Books for Success

Tony Robbins: Awaken the Giant Within

I was so excited to finally get to read this book. And for good reason! Tony Robbins is the world’s #1 life and business strategist. If you don’t already know who Tony Robbins is, I highly suggest you check him out. He has been able to change millions of peoples’ lives simply by understanding what drives us and what makes us change. I hope to very soon attend one of his seminars that he conducts throughout the year. He even has a Netflix movie called “I Am Not Your Guru.” Those were the most rewarding two hours I ever spent on Netflix!

So what drives humans? What is the powerful force that drives some of us to change and others to stay on the same path they have always been? The two basic feelings that drive us are the desire for pleasure and the need to avoid pain.

I believe that all of us want to change on some level and have something we could improve. But many of us can become frustrated when we have difficulties changing. Let us go to our apparent favorite example: losing weight. Many of us always have this goal somewhere in our mind to one degree or another, but what makes some have successful change and others have underwhelming, if any, change is our link to pain and pleasure. Many will go to great lengths to avoid even short-term pain. The thought of the pain of going to the gym and suffering can make having a cheesecake right now a fantastic alternative. Here short-term pain is not worth the long-term pleasure of good health. The key to lasting change is to change what we link pain and pleasure to. If we can link pleasure to going to the gym instead, we now have a tactical advantage over that tempting cheesecake.

But how do we get this link in pain and pleasure to shift? We can ask ourselves questions. Quality questions lead to a quality life. All of our time in school is spent looking for a reward for answering questions correctly. However, to design our destiny we have to ask ourselves our own questions and be brutally honest with our answers. We already on some level know what we want and don’t want. That information could just be buried deeply in our subconscious just waiting for us to extract it. The point is that we already have the answers we want. It is coming up with the correct questions to bring those answers to the forefront of our mind.

What are some good questions to ask ourselves?

1. What is great about this problem?

2. What is not perfect yet?

3. What am I willing to do to make it the way I want it?

4. What am I willing to no longer do in order to make it the way I want it?

5. How can I enjoy the process while I do what is necessary to make it the way I want it?

Ask yourself these 5 questions any time you encounter a challenge. Challenges or problems as they are sometimes called are opportunities to learn about who we are. These questions empower us to take control of the situation and create a positive reference for things that at first seem to bring pain. I plan on making a wallet card with these questions so that I can reference them any time I encounter a challenge.

This is only a tidbit of the incredible wealth of knowledge in this book. It is worth every page, and the exercises within help you to design your destiny.

If you want to get a copy of Tony Robbins: Awaken the Giant Within you can get it here.

Happy Reading!