Unlimited Power: The New Science Of Personal Achievement

by Anthony Robbins

SUCCESS To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

ultimate power is the ability to produce the results you desire most and create value for others in the process. Power is the ability to change your life, to shape your perceptions, to make things work for you and not against you.

one of the largest sources of power is derived from specialized knowledge.

If all we needed were ideas and positive thinking, then we all would have had ponies when we were kids and we would all be living our “dream life” now.

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. In fact, the literal definition of the word “power” is “the ability to act.”

the greatest gift that extraordinarily successful people have over the average person is their ability to get themselves to take action.

We all produce two forms of communication from which the experience of our lives is fashioned. First, we conduct internal communications: those things we picture, say, and feel within ourselves. Second, we experience external communications: words, tonalities, facial expressions, body postures, and physical actions to communicate with the world.

Communication is power. Those who have mastered its effective use can change their own experience of the world and the world’s experience of them.

How you feel is not the result of what is happening in your life—it is your interpretation of what is happening.

Successful people’s lives have shown us over and over again that the quality of our lives is determined not by what happens to us, but rather by what we do about what happens.

In order to be depressed, you have to view your life in specific ways. You have to say certain things to yourself in just the right tones of voice. You have to adopt a specific posture and breathing pattern. For example, if you wish to be depressed, it helps tremendously if you collapse your shoulders and look down a lot. Speaking in a sad-sounding tone of voice and thinking of the worst-possible scenarios for your life also helps. If you throw your biochemistry into turmoil through poor diet or excessive alcohol or drug use, you assist your body in creating low blood sugar and thus virtually guarantee depression.

He was rejected 1,009 times, and then something miraculous happened. Someone said “Yes.” The colonel was in business. How many of you have a recipe? How many of you have the physical power and charisma of a chunky old man in a white suit? Colonel Sanders made a fortune because he had the ability to take massive, determined action. He had the personal power necessary to produce the results he desired most. He had the ability to hear the word “no” a thousand times and still communicate to himself in a way that got him to knock on the next door, totally convinced that it could be the one where someone said yes. In one way or another

Success is not an accident. The difference between people who produce positive results and those who do not is not some sort of random roll of the dice. There are consistent, logical patterns of action, specific pathways to excellence, that are within the reach of us all. We can all unleash the magic within us. We simply must learn how to turn on and use our minds and bodies in the most powerful and advantageous ways.

able to get themselves to consistently take effective actions toward the accomplishment of their dreams.

Our beliefs about what we are and what we can be precisely determine what we will be.

What we believe to be true, what we believe is possible, becomes what’s true, becomes what’s possible.

success is simple. First, you decide what you want specifically; and second, you decide you’re willing to pay the price to make it happen—and then pay that price.

Why do some people take any experience and make it work for them, while others take any experience and make it work against them?

The difference all comes down to the way in which we communicate with ourselves and the actions we take. What do we do when we try everything we can and things still turn out wrong? 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.

“Things do not change; we change.” —Henry David Thoreau

people who produce outstanding results do specific things to create those results.

This process of discovering exactly and specifically what people do to produce a specific result is called modeling.

The One Minute Manager (Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson) is a model for human communication and simple and effective management of any human relationship.

To model excellence, you should become a detective, an investigator, someone who asks lots of questions and tracks down all the clues to what produces excellence.

belief system. What a person believes, what he thinks is possible or impossible, to a great extent determines what he can or cannot do.

“Whether you believe you can do something or you believe you can’t, you’re right.”

Mental syntax is the way people organize their thoughts.

physiology—the way you breathe and hold your body, your posture, facial expressions, the nature and quality of your movements—actually determines what state you are in. The state you’re in then will determine the range and quality of the behaviors you’re able to produce.

take a proven system and duplicate it—and

The difference between those who succeed and those who fail isn’t what they have—it’s what they choose to see and do with their resources and their experience of life.

If someone is able to do something outstanding, the immediate question that should pop into your mind is, “How does he create that result?”