By Mamie-Jean Lamley
“The struggle is the teacher. The lesson is the treasure. Claim it and rise.” – Mamie
The struggle you face right now will not break you. It will build you. Setbacks never feel like gifts. They feel a sense of loss, disappointment, and even failure. Yet inside every challenge lives power you can claim. Pain hurts. Pain also forges strength. And with awakening, that strength carries you forward.
The Gift of Struggle
Struggle strips you bare. It pulls away the easy. It removes the comfort. It forces you to see what truly matters. In that Fire, you discover resilience, courage, wisdom, and compassion.
I remember a time when everything I counted on was shifting. My business felt uncertain. Family life demanded more than I thought I could give. My foundation felt like it was cracking beneath me.
In that moment, I had a choice. Collapse under the weight. Or let the Fire mold me. Refine me. Forge me. I chose to rise. When I declared what I would and wouldn’t do, it revealed a strength I had never touched before. I learned to speak with courage, lead with compassion, and discovered that what I thought was breaking me was actually building me.
Setbacks are proof that you are refining yourself for something greater and stretching yourself into the person you said you wanted to become.
Turning Pain Into Power
Your transformation is no accident. Pain arrives uninvited, but power is your choice. Stop asking “Why me?” and start declaring “Watch me.” In that shift, pain forges strength, and strength becomes your power.
Face the Fire
Stop pretending the Fire is not burning. Look straight into it and name it for what it is. When you stand in front of it with courage, the Fire shifts. It no longer consumes you. It forges you.
I know this because I have faced fires that tried to silence me. I chose to walk through them, and on the other side, I carried strength I never knew existed. The Fire did not destroy me. It shaped me into the leader I was born to be.
Extract the Lesson
Every setback carries wisdom. The question is not if the lesson is there. The question is whether you are willing to see it. Ask yourself: What truth is this Fire showing me? What strength is waking up inside me?
The lesson is never lost. Pain tries to bury it. Fear tries to hide it. But the Gift is always waiting. The moment you claim the lesson, you reclaim your power.
My Gift I Received in the Fire
There was a season when everything around me was shaking. Personally. Professionally. Spiritually. I wanted to shrink. I wanted to disappear.
In the middle of that Fire, I made a choice. I stood when everything in me wanted to hide. I spoke when silence felt safer. That choice changed everything. The storm that tried to silence me became the spark that pushed me onto bigger stages. What looked like a breakdown became a breakthrough.
The Fire did not just give me strength. It gave me purpose. It gave me a mission: to help others find their voice in the middle of their Fire.
From Invisible to Impact
One moment stands out. A dear friend in Atlanta looked me in the eye and said, Mamie, you are your biggest obstacle. There is a reservoir of untapped potential within you, waiting to burst forth. It’s time to shed the excuses and embrace your purpose.
His words pierced my self-doubt. Despite orchestrating events for thousands, I felt invisible, tethered to the floor of the convention hall, my voice only heard through a walkie-talkie. But in that moment, a Fire stirred within me. I could see the stage. I could feel the energy. I could sense the calling.
That night, I made a decision. No longer behind the scenes. No longer silenced by fear. I stepped into the Fire and let it forge me into visibility.
The first time I took the microphone, the weight of my fears burned away. My voice carried conviction. What once held me back became the very power that propelled me forward.
That leap opened new doors—first as an Assistant Trainer at T. Harv Eker’s Warrior Training Camp, and later as a mentor to ninety-seven women who said yes to their own Fire. In 2018, twenty-seven of them traveled across the world to stand on an international stage for the first time. Each one walked away with an award, not because it was easy, but because their own Fire forged them.
“The Fire does not stop with you. When you rise, you ignite others.”
– Mamie
Your turn
Have you been here too? Your Fire may look different than mine. It could be a lost job. It could be a broken relationship. It could be a dream that refuses to take shape.
Whatever your Fire looks like, the Gift is still there. The struggle is not empty. It is shaping you. It is refining you.
Ask yourself:
- What is this Fire teaching me?
- What strength is it awakening in me?
- What Gift is waiting for me to claim?
Do not walk away from this moment without answering. The Fire you face is the very place your power is born.
Rise With the Gift
Here is the truth. Your pain is your credential. Setbacks are not ashes of defeat. They are the Fire that forges your gold.
The struggle you face today is not here to stop you. It is here to shape you. Inside it lives the very Gift that will lift you into your next level of greatness.
Claim it. Rise with it. And never forget this.
