Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny, Tony Robbins, (Simon & Schuster, 1992)
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Awaken the Giant Within Synopsis
World-famous motivational speaker Tony Robbins teaches readers about his mantras and secrets to success in his book, Awaken the Giant Within. The book’s themes focus on how individuals can leverage the power of decisions and emotions to achieve what they want. Below are the book’s key themes and how they are imperative for anyone looking to achieve the life they want to live.
The Power of Decisions
Anything that happens to you in your life happens because of a decision you make. Thus, all your experiences are a result of your own decisions. Robbins focuses on the impact that one has by simply making a decision and sticking to it. For example, one can make a decision to change immediately. They simply make the decision and truly commit to it. Robbins believes the ultimate success formula is the following:
- Decide what you want
- Take action
- Identify what is not working
- Change your approach until you achieve what you want
People can improve their destiny by improving the decisions they make. They do this by repeatedly making decisions, thus akin to exercising a muscle. Robbins preaches that there are three important decisions that control your destiny: what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you need to do to create the results you desire.
The Power of Emotions
Another powerful theme in Robbins’ book is emotions. Emotions appear at the heart of every topic and chapter in the book. For example, when trying to reshape your beliefs, you can do this by associating massive pain with beliefs you want to break. This is because emotions are intertwined with how we react and deal with our experiences. Those who can control their emotions can ultimately reshape their lives.
Robbins goes through various tools and factors that impact our emotions, which can ultimately impact our lives. For example, the words we choose to use can amplify or downplay our emotions. By having a wider vocabulary, we can enhance great experiences and or choose to minimize bad experiences.
Ultimately, there are four ways we can deal with our emotions. We can either avoid them, deny them, exaggerate them, or learn from them.
Pain and Pleasure
At the heart of Robbins’ book is the idea of neuro-associative conditioning. Simply put, to drive the change you want in yourself, you must associate insufferable pain with old behaviours and pleasure with new behaviours. This is because humans fear loss much more than their desire for gaining something. As a result, fear becomes a powerful motivator.
Ask Questions
Questions are powerful in that they can change our perspective very quickly. More importantly, when we ask ourselves questions, our brain engages in answer mode. This means that we will innately try to answer the question or solve the problem. Therefore, if we ask good questions, we can completely reframe our perspective.
Key Takeaways
- Your decisions will dictate your destiny.
- If you want to change, associate insufferable pain with the behaviour you want to change. For behaviours you want to exude, do the exact opposite by associating immense pleasure.
Awaken the Giant Within Author: Tony Robbins
Tony Robbins is a world-renowned motivational speaker known for his self-help seminars and books. His first book, Unlimited Power, paved the way for his coaching and public speaking career. He hails a client list that includes numerous presidents and celebrities. Robbins has published four more books since his first, with the latest being Unshakeable: Your Financial Freedom Playbook.
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