Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Anthony Goulet. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Anthony, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you please share an important moment in your work that may benefit our readers?
Life Doesn’t Have to Be a Closed-Book Test. Open Your Heart and Receive the Answers.
Throughout my entire life, and in my work as a street-level Gang Interventionist and Street Outreach Worker I have witnessed too many miracles to be a skeptic. I have also witnessed many skeptics who refuse to see miracles, even when the miracle stands right in front of them. The job of a Gang Interventionist and Street Outreach Worker is to see possibilities where others only see problems. Street Outreach Workers see miracles and trust the sacred process of love and service. I am sharing the story below from when I worked in gang intervention, because it’s an important reminder about trust. My calling is not to get others to trust me. My calling is to help others trust themselves. It is an important reminder that, as I told the young man many years ago, life doesn’t have to be a closed-book test. Open your heart and receive the answers.
There was a lot of work that went into getting three young men into one of our programs. Many midnight hours and painstaking, street-level interventions, but finally, those young men, all of whom were affiliated with the same gang, agreed to participate in our GED program. Once in the program, they of course participated in other positive activities, and seeds of love and service were offered to them daily.
The three young men were participating and doing well for several weeks. Each of them was given the same attention, love, service and guidance. Each of them seemed to be receiving the love, service and guidance to the best of their abilities. One day, I happened to be in front of the building and all three of the young men came outside. Two of the young men walked straight towards a car with some people in it and got inside the vehicle. The other young man paced back and forth in front of me as someone from inside the car shouted, “Get in, man. Stop acting like a little bit*h!”
The young man who was pacing back and forth, walked up to me, “Tony, I don’t know what to do, man.” His eyes were welled up with tears of frustration. Remember to never underestimate the power of belonging. This was one of those moments. Something was about to go down. Wherever the young men in the car were going, it was not a good place. I knew it, and most importantly, the young man in front of me, whose frustration was so high he accidentally broke the plastic pen he was holding as he gripped it like it was some type of lifeline, knew it, too. I looked at him and shared, “Life doesn’t have to be a closed-book test, young brother. Open your heart and receive the answers. You know what to do. I’m not interfering. I trust you. Right now, you have to trust you.”
He paced back and forth as the other young men in the car taunted him. Eventually, the young man threw his broken pen on the ground and walked back inside the building. Once he went inside the building, the car with the other young men drove off. I walked back inside the building and found the young man sitting outside of his GED class. The GED instructor walked out and asked him if he was going to come back to class. I informed the instructor he just passed one of his biggest tests. The GED instructor looked at us curiously and smiled as the young man told her about what happened. I will never forget the young man saying, “Doing the right thing is f**king hard, man. The GED test ain’t gonna be sh*t after that test.”
All the young man’s frustration about the decision he made that day was alleviated the following day. We received word the young men in the car were pulled over by the police on their way to retaliate against a rival gang. The police found illegal firearms in the trunk of the vehicle and all the young men were charged. Eventually, each of them did no less than two years in prison for illegal firearms charges. The Creator guided me not to interfere with the process of trust. The young man knew we trusted him; he needed to learn to trust himself, and the Creator gave him the opportunity, strength and insight for that to happen.
That young man had given his trust to many who broke his heart. When he agreed to come to our program, he didn’t know why he was giving life and trust another chance. In the moment in front of the building where he found himself at a crucial crossroads, he discovered why. He told me, “When you told me you trusted me, it went straight to my soul, man. Trust renewed me and trusting myself in that moment changed my life forever.”
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am an author and inspirational speaker. The Dalai Lama wrote the foreword for my latest book, Street Outreach: Love, Service & Leadership.
I have been working in youth programs for nearly 30 years. For eleven consecutive years, I was on-call 24/7 serving youth and young adults who are homeless, runaway, missing and trafficked. My full-time offices were under bridges, within drug houses, abandoned buildings and inside emergency shelters delivering the Creator’s light of love, hope and healing.
From the time I can remember, I have always written in my personal journals. But somewhere along my journey, around 2009, I began writing books. Around that time, I felt the Creator nudge me to share my experience, insights and hope from the work I am blessed to do. I have written four books so far and hope to write many more.
