A Personal Note From Orion

“Sometimes, beautiful things need to break to achieve an even more beautiful end.” – K. D Kind

Amberly Lago’s life was forever altered by a devastating motorcycle accident – from having a very active lifestyle to having only a 1% chance of not amputating her leg. However, this tragedy caused a massive victory through her recovery. This opened up new doors that allowed her to help people turn their tragedies into triumphs.

Amberly is a former professional dancer and fitness trainer turned motivational speaker. She is a leading expert in the field of resilience, transformation, and health and wellness. She offers a carefully curated set of practical tools to teach others how to tap into their superpower of resilience and persevere through life’s challenges. She offers hope and solutions for anyone living in chronic pain and has been featured on NBC’s Today Show and in magazines such as Shape, Fit Pregnancy, Health, and Disability Magazine.

In this episode, Amberly talks about her journey of tragedy to triumph — from her accident to the grueling process of healing from 34 surgeries and being diagnosed with Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). She also shares how she overcame the challenges and connected to God during her ordeal, which led her to inspire people who have the same experiences as her. 

So without further ado, on with the show!

 

 

In this Episode

• [00:53] – Orion introduces her next guest, Amberly Lago, a Peak Performance Coach, TEDx Speaker, Podcaster, and a leading expert in resilience and transformation. She is the best-selling author of True Grit and Grace and the founder of UNSTOPPABLE Life Mastermind.
• [03:25] – Amberly shares her story of how she became resilient, which brought her to what she’s doing today.
• [05:44] – Amberly says she is grateful to be alive and shares her feelings when looking back on her journey.
• [15:25] – Orion asks about Amberly’s journey to finding true love within and falling in love with herself again.
• [23:15] – Amberly and Orion discuss stem cells and soundwave therapies in healing scars.
• [26:34] – Amberly explains that having a thriving life that starts with her mindset, connection to God, how she looks at the pain and not letting it define her, and being of service to people.
• [31:13] – Amberly speaks about being of service gives you purpose, and if you have a purpose and you can go out there, serve, and help someone, it will help in getting through those hard days.
• [34:32] – Orion wants to know if Amberly experienced losing faith or regained her connection to God through all her hardships.
• [38:43] – Amberly shares her three top tips for living a stellar life.
• [40:26] – Visit  Amberly Lago’s website to connect with her and get a downloadable playbook on how to tap into their superpower resilience. 

Jump to Links and Resources

About Today’s Show

Hello, Amberly. Thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the show.

Oh my goodness, thank you. We had a little bit of trying to connect and get each other here on the same screen. I’m just so grateful. Sometimes, the hardest part is just to actually make the connection. We made it, we’re here, and I’m so happy to be here and serve your audience. My intention is to really share some tips and tools on how to build resilience and just serve your amazing audience. I love your show and it’s an honor to be here. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. I love your shirt. It says “love” on it. You’re all about love. Even when I asked you, “hey, do you want to promote something on the show?” you’re like, “No, I’m just here to serve.” You were dead serious about it. “I just want to help.”

I’m really here to serve your audience. I’m like, no, I don’t want to promote anything except for maybe love. You like my shirt. I’m comfy in my office right now and I got my favorite sweatshirt on.

You have a story on how you became resilient. Can you share a little bit about your story and how it brought you to what you’re doing today?

We all go through pain, challenges, and hard times.

So many of us are going through such challenging times. I’m not one to watch the news, but my husband wakes up and turns the news on first thing. I’m just like, oh gosh, it can be so depressing to watch the news. But the truth is we all go through pain, challenges, and hard times. 

I remember my husband would tell my daughter, “Well, life’s not fair. Life is hard.” I’m like, don’t tell her that. But the truth is life is kind of hard sometimes, life isn’t fair sometimes. But the good thing is we have a never-ending supply of resilience within us and we have the ability to tap into that at all moments.

I’m going to be 50 years old tomorrow.

Happy birthday. You’re an Aries like me.

Actually, Pisces.

Oh, Pisces. You’re March like me.

Are you at the end of March?

Yeah, March 31st.

Okay, we’re soul sisters. I don’t know too much about it, but I know that Aries and Pisces are very similar. I love learning about all the signs and all of that and I’m always curious. It’s funny because the people that I connect with so often who really get it on a deeper level are Pisces and Aries. We just connect. Happy early birthday to you.

