Unshakeable: Your Financial Freedom Playbook

by Anthony Robbins

A Suffering State. When you’re feeling stressed out, worried, frustrated, angry, depressed, irritable, overwhelmed, resentful, or fearful, you’re in a suffering state. We’ve all experienced these and countless other “negative” emotions, even if we’re not always keen to admit it! As I mentioned earlier, most achievers much prefer to think they’re stressed than fearful. But “stress” is just the achiever word for fear! If I follow the trail of your stress, it’ll take me to your deepest fear.

But in reality, the mental and emotional state in which you live is ultimately the result of where you choose to focus your thoughts.

Notice, too, that most, if not all, of our suffering is caused by focusing or obsessing about ourselves and what we might lose, have less of, or never have.

Either you master your mind or it masters you. The secret of living an extraordinary life is to take control of the mind, since this alone will determine whether you live in a suffering state or a beautiful state.

Our lives are shaped not by our conditions, but by our decisions.

So what’s the biggest decision you can make in your life right now?

What I’ve come to realize is that the single most important decision in life is this: Are you committed to being happy, no matter what happens to you?

To put this another way, will you commit to enjoying life not only when everything goes your way but also when everything goes against you, when injustice happens, when someone screws you over, when you lose something or someone you love, or when nobody seems to understand or appreciate you? Unless we make this definitive decision to stop suffering and live in a beautiful state, our survival minds will create suffering whenever our desires, expectations, or preferences are not met. What a waste of so much of our lives!

All you have to do to change your life forever is commit in your heart and soul to find something to appreciate in every moment. Then you will experience the real wealth of ongoing happiness!

“What’s wrong is always available . . . but so is what’s right!”

It doesn’t matter what you appreciate. What matters is that by shifting your focus to appreciation, you slow down your survival mechanism. Love, joy, and giving, will all trigger the same positive transformation. This shift in your focus creates space for your spirit to enter the game, so you don’t get stuck inside your head. If you keep doing this with real consistency, you actually rewire your nervous system, training your mind to find the good in every situation, so your experience of life is one of thankfulness and joy.

To overcome fear, the best thing is to be overwhelmingly grateful. —SIR JOHN TEMPLETON

Yesterday is but a dream, And tomorrow is only a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, And every tomorrow a vision of hope. —KĀLIDĀSA, Sanskrit dramatist and poet, ca. fifth century CE

if you make the decision to master your own mind, you’ll be mentally equipped to handle whatever challenges come your way.

This is the ultimate game changer. Find something to serve, a cause you can be passionate about that’s greater than yourself, and this will make you wealthy. Nothing enriches us as much as helping others.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. —MARK TWAIN