A couple weeks ago, I experienced a monumental moment that literally took my breath away. 

It was one of those moments that stopped me in my tracks and specific memories flooded over me in that instance like you see in the movies.

In front of me, a young man was showing me a thick binder of his Goals Lab worksheets, fully printed off and all 100% complete. Every single worksheet was printed off and filled in. There were pages and pages of notes filled out too for every single video. And it was all put together neatly into one really big binder. 

It was the first time I had ever seen my Goals Lab workbooks 100% complete. And right in front of me. 

The person holding this binder was a young man named Hosan who had traveled all the way from Hong Kong with that binder. Of course, I remembered him from my Goals Lab and was happy to meet him at this year’s first PWBA stop in Rockford. Ever since he was in Goals Lab, I have seen his name in quite a few places online. I had noted that he seemed to always be following what was happening in bowling. When he reached out to me on Instagram a month before the tour, I was happy to hear that I would have a chance to meet him. 

In Rockford, I met him right away. And the first thing that he did was he came up to me with his Goals Lab binder. He told me, “I want you to sign it.” And then he said, `”I want you to know that coming to the PWBA tour was my ‘Outerspace goal’ from Goals Lab and you made me realize that I could reach it.” When he said, “this was my Outerspace Goal,” that’s what literally took my breath away. 

I almost cried immediately. That’s when I stood, almost overwhelmed by the impact of what he had told me, and what he was showing me. It was just so powerful. What struck me wasn’t just that he had done all of his homework in Goals Lab or that he wanted me to sign the binder. It was that I had influenced someone’s life on such a level. And that influence led him here, to watch the best women bowlers in the world compete. Once a farfetched goal and now a reality. He was standing there in front of me with those same goal-setting worksheets that showed him he could do it. He said I had shown him that his dream didn’t need to be just a hope. He could actually do it…and literally get wherever he wanted to go in life. 

So. Profound. 

When he had reached out on Instragram the month before, he asked if I would look over his US itinerary to be sure there weren’t any holes. I thought it was a mistake when I opened my email to see an itinerary for three months. Every hotel booked. Flight information. Multiple cities. Confused, I asked him, “This looks like it’s for our entire tour?” He answered, “Yes. And actually a men’s PBA stop too.”

Huh. As I tried to wrap my mind around it all, I had so many questions. I figured he was an avid bowler in Hong Kong and had probably been bowling since he was a kid. And I had thought, maybe he’s even a millionaire and can just afford to take three months to travel the US and follow a tour like this. I can’t even imagine the actual cost for someone to be a full-time spectator following along with the tour for three months.

That first day in Rockford, I invited him to lunch with me, my family and my friends Travis and Mei. I had already been so impressed by him, but I wanted to learn more about him. And what I learned at lunch blew my mind. 

I found out that I had underestimated the size of this goal for him. It really was an “Outerspace Goal.” In Goals Lab, I teach the idea of reaching for “Outerspace Goals” and working on reaching them step by step. You may recall that I learned that term from my friend Jason Belmonte, who says he doesn’t shoot for normal goals, he always shoots for really big, outerspace goals – the kind of goals that really make you stretch to even get remotely near them. At the time when Jase said it, I thought, “Of course he thinks that way” considering everything he’s done in the sport. Normal thinking doesn’t get you there.

I love that term, but I’ve been applying the same kind of goal setting in my life since I was a little girl in Dyer, Indiana. That’s where I set my goal to be the World’s Best Bowler one day. I knew if I kept focused on taking steps towards that goal, I could reach it, as far-fetched that idea seemed to most people at the time. Now I teach others to not sell themselves short and to stretch to reach for their own larger than life goals.

And for Hosan, coming to the US for an entire 3 months to follow every single stop of the PWBA tour was once what a larger than life goal looked like. Hosan told me, “this is the first time in my life I can say I actually dreamed of something.” Then he explained, “I remember you mentioned Belmo’s Outerspace goals. Most people think those goals are too crazy, and they don’t have the guts to go for them. But the main reason that I am here is because you taught me that these Outerspace goals could be possible.” 

When he set the goal less than 2 years ago in Goals Lab, coming to the US for the PWBA tour was certainly a massive stretch goal for him on so many levels. He had never been to the US before and he also told me his family didn’t have a lot. So travel isn’t something he just does. He works as a secretary for his mother’s small business and to be able to afford this trip, he literally saved everything he could. He said he is using up his personal life’s savings to be here on tour right now. That fact alone struck me, along with the fact that he went from making this plan to realizing it all within less than 2 years. I realized, Oh my gosh, I’m really influencing people’s lives doing this work. 

