Real AhaMoments

A few of Sandra's favorite inspirational stories.

What is a Real Aha! Moment? It's the moment a person's life has been changed forever.

Read about Real Aha! Moments from women and men who have taken part in Sandra's programs and found success
and happiness. We hope you get inspired by their stories.

• Mary's Real AhaMoment

  
  

  "After being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in December 2004, my health forced me to leave the warehouse and transition to an office job. I started working at the office 4 years ago and it has been a struggle to find a "fit". Your talk helped me to see that by focusing, doing the work (even though I might HATE it) that I can again find passion in my work. Thank you for inspiring me. Now I know that it is OK to HATE going to the gym---but as long as I go, I don't have anything to feel guilty about."

• Nancy's Real AhaMoment

  
  

  "I was having a terrible time in my life when I walked into the two day seminars. I learned a great deal from both days. You taught me to be filled with self respect, how to move up the ranks, how I get exactly what I expect, how I operate out of my window of belief, I am a decision maker, problem solver and I am the solution!! I am my own CEO!! And most of all, time management is not about time, time management is about self management. Sandra, as I become more confident, all these truths have become a part of my soul. It has changed my life! My job has improved, my marriage has improved and I feel alive again! I still have all the same problems I had back in January, but I will never feel the same way again."

• Scott's Real AhaMoment

  
  

  "Your seminar inspired me to take action and start to pursue what it will take to become a Police Officer. I have just began the process and it is very early in the game. It appears that it is attainable with some work on my part. I have began power walking and running 6 miles every night with my wife and eating right 15 pounds off since your seminar another 100 or so to go. Just getting up and doing something about it has made the motivation to continue on the journey much easier. Thank you I will keep you posted along the journey. Its funny how you know what you need to do but don't until you hear it in the right form from someone else."

• RaChelle's Real AhaMoment

  
  

  "Of all the classes I have taken with the state and in ministry, this truly was the most meaningful for me. I realized that I have allowed bad choices, which usually were wrapped around taking care of someone else or pleasing someone else hoping I would find happiness, to get me where I was 2 and a half years ago. Since 2/5/06 I have been on a journey to find myself and my destiny, and like you my hope is to help others to realize we do have choices and the right to make good ones. It is not selfish to say no to someone that is standing in the way of our destiny, instead of feeling as if we have to settle because we are not valuable enough. Slowly but surely I am growing out of those choices. You have definitely encouraged me. I have my 3 ring binder and am on my way to wherever and whatever I have been called to do."

• Liz's Real AhaMoment

  
  

  "This is going to sound weird, but, you gave me a bit more courage to be myself. After hearing you speak, I realized that I rarely act like myself. I'm not sure why I don't live as my authentic self. My goal is to do the exercises in your book because I truly believe that it's my time to live life as myself."

• Donald's Real AhaMoment

  
  

  "As a manager I need all the skills that I can get to cope with the stresses and demands placed on me as well as the ones that I place on myself. I found your course interesting and helpful. Being able to sort the origin of the source (work- personal-financial) as well as deciphering what you can and can't control and then controlling how you react instead of just reacting are valuable skills."

• Tammi's Real AhaMoment

  
  

  "Admittedly it has to have been one of the most moving training sessions I have attended in my almost 5 years with the state. A number of things in your presentation resonated with me, but the one I heard most clearly that day was when you said, "The work you do changes lives." Perhaps someone else has said this to me, but I don't recall ever being told that before. The day before your seminar I interviewed a man who had never been on public assistance before. It was very difficult for him to be there talking with me, the whole pride thing is a big deal sometimes :-) and I totally get that. Anyway, later that day he returned some paperwork and left me a handwritten note thanking me and telling me that I had made the holidays for him and his family. At your seminar, I thought of that man and the stories he had told me about his family and I knew that you were right, the work we do does change lives. His note was proof of your words."

• Jacqueline's Real AhaMoment

  
  

  "I've begun to do some research into the cultural consultant job I mentioned. I've also been doing a great deal of journaling, just trying to get my head around the things I really want in life. My plan over the next few weeks, aside from reading your book and the one from the forum, is to draw up a kind of five year plan for the direction. That includes an examination of all of those selflimiting beliefs you talked about in your seminar. Things like shyness and a sense of intellectual and social inadequacy have definitely held me back over the years. Frankly, I'm tired of living life at the same level. It's time to make a change, and now, between your seminar and the ideas presented at the forum, I feel like I have the tools to do that."

• Jim's Real AhaMoment

  
  

  "I appreciated the things that you shared and the style of your presentation. You were very transparent with us as you shared your personal background of being a welfare client. This touched many of us and made us appreciate the work we do even more. Your presentation of the 4 personality types helped me to understand not only how I function, but how my immediate coworkers function, and how we can be more of an effective team together. It also helped to understand why we get so irritated with some coworkers, and how we can change our perspective in order to understand why each of us functions the way that we do. Thank you for your sharing, and for taking time during the lunch break to chat with me."

• Sue's Real AhaMoment

  
  

  "I took my walk last night since "Successful People Do What They Don't Want To Do" and as I walked back in to the house my husband moaned that he had to do something before he went to bed, clearly not really having the strength. I repeated your great saying "Successful People Do What They Don't Want To Do" as I walked between him and the TV. He soon got up and went out (even though he had had already 26 hours of hard work in two days) and accomplished his task. He later told me that he was able to do it because of my comment. I began to explain that the comment came from you, that great speaker I heard in Los Gatos in January. I just thought you might want to hear that you are STILL being inspirational to me and now my husband, not to mention others I get to share with from time to time."

• Dawn's Real AhaMoment

  
  

  "Ok, I know this is super long. LOL, but I have a lot to say. Just so you know, I feel like I could of written an entire chapter about all of the things that I thought of during the worst times in my life that you had said that kept me going forward. You need to know that I think about you all the time, things that you've said and things that you have done and I use those things to inspire myself and remind myself what I can do. What I know I can do because YOU saw it in me even though you didn't know me from any other Jane Doe out there. Sometimes that's all a person needs, just to be believed in. When I took your class the first time (I've taken a few now), I was so inspired by the charismatic way that you explained your life and what kinds of triumphs you had overcome that I bought your book. At the time, though the book was good and I was able to put some of it to work for me, I felt like I really didn't need it all (I wasn't really ready to be my own success story). A year later, my husband and I were both injured and my husband was unable to return to his career. We lost our house, the bills piled up, collectors were calling us so much I would cry myself to sleep and I literally couldn't tell my kids where we were going to get our next meal because I didn't know. I was a mess. Our whole life was unstable. When we were moving out of our house, I came across your book and decided maybe I should read it again because I remembered what you had overcome. I didn't like feeling alone. So I started reading it while I was packing everything away to move into our Grandmother's home since we didn't have anywhere else to go and she needed someone to take care of her. (She has Alzheimer's). Not that we don't love her dearly, but it was just one more HUGE responsibility on an already overflowing plate of mess. In your book, you taught "Take Action" and "It's all right to deal with things, but MOVE ON, don't dwell". You taught to stand up and tell people, instead of harboring it inside, that help was needed. And even though I'm sure we were all taught at some point that it's ok to ask for help, there's also this unspoken idea that it's shameful. IT'S NOT. As long as you are willing to help yourself, not pity yourself, and get up off whatever you're sitting on and stop dwelling on what if's and what could be. Get up and get it!!! Just do it! There is nothing better than a success story, and you teach how to become your own success story and you inspire others to do so."