Happy early birthday to you. I feel like birthdays are a day of reflection whether we want it or not. I know that when I hit my birthday, I’m like, what just happened and what do I want to happen? When you look back on that journey, what do you feel?

I think we all have a superpower in us.

I’m just grateful to be alive. I asked my husband. I said, “I think we all have a superpower in us. We all are really good at doing something and it’s that one thing that people ask us all the time.” 

If you’re sitting here listening and you’re like, I don’t know what my superpower is, well, what is that thing that people tell you all the time that you’re really good at or that you’re super at? We all love superheroes, whether it’s Wonder Woman or Superman. When they take that cape, crown, or costume off, it’s not that that makes us super. It’s what’s inside us that makes us super. 

I asked my husband. I was like, “Well, honey, what do you think it is that’s my superpower?” He’s like, “You just won’t die.” I’m like, “Thanks. That’s pretty harsh, I just won’t die.” I think it’s because I have been through some traumatic experiences and hard challenges. Probably one of the most challenging times was when I was riding my motorcycle and I got hit by an SUV. I was rushed to the hospital and I was put in an induced coma. 

I remember every moment from the time I saw the car. When you’re on a motorcycle, you think defensively, okay, does that person see me yet? That person sees me. Okay, is that person moving out of my way? Oh, that person sees me.

I made eye contact with this guy and I thought, okay, he sees me. Then, at the last moment, I’m like, he either sees me and doesn’t care, he’s trying to beat traffic, or whatever, but it’s too late. All I had time to do was just jump off my motorcycle and let off the clutch. Immediately I felt pain. I remember sliding across the asphalt and thinking, please just don’t let another car run into me. Please don’t let another car hit me. 

When I came to a stop, I looked down at my leg and it was just broken into pieces. At that moment, I didn’t realize how serious it was even when I got rushed to the hospital and was being put in an induced coma. I started to think how serious it was only because it was the first time I had ever seen my husband cry, not a normal cry with tears, hysterical crying.

He’s a first responder. He was Lieutenant Commander with a highway patrol. I had never seen him like that. They put me in an induced coma. The first thing I learned when I woke up out of a coma was there’s nothing we can do for you. We have to amputate your leg. 

This is a whirlwind. Me being an elite athlete, a professional dancer, I had a fitness business, I was doing infomercials for Body by Jake, health, shape—you name it. I was at the height of my career when this happened, so I thought, oh my goodness, to think of having my leg amputated was just not something that was on the radar.

When they said you only have a 1% chance, I was like, 1%, then there’s still a chance. I’m going to take that chance. We just need to find a doctor who’s willing to take that chance with me. It really took an act of God. I got transferred to Cedars. Little by little, day by day, Dr. Weiss saved my leg. It eventually took 34 surgeries to do it. In the moment and still, sometimes, I still live with chronic pain. In fact, I’m going to take my shoe off right now. 

My life isn’t the same, but it’s even better than I could ever imagine.

As a result of the injury, I was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, which leaves me in constant chronic pain. I was told I’d be wheelchair-bound forever, that I would never work again, and that my life would never be the same. You know what? My life isn’t the same, but it’s even better than I could ever imagine. Here I am, getting to talk with you and getting to connect with your community. 

When you’re going through a real hard challenge, it’s sometimes hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s sometimes hard to think that there will ever be a blessing or lesson in that challenge that you’re going through, but I will tell you, there’s always a lesson and a blessing in everything that you’re going through. 

My pain has been my biggest teacher. It’s allowed me to learn how to truly love myself again because I hated myself. I hated the way I looked. I hated the way I’m completely scarred from the hip down. I’m deformed from the hip down. My whole leg and foot is made of metal.

To go from being a fitness model to someone who’s deformed, I went through this whole thing of, is my husband going to ever love me again? Am I going to be able to run after my kids? Am I going to be able to work? Am I going to be able to walk? I was in a hospital bed for months.

