Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Awaken The Giant Within - Anthony Robbins

I read 'Unlimited Power' years ago - an unlikely gift from Shrikanth Mulaokar my thoughtful colleague. Anthony Robbins packs a whole lot of information in his books (this one is 500 pages) and there is always some insight to pick and choose. I got a few gems in this. He talks of the state of mind, success conditioning, emotional management and concentration of power, all of which make sense.

Change Happens In An Instant
Up front he says that change can happen in an instant (I experienced it). To make it happen you must want to change things and secondly, to sustain the change. To bring lasting change he says - Raise your standards, Change your limiting beliefs and Change your strategy. To know your limiting beliefs one needs to look at the areas where one is limited and examine the beliefs that guide those experiences.

Create Your Future Through Mastery
Robbins also says that if one can attain mastery over emotions, physical self, relationships, finances and time, one is in good space. That is a given. But I like what he says - to gain mastery over all these, plan for the next next ten years. Be conscious that the decisions you take now affect the next 10 years of your life and decide accordingly - in favour of yourself.

Unleash the Power of Decisions
One of the key things to adopt in awakening the giant within is to unleash the power of decisions. Set a baseline standard. Decide on it. The thing with decisions is that you can make one right now. Robbins says that if you truly decide, you can do anything. Decide and you will find a way- no matter what. Making a true decision is committing and then cutting yourself off from any other possibility. (Put all your focus into making that a reality.) To get better at decision making make more decisions.

Your internal decision making system is guided by your core beliefs, life values, references, your emotional state and the habitual questions you ask yourself. Enjoy making decisions.Use whatever life gives you this moment.

The Force That Changes - Pain and Pleasure
In the chapter on the force that changes - he explains how to use Pain and Pleasure to move towards and away from what you want to do and what you don't want to do. He says that you must push pain to an emotional threshold. Use pain and pleasure and don't let them use you. Make neuro associations that are so strong that you stay away from things you don't want to do (like taking their children on a tour of dug rehab clinics so they never get into drugs). When you link stuff to pain and pleasure it changes behavior. Obviously the pain has to reach a threshold where any action towards it puts you off.

Core Beliefs - Limiting Beliefs
The belief system is based not on the event - but the belief you attached to the event and the meaning, Nothing in life has any meaning except the meaning you give to it. Most beliefs are generalizations based on interpretations of painful and pleasurable experiences. A belief is merely a feeling of certainty. With enough emotional intensity and repetition, our nervous systems experience something as real as the real thing. You could change your future by changing your beliefs. Develop an absolute sense of certainty about what you want to believe in. How we deal with adversity will shape our lives more than anything else. If we associate pain with change, create doubt in such a belief and associate pleasure. He categorises beliefs into opinions, beliefs and convictions. Add references to beliefs to strengthen them or weaken them.

You Are Responsible For Change
Change can happen in an instant. But you are responsible for the change. Once you effect the change reinforce it continually.  Condition your system with pain and pleasure. Change how you feel and your behaviour. Only you can change. Create neural pathways. Seek cause and effect. Understand where you might have made the wrong connections. Self sabotage occurs when we have positive and negative associations.

Neuro Associative Conditioning (NAC)
Robbins had trademarked his NAC system. It goes like this.

  • Decide what you want
  • Create leverage - by referencing massive pain, create urgency, push the pain threshold in the mind, intense pain, pain from inside works
  • Interrupt any limiting patterns
  • Create alternatives
  • Condition pattern (you brain cannot differentiate between something you imagine and something you experience)
  • Reinforce - respond immediately.

What Do You Want
To get what you want you must first know what you want. Your state of mind and body decides how you act. This is the key. Change physiology and change your state (speed for John Denver). Find what works for you. Create pattern for movement that creates confidence, a sense of strength, flexibility, personal power and so on.

Focus - what we focus on becomes real. Meaning is focus.
What's my state?

Questions Are The Answer
Questions are the answer he says. Ask questions. How do I think? What meanings do I attach to things? How can I turn things around?
He gives a list of morning questions to ask yourself.
What am I happy about/ excited about/ proud/ grateful/energising/ committed to/ who do I love/ who loves me
In the evening ask yourself - what have I given today/learned/shared.

