How to Break a Board with Your Bare Hands

I was out at the TED conference in Monterey, California this past week, and had a host of amazing experiences: listening to Pastor Rick Warren sharing great life wisdom; watching Tony Robbins give motivational advice to Vice President Al Gore, sitting there in the front row; and having my heart stolen by 11-year-old violin prodigy Serina Huang.

But one session that I attended-- "How to Break a Board with Your Bare Hands" -- was very personally powerful and I want to share with you the important lesson I learned about the powers we have within us... if we'll only tap into them.

With about 30 people in attendance at the class (including Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com) our fellow TED attendee and martial artist, Kymberlee Weil, explained the 3 easy steps to breaking a board:

1) Make a very strong fist and raise it up
2) Inhale on the way up (deeply) and exhale on the way down (powerfully)
3) Drive your hand all the way through the board to an imaginary "X" on the ground

With those simple instructions, she asked for volunteers to be the first. Nobody was peeping, so I raised my hand.

Let me tell you that standing in front of a room of eclectic, intellectual strangers and famous folks while you try to break a 2"-thick board with your bare hand for the first time in your life is... strangely exhilirating.

I made a fist and raised it high.

I inhaled, very very deeply.

I exhaled and brought my hand down as powerfully as it could go.

And... I broke the board in two!

Thunderous applause and a sparkling electric energy in the room as every single person -- from the petite to the venerable to the hale and hearty -- got up and smashed those boards, one after another.

What a wonderful, invigorating feeling -- I was wild with the fire of the excitement afterward.

I suppose it's a metaphor for what we all have in us, without ever unleashing it. And it's a lesson in how easy it truly is to unlock those secret powers with focus, willpower, and a great teacher.

Folks, I hope we can be the inspiration for you to break through your career challenges this week. All it takes is your TheLadders.com account, a computer, a mouse, and...

Your bare hands.

Break on through, Readers!