If you are thinking this story is already inspiring, it gets even better. 

Hosan is fairly new to the bowling world. He just began bowling in 2016, which really isn’t that long ago. He had been falling into a bit of a depression, and nothing was working at pulling him out of it. Until one day, he went to his computer and just decided to look up bowling. That search led him to the PWBA tv shows from 2016 and 2017. That year, I was one of the people he saw on tv and that was where he learned about me. And through watching those bowling shows, he developed such a strong love for the sport that it gave him the inspiration he needed to pull himself out of that depression. That’s how he began passionately following the sport and then also started bowling as an amateur himself. 

He told me that since the beginning, he has been inspired most by one bowler in particular. His bowling idol is Liz Johnson – THE Liz Johnson. What is amazing is that back then, he had no idea that she is the G.O.A.T (greatest of all time). He just saw a greatness in her. She bowls straighter so he liked the idea that she was bowling differently than everyone else. When everyone else is hooking the ball, she finds a way to crush them in a more direct way. In fact, he became so inspired he later flew to Korea and Japan to meet her and watch her bowl. From Hong Kong, it was easier for him to do quick trips. But then he started dreaming of a much bigger trip to the US – one that included following the US PWBA tour. 

And now, he’s here. 

At the first two tournaments, he was really sitting behind Liz the whole time. He also loves other bowlers like Verity though and is a fan of mine. So even when he was behind Liz, he always checked in and came by to see how we were doing. In Minnesota he told me, I’m going to sit behind you every ball this time because I know you’re not bowling the next four events. That’s how thoughtful and genuine he is. So it was really nice to turn around and see him there with my kids. He’s just so supportive and so sweet. Later in Minnesota, I invited him out to have dinner with us and a non-bowler friend who lives only about five minutes from the bowling center there. He is also starting to make friends with people too and they’re helping him get around to events. One of my friends, Mei, gave him a ride down to where the Queens event was taking place so that was really nice. He is 27 but doesn’t drive and is taking Ubers everywhere between airports, hotels and events. Many of the PWBA women have reached out, offered rides, and spent time to learn his story. I think that they, too, realize that bowling needs 100 more Hosans.

I am just wowed by his belief in himself and how gutsy it was for him to fly here. He’d never been to the US or traveled anywhere on his own before like this…and now he’s spending three months in a country he’d never been before, by himself. Other than the people he followed in bowling, he didn’t know anyone before he arrived. I’ll see him next at the US Open in New York. In the meantime, I joke that no one is having a better PWBA season than Hosan. He’s made EVERY PWBS telecast.

I told the editor of the Bowling Journal, Gianmarc, about him too. I wanted to find a way to get him a ticket to the Hall of Fame banquet that week. I only had two tickets and was already going with my son, Madden. Gianmarc said he wanted to give up his wife’s ticket to allow for him to go. When I told Hosan about the ticket, he was so excited that he was shaking. He could not believe it. To say that the Hall of Fame Induction ceremony was a highlight for him would be an understatement. For any bowling fan, that event is very inspiring. I still love going because I get to see these women who inspired my career and who I grew up watching. 

For Hosan, the night was yet another dream come true. He couldn’t believe that he was going to be able to be there that night to see these women get inducted, these legends of the game. The night was filled with a few other fun firsts and surprises for him too. The event is dressy and he didn’t have anything dressy to wear nor had he ever worn a tie before. So Mei and I scurried to help him prepare. He made his first trip to a Target and Mei met him there to help him navigate the store and find something to wear. Then I ironed it for him in Mei’s hotel room nearby the event, where we also let him get ready. All of that effort was so worth it to see Hosan attend the event with his idols. 

That night, he got a chance to see and meet so many of the women behind the sport that literally changed his life. The sport that pulled him out of his depression and showed him how much he was capable of by chasing his dream. A dream he followed through on with a plan that literally transported himself out of depression and halfway around the world to a banquet attended by some of the sport’s greatest heroines. I took pictures of him with some of these bowlers. When I asked him how he enjoyed it, he said it was the best night of his life. 

It really shows how sport can inspire people well beyond the realm of the actual sport community. Here is someone flying halfway around the world, spending his life savings to do that, and lifting himself out of depression with everything that bowling brought to his life. All I can say is just WOW. It has been an honor to have met him, and I look forward to seeing him again in New York! I also feel so grateful to be part of his story, and to be a part of something that is helping people so far beyond the lanes in their everyday lives. 

His story alone is enough to inspire so many others to start reaching for those outerspace goals too now.