.

I think that it would be very incongruent of me to tell you, or to encourage you to be a man or woman of action today, without giving you a call to action. Stay close. Stay close to what I’m doing. Stay close to UnSabotage, and I think we’re going to be able to build something amazing. I am tapping myself in here, because I really believe that where I’m at, when I’m at, I have a uniquely capable talent and a voice to share with people, to encourage people to step into their biggest and greatest selves.

Don’t shy away from this opportunity. Stay close, like I said to UnSabotage. If you go to unsabotage.com, I have a freebie for you, but really what I want you to do is opt in. Tap yourself in to joining what we’re building at UnSabotage. Enter your email address, there’s a place on every page that you go on that site, and we will continue to tap each other in, and do something amazing, that we are uniquely capable of in our world, to make our world a better place. I know that might sound cheesy or cliché, but it’s what we have all wanted from the dawn of humanity. It’s a pretty big challenge, but I think we’re up for it. So have an amazing day, and like I said, be a man or woman of action this week. Until next time, I’ll see you next Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific, here on Facebook Live.