Years ago, I was listening to The Rachel Hollis Podcast and she was talking about how to ask better questions to get the results you are looking for. In the episode, the example she gave was flying first class. She decided that one of her parameters for all of the travel that she would do–going to speaking events, going to interviews for her book tours, business meetings and much more–would be only first class. I imagine traveling at that level and frequency would demand that type of action because airline travel is EXHAUSTING.
But the question she asked herself was “How do I pay to only fly first class?”
Because if she was constantly paying out of pocket for first class tickets, that would add up quick.
And so she started to reframe the question into “How do I only fly first class?” and that opened up a wealth of options. She could write it into her contracts for speaking engagements, she could put that as a clause in contracts for tour dates, and suddenly it wasn’t a question–it was simply the way that she would operate in the future.
And listening to the podcast, my mind was blown.
Because for years, the question that we kept asking ourselves was “How can we pay for a prosthetic running blade for Callie?”
Our insurance company was like most and didn’t cover the running blade for Callie. Their position was that it was a luxury item and not something that was medically necessary for her. What’s wild to me as we went back and forth with the insurance representatives, is that if I had been in some sort of accident and tore my meniscus, they would have paid the thousands of dollars for the surgery to repair it. They would have paid for the physical therapy, the rehab, and the whatever other medically necessary recovery options I would need to be able to move and run again.
But they didn’t feel that my daughter should be allowed the same opportunity to run.
I digress.
Prosthetic running blades are expensive. They are about the same price as a moderately sized car and try as we might, it seemed like an impossible goal to save up that much money to purchase one for her.
Until I heard that episode. And it literally knocked me off my feet.
Instead of focusing on how we could pay for it……I started to focus on how to get her one. The question went from, “How can we afford to buy Callie a prosthetic running blade?” to “How can we get Callie a prosthetic running blade?”
And those are two entirely separate and distinct questions. The first questions put the financial ownness on us entirely–but the second one? It had a world full of possibilities.
Through a series of beautiful partnerships, miracle meetings, cosmic connections, and fostering relationships with companies that believed in our girl as much as we did–Callie was able to secure a prosthetic running blade.
And this past weekend, I was able to thank Rachel Hollis in person for teaching me how to ask better questions and fundamentally giving our girl wings to fly.
She was doing a book tour stop in ATX and it was a no brainer–I had to go! She fired us up with a motivational pep talk and then had an audience Q&A. I’ve been a fan of hers for a while now and we’ve interacted on social media (I had the crazy opportunity to be one of the virtual panelists for her Rise conference a few years ago too!). In the book signing line, as soon as I told her who I was, she remembered our story and it was such a full circle moment to share with her just how much that one question has changed our family’s life.
If you haven’t checked out her latest book, you need to add it to your TBR pile! It’s full of questions that might just change your life……just like ours has. Get it here!
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