Life is hard and unfair sometimes. But the good thing is we have a never-ending supply of resilience within us, and we have the ability to tap into that at all moments. Click To Tweet

My youngest daughter was two and my oldest daughter was just going into high school. She doesn’t remember this, but I remember it very vividly. I was in the hospital and she had her mother-daughter school dance. She said, mom, I don’t want you to go with me if you’re going to be in a wheelchair and it crushed me. Like I said, she doesn’t remember saying that, but I remember it vividly. I was like, please just let me get out of this wheelchair.

No shame in being in a wheelchair. My little brother has been in a wheelchair his whole life so he’s never been able to walk. I have grown up with that as a possibility. That just wasn’t the vision I had for me. That wasn’t a possibility I wanted for me. I wanted to get out of the wheelchair. I wanted to do more. I wanted to be able to chase after my kids. I wanted to be able to get back into the life that I was doing, but guess what? It’s not about going back. 

Resilience isn’t about bouncing back. Resilience is about having the courage to move forward and deciding that maybe there’s a life beyond what was the life you ever knew. I tried so hard to get back to that. I tried so hard to get back to being a trainer and training those clients. That’s all I wanted to do. It took me bleeding out on the gym floor and my husband being at the gym and going, what are you doing? Get off of your leg. 

I was on surgery number 28 or 30. I don’t know, I lost track. He said, “You’re killing yourself. You’re bleeding out on the gym floor trying to train these clients.” It took that for me to go, maybe there’s something else. 

You don’t have to get to the point where you’re bleeding out or you’re literally killing yourself mentally, physically, or spiritually. Stop and ask yourself, what is it that brings you joy? How can I be of service in a way that’s going to serve me and my family and go after that? It doesn’t have to look exactly like it did before. 

I know there are a lot of people out there that maybe are going through some stuff from COVID, but we’re getting through it all. We’re getting through this huge pandemic. We’ll get through it.

Maybe if you ask yourself, well, what if I could do something more, better, or beyond my wildest dreams because it’s possible? Let me tell you, I’m living proof that it is possible because only five years ago, I didn’t even own a computer. Right now, as these little beeps are coming up, I’m like, holy crap, I just updated my computer and it’s not on Do Not Disturb mode. 

It doesn’t have to be perfect; you just have to start.

I will tell you, it doesn’t have to be perfect, you just have to start. I will share right now with anybody who’s listening, don’t wait until you have it all figured out because you will never have it all figured out. Just start.  

I didn’t know how to write a book. I didn’t have a college education. I wrote a book and it became a best-selling book. I am still figuring out technology and don’t know how to do it all. I make mistakes. Don’t wait until you have it all figured out. Just start. I didn’t know how to do a podcast. I was like, I just want to start a podcast. I want to be able to share messages of resilience. I still don’t have it all figured out, but I just did it.

This is your sign. If you’re listening to this, if you feel like, oh, I want to do this big thing but I don’t know how to do it yet, just start. I’m sitting here going, oh gosh—on my computer—how do I figure out how to turn these notifications off? Just start.

It’s beautiful. I want to ask you about your journey. When there was that time you didn’t love yourself, what was it like to find true love within? How did you find true love within and fell in love with yourself again?

That’s such a good question. Thank you for asking that. I was very blessed that I had a husband that loved me because I know a lot of people go through some traumatic injuries or a lot of challenges and they don’t have a partner who loves them unconditionally. They say until death do you part when you take your wedding vows.

Resilience isn't about bouncing back. It's about having the courage to move forward and deciding that there's a life beyond what you ever knew. Click To Tweet

Sometimes, it’s until money do you part or until injury do you part for a lot of people.

Right. We had it all. We had $2.9 million worth of medical expenses and a lien on our house. I went from being the main breadwinner to losing it all, losing my career, and losing everything.

He went from having a wife that he married. We worked out together every day. We hiked. We were active to now he’s a caregiver and has to carry my bedpan. Thankfully, he’s a really good man and he loved me through it.

I think it does something to people.

Yeah, I think so.

He’s a man. That’s what true masculinity is—when you can lean on your man when it’s hard, not when everything’s beautiful and you’re this beautiful, vibrant, successful person, but when it’s super hard and like you said, he needs to take care of you, wow, what a shift. How was it for you? How did you handle this relationship?

