What I Learned from Tony Robbins

This is not a joke. There is a ton that you can learn from and be inspired by in the words of America’s preeminent self-help superstar. What’s also not a joke is that I learned more about Tony Robbins and his now classic course “Awaken the Giant Within” from watching the show “Master Class” on OWN. Yes, I occasionally watch that. Point is Tony Robbins didn’t just become Tony Robbins from selling people a bunch of crap that doesn’t work. May not work for all people, but it’s gotta work for someone. And an endorsement from Oprah Winfrey is pretty solid. So here’s the pearls of wisdom (some I knew already but life has a way of washing knowledge away) that I thought was most noteworthy from the piece:

1. Your emotion is affected by your motion- Robbins is big on moving around at his seminars. Thousands of people can be seen jumping, dancing and wiggling for long periods of time. The point is you, your attitude, even the way you move (your body language) is the key to how you feel. And thus controllable. Outside circumstances have nothing to do with how you feel.
2. Biography is not destiny, decisions are- What happened in the past doesn’t matter nearly as much as what we do next- the decisions we make.
3. Problems are the most powerful addiction- This is ridiculously true. I’m a very positive person and even I find more enjoyment at times from bitching and moaning. Sorta like that greasy pizza, you know it’s bad (and will give you gas) but it feels so good to eat it.
4. Dance with your fears by changing your story- Dealing with fear is a huge issue for me. It’s not that fear is debilitating, it’s just that it keeps me from thinking about other things at times. And God forbid if I fall short in the area where I had fear, I’ll beat myself up for a week about what I should have done. This will in turn give me a negative attitude when I start to get nervous about something else, which gives me more anxiety. An endless loop. Basically, you need to acknowledge the fear and change the meaning of it for you to something positive. A little fear shows that you actually care.
5. Life is about being fulfilled, not happy- He goes on to say that happiness is kind of a momentary thing. I’ve been striving most of my adult life to find that person, job, place, friends, experience that will make me happy, instead of looking for items that make me whole. These concepts seem similar, but fulfilled is a more robust feeling that can exist whether you are happy or sad about a particular event.

He also said that it is important to feed the hungry and so I will do just that. Anyone wanna come with?