Get Off Your "But"
How to End Self–Sabotage and Stand Up for Yourself
bySean Stephenson, Anthony Robbins
Book Edition Details
Summary
When self-doubt whispers its paralyzing tales, and excuses become the walls between you and your dreams, Sean Stephenson's transformative guide, "Get Off Your 'But,'" offers a powerful antidote. Blending his compelling personal journey with deep clinical insights, Stephenson unveils six dynamic principles to shatter the barriers of negativity and unleash your true potential. This book isn't just a manual; it's a motivational call to action for anyone ready to reclaim their life. Whether it's at work, in relationships, or personal aspirations, discover how to silence insecurities, ignite self-confidence, and rise to unparalleled success. Dive into this compelling narrative and equip yourself with the tools to step boldly into a life of fulfillment and achievement.
Introduction
At birth, Sean Stephenson wasn't expected to survive the first day. Born with a genetic disorder that left his bones as fragile as glass, every movement threatened to break his tiny frame. Yet this three-foot-tall man who navigates the world in a wheelchair would grow to become one of America's most sought-after motivational speakers and psychotherapists, touching millions of lives across six countries. From working alongside President Clinton in the White House to counseling maximum security prisoners, Stephenson has consistently defied expectations and societal limitations. His extraordinary journey reveals profound insights about human resilience, the power of perspective, and the art of transforming life's greatest obstacles into stepping stones toward purpose. Through his experiences, readers discover how to overcome the three greatest barriers to personal growth: our fears, excuses, and insecurities. Stephenson's story demonstrates that our physical circumstances need not define our emotional reality, and that true strength comes not from what happens to us, but from how we choose to respond to life's challenges.
Born Broken but Not Beaten: Overcoming Physical Limitations
Sean Stephenson entered this world on May 5, 1979, amid a delivery room filled with silence and concern. His bones, crushed by the stress of birth, left him looking like what nurses would affectionately call "King Tut on his throne." Diagnosed with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a condition causing extreme bone brittleness, Sean faced a childhood where a sneeze could shatter ribs and excitement could lead to fractures. By the time he reached adulthood, he had accumulated over two hundred broken bones. The pivotal moment came during a Halloween morning in fourth grade. Excited about his favorite holiday, Sean broke his femur while rolling on the living room floor. As pain consumed him, his mother asked a life-changing question: "Is this going to be a gift or a burden?" In that moment of agony, Sean experienced what he describes as a divine revelation. He realized that while pain was inevitable, suffering was optional, and that he was meant to teach others this profound truth. Rather than allowing his physical limitations to define him, Sean began viewing each challenge as an opportunity for growth. His parents' unwavering support played a crucial role, refusing to see him as disabled and consistently encouraging him to focus on what he could do rather than what he couldn't. They creatively adapted his world, building elaborate costumes around his wheelchair for parades and always maintaining the belief that their son was destined for greatness. Through countless hospitalizations and periods of immobilization, Sean developed an extraordinary mental resilience. He learned to use visualization, meditation, and mind-body techniques not from books, but from necessity. Each setback became a setup for greater understanding of human potential, laying the foundation for his future work as a healer and teacher.
From Self-Doubt to Self-Mastery: Building Inner Confidence
Despite his natural charisma and intelligence, Sean's teenage years brought crushing emotional challenges that proved more difficult than any physical pain. In seventh grade, a devastating breakup note shattered his romantic confidence when a girl ended their relationship because her friends disapproved of her dating "a guy like him." This rejection planted a poisonous seed of self-doubt that would torment him for over a decade. The limiting belief that formed that day was simple yet destructive: "You are flawed. You are nice, but that will never be enough." This mental prison kept Sean trapped in a cycle of romantic failures, always waiting for partners to "wake up" and realize they could do better. The fear of inadequacy became a self-fulfilling prophecy, attracting exactly the type of people who would eventually validate his worst fears about himself. Sean's transformation began when he hit rock bottom at age twenty-four, faced with yet another rejection based on his physical appearance. Rather than accepting defeat, he embarked on a four-year journey of intensive study under leading experts in attraction and dating psychology. Through this process, he discovered a revolutionary truth: women don't want a man to look a certain way; they want a man to make them feel a certain way. This revelation led to a complete reframing of his self-perception. Sean learned to project authentic confidence through his voice, posture, and presence. He developed what he calls "physical confidence" – the external expression of internal self-assurance. By changing how he carried himself and spoke to himself, Sean began attracting high-quality romantic partners who loved and accepted all of him. His journey from insecurity to confidence became a cornerstone of his teaching, proving that our limitations exist primarily in our minds.