The human body is so powerful; it has the ability to heal and get through so much. Click To Tweet

It was really hard. Back to the self-love part, thankfully, he loved me. But what really shifted for me is I’ve gone through 34 surgeries. I was still in so much pain and I had this brilliant idea. I was like, you know what, I’m just going to ask the doctor to amputate my leg. I went to Dr. Weiss. I was like, “You know what, I appreciate that you have really tried your best. You saved my leg, but it’s just giving me too much pain. I need to amputate it because I need to move on with my life and I can’t deal with this pain.” 

He said, “Well, we can’t do that. You’ve got CRPS. It’s in your sympathetic nervous system. If we amputate your leg, it may cause it to get worse. It may spread. We can’t do that.”

He did something that changed my life. He took my leg and put it on his lap. I’m sitting in the room in the doctor’s office. Usually, they’ll put your leg up on the table or something. He sat in front of me and put his leg on his lap. My first thought was, wow, I can’t believe he’s putting my ugly, deformed, disgusting leg on his nice white coat. Then, he did something that completely changed everything. He looked at it like it was a masterpiece. I thought, wow, if he can look at my leg that way, maybe I can learn to appreciate and love it more as well. 

That really changed my life that day in that room and I decided to keep my leg. Every day, I started looking at my leg the way that he looked at it like it was a miracle. 

I want to be an example of a victor of my life and not a victim.

The human body is so powerful in how we can get through each surgery, the body’s ability to heal, how powerful the human spirit is, and how we can get through so much. It really shifted. I thought, I want to be an example of a victor of my life and not a victim. I want to be an example of resilience for my daughters. Every day, I started to celebrate my body’s ability to heal. To this day, I look down at my leg as, wow, it’s healing. It’s working so hard to just be able to hold me up, stand up, and walk. 

Today, fast forward to 34 surgeries, I was told I’d never run again. I was told I’d be wheelchair-bound. It took me two years, but I’m able to run. It’s not always pretty and perfect, but it took me two years and I ran again on the beach with my daughter. I fell down, cried, laughed, and celebrated. 

I’ll tell you what, if you have that little glimmer of hope, start to get your mindset, shift your perspective, believe in the possibilities, and run towards those possibilities, anything is possible.

You’re making me really happy right now. I’m so happy for you. I’m so grateful for this doctor. You just need one person to believe in you, your doctor or your husband. Sometimes, we can’t see ourselves as beautiful or worthy, and we have all these illusions. We wear those glasses that are filled darker, and then this one person comes, takes off the glasses, shines their light and love, and then you can see yourself as whole again. It’s beautiful.

Thank you.

Have you ever done any stem cells or soundwave therapies on your scars?

Yeah. Like I said, I’ve spent $2.9 million on treatments and surgeries, so I’ve tried everything. I was actually a really good candidate for a while for any snake oil salesman out there that was like, we can cure your pain. We can make your scars look better. 

I’ve even had a company reach out and be like, oh, we would love to have you be an affiliate for our scar gel cream. I don’t even know what it was called to be honest with you, but I’m like, no, I’m not about that. 

The sound waves actually don’t heal the scar. They don’t make the scar look beautiful. I don’t know exactly the science of it, but I’m going to send you a couple of resources that will really help you because the sound waves go deep into the deepest layer. It releases other parts of the fascia in the body.

I had a guest here. It was all about sound therapy. I’m going to send you some resources. There is another doctor out of Tampa, Florida that does incredible work with stem cells and this top-in-the-world—

Pain demands to be heard. It will come in everything you do. It'll come up in the way that you lead, in the way that you love, and in your relationships. Click To Tweet

Do you know what kind of stem cells he uses?

I don’t really know exactly, but I’m going to send you the information so you can talk to him. You still endure pain, it sounds like. That might help you.

It’s gotten better. Thankfully, after trying all kinds of different treatments and everything from soundwave therapy. Anybody who’s listening who lives with any kind of chronic pain will totally understand what I’m saying. You’re desperate to get out of pain. I was so desperate, I wanted to die. I really was like, I can’t live like this, so I’m just going to die. My husband can find another wife and he’ll find another person to help. My kids can find another mother. 

CRPS is ranked highest on the pain scale.

