3 Key lessons from Awaken the Giant Within
Tony Robbins and his work are more relevant today than 4 decades ago.
There are many different self-help books that you can get and most of them have an idea or two. Or in case of compositions like the “Seven Habits of highly effective people” — they have less than a dozen parables that you may apply. Rarely does a book come out that is like a tool-kit for improving on yourself. This book written thirty years ago, might be the only book you need for 2021, even if it the only book you read all year. And it can change your life.
It is very rare to come across a book with as many tools and as comprehensive as this book , and at the point of overselling it – I am reiterating it.
There are many tools available there from figuring out what you want in your life, goal-setting and how to go about achieving them, working on your relationships, prioritising your values and pivoting to ensure your life achieves them etc. Listed down below are three key simple ideas I took away from that book (amongst the many others)
1. Use more words for (your) emotions
An average adult who can converse well in the english language has in repertoire about a couple of thousand words that he understands. However, to refer to our own regular emotional states — we use fewer than a dozen. In fact in my case it was less than five — angry, sad, depressed, happy, tense — were all I thought I experienced mostly.
But what if I could be ‘miffed’ when I couldn’t find my find my flavour of ice-cream at the Supermarket ? What if I could be ‘annoyed’ when my email wasn’t replied to ? What if I could be ‘disappointed’ when none of the jobs I applied to got back to me ? The use of more descriptive and accurate emotional language had twin benefits for me — it stopped me from feeling the same emotion and its intensity over and over again, and it brought more appreciation for how I felt and made me feel different each time over. I did not feel ‘angry’ in all my circumstances.
2. Feeling better isn’t just about your life circumstances
Most of us think that getting that job, making a downpayment for that condo (or better buying it), dating that girl or getting that iPhone would make us happier. But that just doesn’t workout that way. Most of us get on a Hedonic treadmill without really thinking about why that is.
Tony starts out with many powerful sections where he makes it clear that you can be happy or rather should be fulfilled before being successful, otherwise it all ends up to nothing. And that is a powerful realisation as well, because you do not need so many of the things that you need to be happy.
Second, tying up your happiness to a single goal may mean you neglect many important other sections of the world. At the very least, you need to attend to yourself at a personal level, your family and friends, work, your community and the world at large and there may be multiple avenues and streams within each of those areas as well.
3. Clarifying Desires and Destinations
Most people do not have a values hierarchy or a goal hierarchy. Like how important is money to you over honesty ? Or Compassion over integrity ?
Tony offers in this book exercises and worksheets to clarify and think about your values and your goals and make them into a hierarchy so that your life can sync up to what you value. Of course achieving this would be difficult if you didn’t actively know what mattered to you and in what order of priority.
Whether you are stressed, calm, successful or just have been laid off during this dump of a pandemic — this is a book which will add massively to your life. Get a copy and work on improving your life!
