Books
Outwork Book Club on “Unlimited Power”
In this classic on self-development, Tony Robbins unearths the foundational attributes of achievement and paves a path for anyone on the road to success.
The Outwork Book Club is a book review series covering the main idea, summary, top quotes, and ideas for taking action meant to improve your performance and life.
Main Idea
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%. The ideas that Robbins’ describes in Unlimited Power come from this proving ground of real-world application.
“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
Summary
Robbins starts the book with what he calls 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 for 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. Ultimate power is the ability to produce the results you desire the most while also creating value for others.
The formula for power according to Robbins: 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 intent through a vision for all. Today, that power exists for everyone.
Power Requires Action
The knowledge we now all possess is useless without action.
Take a look at successful people and what 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.” — Tony Robbins
How to Communicate with Yourself
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, that 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.
It is the story of Victor Herman and his unshakeable belief of invincibility. When all seems lost, we still possess the ultimate power to determine how we view the circumstance. Till our final breath, our attitude is 100% in our control at all times.
“You can become ecstatic 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 ecstasy.” — Tony Robbins
We control our mental states. We control our behaviors. We control our destiny.
The Difference 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 the question of why some people succeed in the face of adversity while others fail.
Thousands of books and hours upon hours of introspection later, he called it the difference that makes the difference: the way we communicate with ourselves and the actions we take in response to struggle and failure.
“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.” — Tony Robbins
How to Take Action
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 relentlessly pursue it.
The formula created by Robbins is simple:
- Define your goal or end state and make it as clear as possible.
- Take the most advantageous actions towards achieving those goals.
- Develop the ability to recognize whether the actions you are taking are effective or not. Closer to or further away from your end state?
- 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 end state? How many of these ill-defined goals do you assume at once? If we cannot clearly state what we want, how are we supposed to achieve what we desire?
Defining the critical steps is not enough. We have to be self-aware enough to identify the roadblocks, mindsets, and environments keeping us from achieving our true goals and our life’s desires.
To accomplish great things, we must choose the hard path. We must become disciplined and hardened against the comforts of society. We must reshape our mindset to become driven, enthusiastic, and determined.
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