CRPS is ranked highest on the pain scale, which means it hurts worse than an amputation. It hurts worse than a kidney stone. It hurts worse than childbirth. It’s crazy. It’s not like, oh, I have a little muscle ache. Honestly, CRPS pain is worse. I would have 34 surgeries over again. I would be like, sign me up for 34 more surgeries if I can be cured from CRPS because there’s no known cure. There are people out there that have had their legs amputated because the pain is so bad. The friends that I know that had that done, it didn’t cure it.

I believe that if you had this 1% chance to save the leg, you still have a chance to get rid of this pain forever.

I believe so too. I think so much of it starts in your mindset. I think that I’m able to manage my pain—and I’ve had a lot of people honestly that have gotten really angry at me for saying this. I got a lot of haters.

I was on The Doctors TV. I didn’t know I had haters until they released that episode of The Doctors TV because the way they edit it, it made it sound like I hadn’t done anything else or any other treatments except for work on my mindset and that you can just cure pain with your mindset. I’m like, no, maybe you can’t cure pain with your mindset, but you know what, I have a thriving life that starts with my connection to God. Then it starts with my mindset, how I look at pain, and how I don’t let it define me. 

Yes, I’m sitting here talking to you. I’ve got one shoe on and one shoe off because I was starting to flare up a little bit, but it’s everything that you do. It’s not just about getting this quick fix of medication or a pill to fix it. I hope this helps somebody else that’s going through any kind of pain, whether it’s emotionally, spiritually, or physically. 

It started with me just being in radical acceptance of where I am because I kept trying to step it down. I kept trying to numb it out with alcohol. Whether you’re trying to numb it out with alcohol, overshopping, speed dating, or overeating—whatever you’re trying to do to numb out the pain, pain demands to be heard. It will come in everything you do. It’ll come up in the way that you lead, in the way that you love, and in your relationships. 

Take radical acceptance. It gives you options to take the next action steps and take better steps to make your life the best that it can be. Click To Tweet

For me, I hit a wall. I was like, okay, I have to take radical acceptance that this is a diagnosis that I’ve been given. It may not be the cards that I want or expected, but these are the cards that I’ve been dealt, so what am I going to do with it? I’m going to take radical acceptance. 

When you do that, it puts you in the driver’s seat. You can go, well, these are the cards I’ve been dealt, what can I do next? It gives you options to take the next action steps and take better steps to make your life the best that it can be. 

For me, I was like, okay, I don’t want to deal with this. I don’t want to acknowledge that I’ve been dealt with this pain. Because nerve disease, there’s no cure for it, but guess what, it’s what I’ve been dealt, so I’m going to take radical acceptance and go, okay, well, I can shift my mindset around it. 

I can start changing the way I eat. I can start changing the way that I wear my clothes. I can wear some shoes that aren’t going to flare me up. I can eat some anti-inflammatory foods. I can take the most amazing supplements that for the first time in my life are giving me relief. I can connect to God, turn it over, and be like, you know what, God, this is too big for me to handle today. Can you take this for me? I can be in a community of people, reach out for help, and be of service. 

Being of service to other people has been magic.

Let me tell you, being of service to other people has been magic. It has been my medicine. Even when I was stuck in the hospital bed, when I could sit there and couldn’t get out of the bed but I could reach out to other people to see I can be of service, it has changed my life. It got me out of self-pity and it got me into gratitude. 

Gratitude is alchemy. It really turns what you can’t do into what you can do, and what you don’t have into what you do have. It’s something I still practice every single day. If you are in a place where you’re in a challenge or a dark spot or you’re dealing with a pain condition like me, I promise you, when you can start to get grateful for what you do have and what you can do, it will change your life.

When you help others, you take the focus out of your own pain and you just focus on other people’s pain. It gives you some relief. You said you were focusing on other people while you were in the hospital bed. How did you do that?

I still had a business to run. Like I said, I was the main breadwinner, so I was trying to think of every way possible that I could keep my business going, keep my clients happy, and keep the trainers that were working with me in business too. When I said calling people to be of service, I was calling people to make sure that the trainers were still working with their clients. I was also calling clients.

I remember I had just gotten out of a coma. Back then, this was 11 years ago, I had a Blackberry phone. I don’t know if they still make those, but I had a Blackberry. I remember they were trying to transport me from Northridge Hospital to Cedars. I’m on this gurney and I had my phone. I was trying to text clients to get them set up for their next appointment. They were really confused, I was confused, and it was crazy because I didn’t realize that I had been in a coma for as long as I had been.

