The Awaken the Giant Within book author says We all have dreams. We all want to believe deep down in our souls that we have a special gift, that we can make a difference, that we can touch others in a special way, and that we can make the world a better place.
Awaken The Giant Within By Tony Robins
Summary of Awaken the Giant Within By Tony Robbins
At one time in our lives, we all had a vision for the quality of life that we desire and deserve. Yet, for many of us, those dreams have become so shrouded in the frustrations and routines of daily life that we no longer even make an effort to accomplish them. For far too many, the dream has dissipated and with it, so has the will to shape our destinies.
Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives.
Dreams of Destiny
Controlled focus is like a laser beam that can cut through anything that seems to be stopping you. When we focus consistently on improvement in any area, we develop unique distinctions on how to make that area better. One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.
For changes to be of any true value, they’ve got to be lasting and consistent. We’ve all experienced change for a moment, only to feel let down and disappointed in the end. In fact, many people attempt change with a sense of fear and dread because unconsciously they believe the changes will only be temporary. A prime example of this is someone who needs to begin dieting, but finds himself putting it off, primarily because he unconsciously knows that whatever pain he endures in order to create the change will bring him only a short-term reward.
Change Your Limiting Belief
Without taking control of your belief systems, you can raise your standards as much as you like, but you’ll never have the conviction to back them up. How much do you think Gandhi would have accomplished had he not believed with every fiber of his being in the power of nonviolent opposition? It was the congruence of his beliefs which gave him access to his inner resources and enabled him to meet challenges which would have swayed a less committed man. Empowering beliefs—this sense of certainty is the force behind any great success throughout history.
Change Your Strategy
In order to keep your commitment, you need the best strategies for achieving results. One of my core beliefs is that if you set a higher standard, and you can get yourself to believe, then you certainly can figure out the strategies. You simply will find a way. Ultimately, that’s what this whole book is about. It shows you strategies for getting the job done, and I’ll tell you now that the best strategy in almost any case is to find a role-model, someone who’s already getting the results you want, and then tap into their knowledge. Learn what they’re doing, what their core beliefs are, and how they think. Not only will this make you more effective, it will also save you a huge amount of time because you won’t have to reinvent the wheel. You can fine-tune it, reshape it, and perhaps even make it better.
Harness the Power of Decision
Remember the true power of making decisions. It’s a tool you can use in any moment to change your entire life. The minute you make a new decision, you set in motion a new cause, effect, direction, and destination for your life. You literally begin to change your life the moment you make a new decision. Remember that when you start feeling overwhelmed, or when you feel like you don’t have a choice, or when things are happening “to” you, you can change it all if you just stop and decide to do so. Remember, a real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.
The more decisions you make, the better you’re going to become at making them. Muscles get stronger with use, and so it is with your decision-making muscles. Unleash your power right now by making some decisions you’ve been putting off. You won’t believe the energy and excitement it will create in your life.
The Power of Your Brain
What a magnificent gift we were born with! I’ve learned that our brains can help us accomplish virtually anything we desire. The brain’s capacity is nearly unfathomable29. Most of us know little about how it works, so let’s briefly focus upon this unparalleled30 vessel of power and how we can condition it to consistently produce the results we want in our lives. Realize that your brain eagerly31 awaits your every command, ready to carry out anything you ask of it.
When we do something for the first time, we create a physical connection, a thin neural strand that allows us to re-access that emotion or behaviour again in the future. Think of it this way; each time we repeat the behaviour, the connection strengthens. We add another strand to our neural connection. With enough repetitions and emotional intensity, we can add many strands33 simultaneously, increasing the tensile strength of this emotional or behavioural pattern until eventually we have a “trunk line” to this behaviour or feeling. This is when we find ourselves compelled to feel these feelings or behave in this way consistently.
Summary of Awaken the Giant Within By Anthony Robbins
Any pattern of emotion or behavior that is continually reinforced will become an automatic and conditioned response. Anything we fail to reinforce will eventually dissipate. We can reinforce our own behavior or someone else’s through positive reinforcement, that is, every time we produce the behavior we want, we give a reward. That reward can be praise, a gift, a new freedom, etc. Or we can use negative reinforcement. This might be a frown, a loud noise, or even physical punishment. It’s crucial for us to understand that reinforcement is not the same as punishment and reward. Reinforcement is responding to a behavior immediately after it occurs, while punishment and reward may occur long afterward.
Focus : The Power of Concentration
If you wanted to, couldn’t you get depressed at a moment’s notice? You bet you could, just by focusing on something in your past that was horrible. We all have some experience in our past that’s pretty bad, don t we? If you focus on it enough, and you picture it and think about it, pretty soon you’ll start to feel it. Have you ever gone to an awful movie?
The truth is that very few things are absolute. Usually, how you feel about things, and the meaning of a particular experience, is all dependent upon your focus. Focus is not true reality, because it’s one view; it’s only one perception of the way things really are. Think of that view—the power of our focus—as being a camera lens. The camera lens shows only the picture and angle of what you are focused on. Because of that, photographs you take can easily distort reality, presenting only a small portion of the big picture. Focus determines whether you perceive your reality as good or bad, whether you feel happy or sad.
IF YOU DON’T HAVE A PLAN FOR PLEASURE, YOU WILL HAVE PAIN
The whole key here is to create a huge list of ways to make yourself feel good so you don’t need to turn to those other ways that are destructive. If you link pain to the destructive habits and more and more pleasure to these new empowering ones, you’ll find that most of them are accessible most of the time. Make this list a reality; develop a plan for pleasure for each and every day. Don’t just randomly hope that pleasure will somehow show up; set yourself up for ecstasy.
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