Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny!

by Tony Robbins

contribution may be the ultimate goal.

In life, never spend more than 10 percent of your time on the problem, and spend at least 90 percent of your time on the solution.

“Miss a meal, but don’t miss your reading.”

while most players skate to where the puck is, he tends to skate to where the puck is going.

Masters are often people who just have more references than you do about what leads to success or frustration in any given situation.

eliminate the cause instead of exhausting yourself fighting the effects.

Sometimes evaluating too many details can cause us to feel overloaded or overwhelmed.

We must remember that all decision making comes down to values clarification.

inconsistency of values among our leaders has been one of the greatest sources of pain in our culture.

the values of freedom, choice, equality, a sense of community, hard work, individuality, challenge, competition, prosperity, and respect for those who have the strength to overcome great adversity

get clear about what is most important in our lives and decide that we will live by these values, no matter what happens.

know the values of someone you’re in a relationship with, or somebody you’re in business with? Knowing a person’s values gives you a fix on their compass, and allows you to have insight into their decision making.

set it up so that you’re meeting all of your values every day. If you don’t, you’ll experience what seems like an inexplicable feeling of emptiness or unhappiness.

any time we make a decision about what to do, our brain first evaluates whether that action can possibly lead to either pleasurable or painful states.

If, for example, you put at the top of your list that the emotion you would do the most to avoid having to feel is humiliation, then can you see how you would consistently avoid entering any situations where you might be judged harshly?

worry would destroy my destiny,

It wasn’t that we didn’t have expectations; it was that we decided that no matter what happened, we’d find a way to enjoy it.

Most of us have created numerous ways to feel bad, and only a few ways to truly feel good.

you could be winning and feel like you’re losing because the scorecard you’re using is unfair.

If you’re being hard on yourself, you’re likely to be hard on others as well.

we must make sure that at the bottom of it all we have rules to allow us to be happy anytime we want.

my ability to get myself to feel certain I could achieve something, even though I had no references for it.

A rule is disempowering if something that you can’t control determines whether your rule has been met or not.

A rule is disempowering if it gives you only a few ways to feel good and lots of ways to feel bad.

make it easy to feel good and hard to feel bad,

So if you ever feel angry or upset with someone, remember, it’s your rules that are upsetting you, not their behavior.

your rules are not based on reality. They’re purely arbitrary. Just because you’ve used them and feel strongly about them doesn’t mean they’re the best rules or the right rules.

“What’s more important? My relationship or my rules?”

COMMUNICATE YOUR RULES

Never assume when it comes to rules. Communicate.

One thing is sure: if you don’t know the rules, you’re guaranteed to lose because you’re bound to violate them sooner or later. But if you understand people’s rules, you can predict their behavior;

one of the most valuable things that references do for us is to provide a feeling of certainty. Without them, we would live our whole lives afraid or in doubt; we wouldn’t be able to function.

good and bad are merely based upon our references.

The power of reading a great book is that you start thinking like the author.

You start to think like they think, feel like they feel, and use imagination as they would.

No matter how bad you think things are in your life, it’s good to remember that someone else has it worse.

Limited references create a limited life. If you want to expand your life, you must expand your references by pursuing ideas and experiences

leaders are readers.

the formula for maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age.

train your metabolism to consistently operate in aerobic fashion. Your body won’t burn fat unless you specifically train it to do so. Thus, if you want to lose that persistent layer of fat around your midsection, you must train your body to burn fat, not sugar.

every upset you’ve ever had with another human being has been a rules upset,

You want to focus on where you want to go in a relationship, not on what you fear.

consistently add real value to people’s lives, and you will prosper.

continually expand your knowledge, your skill, and your ability to give more. This is why self-education is so critical.

“How can I increase the value of what I do by ten to fifteen times?”

Adding value is not just creating products; it’s finding a way to make sure that more people experience an increase in the quality of life.

don’t develop a budget; develop a spending plan.

you must spend less than you earn, invest the difference, and reinvest your returns for compounded growth.

“Evidence shows that investors—investors in anything—make no money over a ten-year period. There are several reasons for this tragic statistic, including:

doing things that are important rather than urgent.