When you’re in a coma, it feels like you maybe took a nap, and you woke up.

When you’re in a coma, it feels like you maybe took a nap and you woke up. You’re like, okay, the show must go on. I realized this as I started getting messages. My clients were like, Amberly, you’ve been in a coma for a while. Just take care of yourself. We’ll be okay.

But I was still trying to make sure, hey, I may be in the hospital for a little bit. I had no idea that I would be out of work for 1 ½ years and would be in hospital for months at a time, but I still was making exercise plans for clients. I was writing out nutritional plans. I even had one client call me. She was so distraught because she found out she was pregnant. I was like, congratulations. She’s like, I don’t want to have another baby. I found myself telling her, I’ll babysit for you. It’s going to be okay. This is life here.

I was fighting for my life and she was upset she was bringing another life into the world. But we had fun. She was happy. She’s like, okay, I got a babysitter. I was like, okay, I can be of service.

I had purpose. I think that’s what it is. When you can be of service, it gives you purpose. No matter what you’re going through, find something that you can do to be of service to someone, whether that’s making a phone call—no matter what that is. You don’t have to have life all figured out. You don’t have to be in the perfect situation yourself. You can even be struggling a little bit yourself, but if you have a purpose and you can go out there, serve, and help someone, it’s going to help you get through those hard days.

Yes. Beautiful. I want to ask you about your connection to God through this hardship. Did you lose your faith and then gain it again? How was that for you?

I don’t think I lost my faith. There’s definitely been a time in my life after my first divorce where I was angry at God. I had tried to bargain with God, and I learned that’s not how it works. You can’t bargain with God. It’s life on life’s terms and God always has plans, bigger than you could ever imagine.

At the time, I was going through my divorce with my oldest daughter’s dad. That was probably one of the hardest times I’ve ever been through emotionally. When things didn’t go my way, I was angry. I was like, screw this. I was angry at God. I was like, where is the God that I know that would allow this to happen?

It took me a long time to get a connection with God again. By the time I had my motorcycle accident, I did have a connection with God again. It took a lot of therapy, forgiveness, prayers, and ugly crying, but I had a connection with God again. When I had a motorcycle accident, I had a connection, but it wasn’t like the one that I have now.

There has to be more to life. At my darkest moment, I really prayed and asked for help.

It took me being in that place we talked about earlier where I was just like, well, I just don’t want to live anymore. I’m done. I can’t live like this. Who wants to live like this? I got to that place where I thought about my daughters and thought, you know what, this cannot be the end all be all. There has to be more to life. It was at my darkest moment that I really prayed and asked for help. I got on my knees.

That moment changed my life. I think that when we ask for help, it’s sometimes hard. It was really hard for me to ask for help, but that changed my life. Still to this day, I have a spiritual connection to a higher power that I call God that I talk to. 

I grew up going to very religious Bible Belt, Methodist and Baptist churches. My parents split up. My mom went to a Methodist church. My dad went to a Baptist church. But it wasn’t like that for me. It wasn’t like religion. It wasn’t like church to pray or find God. I find God in nature, I find God in my darkest moments, and I find God when I see and hear God speak through other people.

At my darkest moment, when I met a community of women who helped me get through a hard time, it was like I heard and saw God in their eyes and in their voices, and I knew that things were going to get better. Still, to this day, I pray every day. I have a group of women that I connect with.

I think accountability is huge, so I stay accountable to God by praying, I stay accountable to myself by having a morning ritual, and I stay accountable to a community of women who I call my God Squad. We check in and share a gratitude list every single day. Whether it’s through prayer, whether you find God in church, or whether you find a God of your understanding through nature, for me, the only way I’ve been able to get through some of the hardest times of my life is because there is a God.

It’s so beautiful. What are your three top tips to living a stellar life?

Pause and think about what is that life that you want to create? What is that vision that you hold for yourself?

I think living a stellar life, creating abundance, or having huge success is really up to the individual. It might look different for me than it is for you, but for me, having a stellar life means getting to do the things that I love with the people that I love, living a life of intention, and being present in the moment because nowadays, it’s so easy to get distracted by so many different things. I think it’s really important to live a stellar life and to really pause and think about what is that life that you want to create? What is that vision that you hold for yourself?

