Excerpt from a Jack Canfield interview (YouTube) with Lisa Nichols in which Nichols describes becoming a single mother, relying on government assistance, and a low point when she lacked money for diapers and wrapped her son Jelani in towels for two days. The story functions as a catalyst for a 'no matter what' mindset—shifting her from survival to determined action and sustained resilience.
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You know, one of the things I teach is lean into things. And you leaned into them, and finally you found the one. Now, at some point, you became a single mom, and you were. I remember you talking about your son Jelani.
Jelani.
And you didn't even have money to pay for Pampers.
Yeah.
Tell that story. I think it's a powerful story.
Yeah. First of all, I had to get on government's assistance to have them. And one of the most humbling days of my life because I'd always worked, didn't make much, but I didn't have insurance. And I remember sitting in front of the woman who was filling out the paperwork to give me food stamps, and tears streaming down my face. I said, I promise you I'll never be here again. I won't be the one who uses the system. I just need a little help. And she's just signing. She looked up at me and she goes, for some reason, I believe you. Eight months later, I had run out of money before. I ran out of month, which had happened frequently, and my son needed Pampers, and I had no money to buy him Pampers. So for two days, I had to wrap Jelani in a towel. And I remember, you know, you ask yourself, and I've been interviewed so many times, people say, what was that turning point?
First of all, it wasn't a point. It was a really big curve. It was a really big curve.
But. But one of those moments was sitting on that couch with my hand on top of my son's body so that as soon as the towel got wet, the least I could do was change that towel. In that moment, Jack, I became bankrupt. In that moment, this lifestyle didn't fit me anymore. I said, there is something greater. And by the mere fact that I have breath in my body, I deserve it. And I get that it's not going.
To come here to South Central and get me. So I had better get up off this couch, wrap my son up in.
A fresh towel, and go get it. And that was the moment. That was the moment when I hit, no matter what. Sometimes you have to hit a wall hard enough to shake yourself, to rattle yourself. So it's not always in the climbing for something.
Sometimes it's the recovery of something, and.
It'S in the sustaining through something. It's in the standing for something.
It's in the fighting for something.
It's in the reaching. It can come in many different forms. Mine won't look like yours.