The Therapist's Mission: Helping Others Break Free
Sean's calling as a healer emerged organically from his speaking career, but a profound sense of inadequacy drove him back to school. While he could inspire audiences for an hour, the heavy questions from traumatized students revealed the depth of human suffering that motivational speaking alone couldn't address. Young people approached him with stories of self-harm, family dysfunction, and suicidal thoughts, seeking guidance he felt unqualified to provide. Recognizing the limits of inspiration without proper training, Sean enrolled in intensive studies in psychotherapy and neuro-linguistic programming. He spent three years earning board certification, followed by doctoral studies in clinical hypnosis. This educational journey transformed him from an inspirational speaker into a skilled therapeutic practitioner capable of creating lasting change in people's lives. His private practice quickly flourished as clients traveled from around the world to work with him. Sean's unique approach combined his personal experience of overcoming extreme challenges with professional therapeutic techniques. His physical condition became an asset rather than a hindrance, as clients immediately saw someone who had faced adversity and emerged victorious. This visible proof of possibility created an instant rapport that traditional therapists might struggle to achieve. Sean developed his signature "Breakthrough Process," a twelve-hour intensive session designed to help clients identify and eliminate self-sabotaging patterns. His work extended beyond traditional therapy settings to maximum security prisons, corporate boardrooms, and international speaking platforms. Through each interaction, he refined his understanding of human psychology and the universal patterns that keep people stuck in cycles of limitation and suffering.
Taking Full Responsibility: The Ultimate Freedom Formula
The culmination of Sean's philosophy crystallized during a near-death experience in a San Francisco emergency room. Suffering from an excruciating kidney stone, Sean believed he was dying and experienced what he describes as watching the movie of his life unfold in a cosmic theater. This profound experience showed him not only everyone he had loved, but also all the dreams and projects he had postponed or abandoned due to fear, excuses, or procrastination. From this brush with mortality emerged his most powerful teaching: the Freedom Formula, expressed as C > E (Cause is greater than Effect). This simple equation divides humanity into two groups: those living at Cause, who take full responsibility for their lives and actively create their desired outcomes, and those living at Effect, who blame external circumstances for their problems and remain stuck in patterns of victimhood. Sean's application of this formula is uncompromising yet compassionate. He teaches that while we cannot control what happens to us, we are completely responsible for how we respond to life's events. This includes taking ownership of the "trash" that others may have dumped in our lives through abuse, abandonment, or betrayal. Like cleaning up litter in our yard that others have thrown, we must take responsibility for healing our own emotional wounds, regardless of who caused them. The formula extends beyond personal healing to active creation of desired outcomes. Sean demonstrates this through his own life: refusing to use his physical limitations as excuses, building a thriving business, maintaining meaningful relationships, and creating a life of purpose and joy. His message is clear – we can either spend our energy making excuses or making progress, but we cannot do both simultaneously.
Summary
Sean Stephenson's extraordinary journey from a broken infant expected to die within hours to an internationally recognized speaker and healer embodies the ultimate triumph of human spirit over circumstance. His core message resonates with timeless truth: our external conditions need never define our internal reality, and the greatest limitations we face exist not in our bodies or circumstances, but in our minds. Through his own transformation from victim to victor, Sean demonstrates that taking complete responsibility for our lives – including the painful parts we didn't choose – paradoxically grants us the freedom to create the futures we truly desire. His teachings offer two essential paths forward: first, stop using life's challenges as excuses for remaining small, and second, begin viewing every obstacle as an opportunity to develop strength, wisdom, and compassion. Sean's story serves as a beacon for anyone feeling trapped by circumstances, physical limitations, emotional wounds, or societal expectations, proving that with the right mindset and unwavering commitment to personal responsibility, we can transform our greatest struggles into our most powerful sources of purpose and meaning.
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