There are a lot of people out there that will tell you, oh, you should do this, you should do that, you should be this, or you should be that, but it’s important to create a vision for yourself, feed that vision with positivity, create that vision, become a part of that vision, connect with people who believe in that vision, and stick with those puppy uppers and not the doggie downers. I think that living a stellar life is all about staying true and being you no matter what.

That’s beautiful. Where can people get your book, find you, learn from you, and coach with you?

Probably the best place is amberlylago.com. I’d really like to offer your listeners—because I’m just grateful to be here—a way to connect with me one-on-one and get a downloadable playbook on how to tap into their superpower resilience. 

If you just text me the word GRIT to 818-214-7378, you’ll get that free downloadable playbook. It’s me texting you back. Tell me, I heard the podcast, and reach out with any questions. It’s me texting. Sometimes, it takes me a couple of days to get back. Actually, I had a friend of mine, Kathryn Gordon, who texted me. She was like, oh my God, it’s really you texting back.

Really? That’s pretty amazing.

Yeah, it’s me because I like connecting with the community. That’s been the best part of the whole journey. You can text me or you can find me at amberlylago.com and @ambberlylagomotivation on Instagram to see some of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans. True Grit and Grace is my book. True Grit and Grace podcast is my podcast. 

I just appreciate being here with you, getting to connect with your amazing community, and being on your amazing show. Thank you so much.

Thank you. You’re incredible. You’re such a lovely person, so kind, and such a beautiful heart. I am totally grateful that you’re here. It’s been my absolute pleasure to get to know you and to see you. You’re a great miracle. I love that you share your life in this way.

Thank you so much. I’m so glad we actually made it work and we connected.

Thank you. Thank you, listeners. Remember to do things you love with the people you love, live a life of intention, be present in the moment, and have a stellar life. This is Orion, until next time.

Your Checklist of Actions to Take

{✓}Be open to possibilities of doing something better. Challenge your beliefs about what you can and can’t do. 

{✓}Don’t wait until you have it all figured out. Instead, start walking toward your promised land; you can figure out the details as you go.

{✓}Take radical acceptance of what life gives you. Stop fighting reality and stop responding with impulsive or destructive behaviors when things aren’t going the way you want them to, and let go of bitterness as it keeps you trapped in a cycle of suffering.

{✓}Connect to God. Ask for help and pray to Him. Be responsive and talk to Him with due respect. Set aside some quiet time to meditate and listen to God.

{✓}Practice daily gratitude. Be grateful for what you have and what you can do; it will change your life.

{✓}Be of service to other people. Being of service gives you purpose in life. No matter what you’re going through, find something that you can do to be of service to someone.

{✓}Do the things you love. Doing what you love will make you more engaged and dedicated to your work, and you will feel more productive and enthusiastic in doing those things.

{✓}Be present at the moment. Take the time to appreciate where you are, what you’re doing, and who is with you. Instead of becoming caught up in the past or worrying about what will happen in the future, try to savor each moment as it passes.

{✓}Live a life of intention. Being intentional helps you understand the importance and purpose of your bigger vision and directs your mind and actions to help you achieve it. It gives you greater clarity around what you want and takes the guesswork out of where to invest your time and focus.

{✓}Visit Amberly Lago’s website to learn more about her and her courses. Text the word GRIT to 818-214-7378 to get her free downloadable playbook. Also, check out and read her book, True Grit and Grace.

Links and Resources

About Amberly Lago

Amberly Lago is a Peak Performance Coach, TEDx Speaker, Podcaster, and a leading expert in the field of resilience and transformation. She is the best-selling author of True Grit and Grace and the founder of UNSTOPPABLE Life Mastermind.

Through her book, coaching methods, and masterminds she has curated unique tools to teach others how to tap into their superpower of resilience and elevate their lives and businesses.

Amberly has most recently been featured on NBCs The Today Show, The Doctors, Hallmark, and featured in magazines such as Shape, Fit Pregnancy, Yahoo, Forbes, USA Today, LA Style, Health Magazine, Keynote Speaker Magazine and Disability Magazine.