Transformational Vocabulary
Choose words wisely. By changing words you change how you think. Words shape our beliefs. They impact actions. Use words, metaphors that get you into a good state. Drop things that disempower. Norma Cousins - Words can produce illness, can kill. Lower intensity of words that are harsh and extreme.

Create Metaphors
Rising, soaring, back with a bang. Whats you life about - all the metaphors you can think of for relationships, career, etc

10 emotions of power
The emotions you feel are the guidelines for you. They are a support, a call to action. If someone asks you how you are what would you say? You are the source. You can feel good for no reason. But would you choose that?

6 Steps to Emotional Mastery

  • Identify what you're feeling
  • Acknowledge and appreciate your emotion
  • Get curious about the message 
  • Get confident 
  • Get certain that you can handle it now and in future
  • Get excited and take action


Action Signals

  • Discomfort - Means you are unclear (get clear)
  • Fear - Means you feel you are not prepared (see what you are fearful about and prepare, if prepared decide to have faith, tell yourself you are ready because this would not have showed up otherwise)
  • Hurt - Means unmet expectation
  • Anger - Means a rule of yours has been violated by someone or by yourself (could be misinterpreted so relax the rule - you made them anyway)
  • Frustrated (is a good sign) - Means you could do better than what you are doing now
  • Disappointed (is a bad sign) - Means you feel let down (set and achieve a new goal instead of wallowing in self pity)
  • Guilt - Means you violated your highest standards (make sure it wont happen again)
  • Inadequacy - Means feeling unworthy (don't have skill necessary, get more info, coaching to feel adequate)
  • Overload/overwhelm - Means you need to reevaluate what important to you (focus on what's most important)
  • Loneliness - Means you need a connection to people (reach out)


10 Emotions of Power

  • Love and warmth
  • Appreciation
  • Curiosity
  • Excitement and passion
  • Determination
  • Flexibility
  • Confidence
  • Cheerfulness
  • Vitality
  • Contribution


To Create a compelling future have clarity. Have a broad plan. Believe in CANI - Constant and Never Ending Improvement
Lock on to your goals - Personal development/ Career, business, finance/ Toys, adventure

Take massive action

The 10 day challenge he throws at you is to maintain the new patter, routines for 10 days so they become second nature. Focus 10 % on the problem - 90% on the solution

Your Master System 
First understand that you are not your behavior. Your behavior is guided by your values. In the end all decision making comes down to values clarification. Get clear about whats most important and decide to live by those values, high ideals.
There are end values. mean values.
Move towards love, success, freedom, intimacy, serenity, passion, health.
Move to pleasure, away from pain
All self sabotage occurs when there are value conflicts.
Remember we do more to avoid pain than gain pleasure
Change your values, and you can change your life. Also you are bigger than your value

Rules - Why We Are Not Happy 
Every upset is a rules upset. Your rules are upsetting you. Your happiness should not be dependent on what you cannot control.
What has to happen to feel good? Nothing. Human nature is that we have many ways to feel bad, few to feel good. Make it easy to feel good and hard to feel bad.
Our self esteem is tied to our ability to feel like we are in control of the events in our environment.
When there is an upset communicate your rules.
What is something you'd never do - personal rules?
What does it take to feel successful, loved?
Enjoy yourself

Expand Your References
Make a reference experience list. Your interpretation. Expand references. Use your references to feel good.
Imagine. Everything changes form. Limited references create a limited life. Expand your references.
What are 5 pleasurable experiences that shaped your experience? Fun references?

Your Identity - Your Key to expand 
Identify who you are. Your capability changes with your identity, perceptions. ids. They create you. Shift your identity. Your action defines you.
WHO are you?
You are not your past. You represent your best possibility.

Control your consistent actions in the following areas
Physical activity - health
Relationships - know values and rules of people
Financial decisions - start with small steps, ability to take something of little value and convert it into something great, wealth is in the mind, create wealth, be more valuable. increase the quality of life
create. maintain. increase, have a clear investment plan, enjoy wealth

Be impeccable- Have a Code of Conduct
Rest and play.
Imagine. Commit. Change

I loved the bit about decisions, about using pain and pleasure, about transformational vocabulary, metaphors, the action signals, rules, references, values and identity. Pretty powerful.

No comments: