Posts for the Outwork Book Club will be continuous; I will post updates as I work through each book. Eventually, I will encourage readers to follow along with me and add any insight or pose questions about the central themes of the book. This is what we call a living document; mostly because it doesn’t immediately die as soon as it becomes published like everything else. It is something that is continuously updated and changed overtime to reflect the newest information
UNLIMITED POWER BY TONY ROBBINS
There is no name more recognized than Tony Robbins in the world of personal achievement.
His story has been recounted many, many, many times on YouTube and he has been featured on every major publication for his seminars and world-famous Firewalk.
Robbins’ is a self-development expert, adopting ideas and concepts from NLP, Jim Rohn, and many others. He has worked with the best in the world, which has given him insight into what works for the absolute 1%. These years of experience began with the ideas outlined in Unlimted Power; a proving ground for his life and methods and what it can do for you.
To me, success is the ongoing process of striving to become more. It is the opportunity to continually grow emotionally, socially, spiritually, physiologically, intellectually, and financially while contributing in some positive way to others. – Tony Robbins
Robbins starts the book with the Commodity of Kings — Power.
Power is what people desire. It is the thing they chase when they seek out ivy league degrees and high paying jobs. Money is nice but it is the accompanying power that drives the wheel of human achievement. Most people seek to obtain power externally, whereas, power exists to everyone internally.
When you shape your perceptions, when you learn to control your emotions and behaviors, you will have achieved the highest form of power that exists for humans. Robbins believes the ultimate power is the ability to produce the results you desire the most while also creating value for others.
SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE + ACTION= POWER
In today’s world of information overload, specialized knowledge with the ability to communicate is what forms the basis for power; it is the commodity of kings. Kings used to rule because of their access to knowledge and their ability to communicate an intent — a vision for all. Today, that power exists for everyone.
Still, the knowledge we now all possess is useless without action.
Take a look at successful people and what do they possess? Their greatest abilities lie in how they communicate (with themselves and others) and in their ability to get themselves to take action. Action creates the momentum that builds to power.
Action is what unites every great success. Action is what produces results. Knowledge is only potential power until it comes into the hands of someone who knows how to get himself to take effective action.
February 15, 2018
What we do in life is determined by how we communicate with ourselves. Our self-talk is what propels us into action, but is also what keeps us immobile and lifeless.
We say, “You have prepared for this, you are ready and you are capable. Let’s do it.”
We say, “People will judge you and laugh at you. Better to play it safe and not do it.”
Enormously successful people are not as gifted as we think or imagine. However, they all possess one special gift — the ability to get themselves to take action. It is a superpower that makes greats, masters, and billionaires.
Communication consists of internal (things we picture, say, and feel within) and external (body language, postures, and physical actions). Deliberately merging the two is what yields confidence. The ability to move mountains and the ability to move people.
Communication mastery in the external world is what determines your level of success with others — emotionally, socially, and financially. Internally it is the happiness or joy of what you perceive your life to be.
It has been seen over and over again, it is not what happens to us that matters, but our perception of what is happening to us and what we do about it that really counts.
Viktor Frankl’s recount of the Holocaust is perhaps the most inspiring story of the 20th century.
I personally favor the story of Victor Herman and his unshakeable belief of invincibility.
You can become estatic by immediately adopting the point of view that creates that emotion. You can picture in your mind the kinds of things that create this feeling. You can change the tone and content of your internal dialogue with yourself. You can adopt the specific postures and breathing patterns that create that state within your body, and voila! You will experience ectasy.
We control our mental states. We control our behaviors. We control our destiny.
February 21, 2018
Success is not an accident. There are consistent, logical patterns of action that produce excellence. They are within our reach if we understand the process for achievement, and then we pursue it. Relentlessly.
The formula created by Robbins is simple: (1) Define your goal or endstate and make it as clear as possible; (2) Take the most advantageous actions towards achieving those goals; (3) Develop the ability to recognize whether the actions you are taking are effective or not. Closer to or further away from your endstate?; (4) Be flexible enough to change your behavior until you get what you want.
Each step appears to be simple but they are not so transparent. How do you effectively define your goal or endstate? How many of these ill-defined goals do you assume at once? The water quickly becomes murky. If we cannot clearly state what we want, how are we supposed to achieve what we desire.
February 28, 2018
From the most successful people, we can discover patterns of thoughts and behaviors. Across the industries, success and excellence come hand in hand.
Success leaves clues.
Seven character traits of the highly successful
1. Passion. There is a reason, a consuming, energizing, purpose that drives them to do, to grow, and to be more. It gives them the fuel to power their ambitions and to exceed their potential. At Outwork, it is obsession.
2. Belief. Our beliefs about what we are and what we can become determine what we will be. If we believe that we are handicapped by X, those limits will manifest. If we believe that we can achieve X, those expectations will manifest. What we believe is what we manifest.
3. Strategy. A strategy is a way of organizing resources. Passion and belief can be misguided if we do not put together an action plan to achieve our goals and desires. That is why strategy is important and that is why many people disregard the Law of Attraction. Positive thinking has its limits. Action is always king.
4. Clarity of Values. The fundamental, ethical, moral, and practical views we have about what’s important to us. The American flag represents freedom because we have assigned it that value. It is also something that millions of patriotic Americans will fight for. Will die for. That is the power of values, it denotes a sense of personal attachment and pride; where sacrifice in its defense is common.
5. Energy. It is impossible to slowly wander towards greatness. Vital energy is necessary. People of excellence take opportunities and mold them. They lived obsessed with the opportunities of each day and recognize that the one thing no one has enough of is time.
6. Bonding Power. The ability to develop rapport seems to be an exclusive trait for those that rise to the top of their industry. Forging long-lasting bonds with people is what makes life meaningful. On the world stage, connecting with millions through a common belief or shared vision is what drives luminaries and world leaders.
7. Mastery of Communication. People who succeed in life are those who have learned how to take any challenge that life gives them and communicate that experience to themselves in a way that causes them to make changes. They are also able to communicate their inner desires to others in a way that motivates them to action.
March 25, 2018
The Differences that Makes the Difference
What makes the difference between a winner and a loser? A success and a failure? What creates a leader, an achiever?
Some people use the struggles of life to propel themselves to excellence, while most people use them as excuses to remain mediocre.
Before his rise to fame, Robbins spent years trying to answer these questions. Thousands of books and hours upon hours of introspection later: it is the differences that makes the difference.
The answer is simple: the way we communicate with ourselves and the actions we take in response to struggle, failure, or anything else in life.
People who succeed do not have fewer problems than people who fail. The only people without problems are those in cemeteries. It is not what happens to us that separates failures from successes. It is how we perceive it and what we do about what “happens” that makes the difference.
April 1, 2018
The Power of State
Do you remember a time when you couldn’t lose and the upper limits of possibility were world domination? Do you remember a time when you couldn’t win at anything?
Both of these specific instances are feelings produced by your neurophysiological state. The state that you are in determines how you respond to the environment: winner on a roll or loser on a stroll.
Understanding state is the key to understanding change and achieving excellence. Our behavior is the result of the state we’re in. We always do the best we can with the resources available to us, but sometimes we find ourselves in unresourceful states.
There are states that make us great — confidence, love, inner strength, joy, ecstasy, belief.
There are states that make us weak — confusion, depression, fear, anxiety, sadness, frustration.
The key to directing your life is the ability to direct and manage your states.
Our states are mostly triggered automatically. We often leave the experience of a moment to our subconscious, which means we are often in unresourceful states. To be successful, you must constantly and consciously put yourself in a resourceful state.
The ultimate power is to consistently trigger positive states. It requires awareness and persistence, which is why many people leave it up to chance. It takes too much effort.
In order to take full control of our states, we must understand its components. Then we must manipulate those components until we trigger positive states automatically.
The components of state are internal representations and the condition and use of our physiology.
Internal Representations– what and how we picture in our mind; what and how we say and hear in our mind.
Physiology– posture, biochemistry (nutrition), breathing, muscular tension, relaxation
Our thoughts control our behaviors which control our emotions which control our reactions.
Just imagine being 100% in control of your state at any given time. Choosing to represent situations and circumstances in ways that enable a productive reaction: power.
If we take control of our own communication with ourselves and produce visual, auditory, and kinesthetic signals of what we do want, outstanding positive results can be consistently produced, even in situations where the odds for success seem limited or nonexistent.
Onward,
Chief
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