I’m blessed to work full-time as the Director of Training with an amazing nonprofit organization. And I am also blessed be able to serve many communities and organizations throughout the United States and Canada as an inspirational speaker, trainer and consultant.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My goal or mission that drives my writings and inspirational messages is the Creator – the Great Love that created us all exactly like Itself. Just as our work in youth prevention and intervention programs is Spirit-led, I do my best to allow my writings and inspirational messages to be Spirit-led as well. Which is why I would say that the writings and messages are not delivered from me, but through me. The Creator is the Author, I am the pen.
There is a message that permeates every aspect of every calling the Creator has assigned to me thus far. No matter if I am writing a book, facilitating a training, serving as a Street Outreach Worker facilitating human trafficking interventions, serving as a street-level Gang Interventionist facilitating violence interruption and peace building, serving as a Substance Abuse Counselor facilitating relapse prevention groups with individuals who have recently returned home from prison, or serving the CEO of an organization by providing executive level coaching, reminding others that they are sacred blessings, miracles and gifts is paramount. Because when someone can see themselves as a sacred blessing, miracle and gift, they begin to see others the same way because our perceptions are not facts, but mirrors. In a world that is constantly bombarding us with messages about everything we are not, I enjoy reminding people about the greatness they are, because the Great One created us great, in holiness and truth. One of the lies we are told from our birth is, ‘You have to grow up to become somebody or something.’ You never had to grow up to become somebody or something because you are so much more than a ‘body’ or a ‘thing.’ You are a sacred blessing, miracle and gift.
Consider this: there is absolutely nothing wrong with you. Healing, awakening, and transformation doesn’t begin by transplanting a rosebush from the Earth and placing her on concrete. She won’t take root there. And in the same way, when someone begins a journey of healing, awakening and transformation, guiding someone to focus on what’s wrong with them is not fertile ground. Begin with what is right with you. There’s nothing wrong with you. There may be things that have been done to you that were horrifically wrong, There may be things that you’ve said, done or thought that are wrong, but that does not demean or take away the truth that you are a sacred blessing, miracle and gift. Root in your truth by looking at what’s right with you, and growing within the sacredness that you eternally are.
Things like prayer, meditation, exercise, eating right, thinking as clearly as we can, attending school, excelling in our profession, making money, being a good parent, being a good son or daughter, and being a good ancestor are all joyfully done when we live from the truth of sacredness as our center. When we live from the truth of our sacredness, our lives are lived in love and service.
The short version of everything I just shared is within a poem I wrote some years ago:
The rose in full bloom
Nourished when open
Magnificence displayed
Never deciding against itself
The rose is humble
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
One thing I had to unlearn is the myth of ‘perfectionism.’ In wanting things to be perfect we miss the perfection that is already within us and around us. Anything we practice, we get better at. I think it’s great to be a lifelong student, a practitioner of what we love.
When I wrote and published my first book, ‘God, Help Me Tie My Shoes: The Sacred Contract of Fatherhood,’ outside of writing in my personal journal, I had little writing experience. I just knew I had a story to tell and I wanted to get the story out into the world. When it was published there were many grammatical errors throughout the book. But here’s the thing: even with all the grammatical mistakes, and how ‘imperfect’ my writing was in that book, it was still nominated for USA book of the year, was a finalist in the Hay House Publisher’s writing competition, and was utilized by actor/author Hill Harper’s Manifest Your Destiny Foundation as a guide for youth mentors. There were youth and young adults who let me know that they carried that book with them and used it as a survival guide. Was the writing perfect? Far from it. Were there grammatical mistakes? Many. Could I write that same story better today? Yes. Will I rewrite that story and republish it? No.
I could go back and rewrite that book today. However, I prefer to utilize it as an example to others when I give inspirational talks that the world needs you, your stories, your creativity and experience now, not when you are ‘perfect.’ You are already perfect, exactly where you are and in all that you do. You are a perfect student and practitioner, right here, right now. We are all lifelong practitioners, continually growing within the sacredness we are. The best is yet to come, yet don’t overlook the greatness that is currently happening.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://realwarriorslove.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realwarriorslove/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/realwarriorslove
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-goulet-756613212
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealWarriorsLuv
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3WP_t6-yo92ZH-sSLVcBXQ