A Breakdown for Breakthroughs: Takeaways from Tony Robbins

[William Allen]

Something that I like to do is go to events, read books, listen to podcasts and then distill them into the most useful nuggets of information to pass on to all of you. Recently I went with some of the 7 Figure Flipping team to a Tony Robbins event. Trust me, it pushed me outside of my comfort zone. I swore I wouldn’t be one of those people jumping up and down and yelling from excitement. But you know what? I followed the steps of the event and I was one of those people jumping up and down. I learned so much in four days it was tough to turn my 185 pages of notes into this blog, but here you have it; my takeaways distilled from four days with Tony Robbins.

Day 1: Beliefs

‘Most of you are here not because you are having trouble with the outside world but because you are having trouble with the inside.’

-Tony Robbins

1. You have to work through and beyond what is comfortable.

Right on the other side of your comfort zone is where the gains are. There is something out there that is bigger calling you, and it will ask you to get uncomfortable because that is where the magic happens, where true joy and LIFE happens.

Pro-tip: You can’t change what is happening if you aren’t being true to yourself by telling yourself the truth. We lie to ourselves to stay comfortable. 

1. Change Your Belief patterns and you will Change Your Outcomes.

Believe→Take Action→Get Results→Expand your belief in what you are capable of→Repeat. This helps us with our momentum and creates a cycle where we are living into our positive beliefs and not our negative ones.

Pro-tip: Get the results first. How do you do that? Visualize in vivid color. This forms a new belief in yourself when you can SEE yourself accomplishing what you want.Then take that vision, put it up on a wall and see it every single day. Emotion is built into that belief and you will see yourself start meeting those goals every single day.

1. Money doesn’t change people, it just magnifies who you are.

Money is a mirror to your soul. Sounds cheesy but think about it, who you are is how you see things. Human emotion is the quality of life that you have. Outer circumstances, such as money, just highlight who you are.

‘The state of my relationship is the state that I bring to it.’

-Tony Robbins

1. How we show up for other people is what we bring to the dynamic.

Focus more on what we are doing rather than what you aren’t doing. Your relationships will reflect what you are bringing to them. You are one half of the equation so it is up to you to take full responsibility for what you are adding to any dynamic.

1. There are two primary things we fear, ‘I am not enough or I won’t be loved.’

The point of knowing this is not to be fearless but to be courageous. Being courageous is feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Notice when you are stuck or unmotivated to move forward. Can you trace it back to one of these two fears?

1. What meaning you give things completely changes the outcome.

The same event can happen to two people but the meaning they give it changes how they handle it. If someone is diagnosed with terminal cancer they can use it as an opportunity to spend tons of time with loved ones and really love hard or they can be upset and bitter. The ‘why me, why me, why is this happening to me’ disempowers you in the situation, whereas being in full choice of how you respond to even the most difficult of circumstances is empowering.

Day 2: Momentum

‘Humans do more to protect what they have and where they are, then go get what they want.’ -Tony Robbins.

1. Change your mindset from ‘I should do something to I must do something.’

This shifts maybe to a certainty. Change is never a matter of ability but always a matter of motivation. There is a gap between where we are, to where we want to go. How do we fill that gap?

1. You have beliefs from the past that are inhibiting you from moving forward.

These beliefs are armor around your true essence. Let me give you an example, Do you hold the belief ‘As a business grows cash flow goes down?’ Ask yourself ‘Is that really true? How does that thought make you feel? Then ask yourself ‘If I never had that thought or limiting belief what would you do? You would probably feel excited right? Ready, go for it!

Pro-Tip: We don’t always know what we need until we get vulnerable and identify those limiting beliefs. What is holding you back is you.

Day 3: Transformation

‘If you are committed to achieving the level of lasting results you want and desire, you must have a proven game plan, outstanding coaching and an immersion experience that will compress years into days.’ -Tony Robbins

1. If you increase your standards, you increase your output.

What are your standards? What do you Accept? First answer these questions, then create a ritual around increasing your standards. The shift that we have made as a society from 40/50 years ago has elevated us to the point where everyone wants to achieve more and more. As a result all standards have been raised and now you have to meet and exceed them. Some of us have ‘good’ standards and these days good standards give you poor results and excellent standards give you good results. We have to show up outstanding because the movement is so small between excellent and outstanding….but it makes all the difference.

1. You achieve mastery through 3 things: Immersion, Coaching, & Daily Practices

1. Immersion - People who are achieving at a high level do so because their learning curve is exponentially shorter. When you are immersed you get years of education consolidated into days.
2. Coaching - You can’t be immersed all the time, so in between when you go back to real life you need someone to keep you accountable. A coach helps keep you in the mindset that will sustain your new mindset and come up with a plan to develop daily practices that will keep you moving forward.
3. Daily practices support where you want to go. A strategy isn’t always the right strategy. What you want is to find the right strategy for YOU. That is where a coach comes in. They put the puzzle pieces together and suddenly everything clicks. Your daily practices support the correct strategy for YOU that maybe you couldn’t see for yourself.

3. Certainty vs. Absolute certainty. We don’t get what we want, we get what we tolerate.

Certainty is an inside job, it happens in your heart. ‘Success leaves clues.’ Successful people combine absolute Certainty & high standards, with: immersion, coaching, daily practices, and heart-centered beliefs. You have to default to your heart not your head. Your heart will default to joy not fears.

1. Modelling--find someone who is successful and model yourself off of them.

This is one of your quickest routes to success. Watch someone who is where you want to be and model what you do after their plan. Of course you can adapt it to your personal needs but it is adapting a tried and proven model that will shortcut you to success.

Day 4: Health and Vitality

1. There is a big difference between being interested and being committed.

Interested people will allow all the voices and challenges convince them NOT to step forward and lean in, committed people will find a way forward no matter the circumstances.

1. Where you come from isn’t where you are going.

Everyone has a calling, most of us just ignore that little voice that keeps nagging us towards who we are really meant to be. There are moments you will hear the voice of your calling, those are the moments that you can ignore or lean into. You could be hiding in plain sight, a waitress who is really a CEO. Those moments aren’t when you quit, they are the moments where you decide to step into the greater plan meant for you.

There was so much more, but if I could leave you with one thing it is this:

The greatest thing you can do is believe that you can do it.

Now I want you to find a pencil and paper and answer these questions. Not tomorrow, not 10 minutes from now. Stop what you are doing right now and answer these questions.

What’s inside of you? Are you hiding in plain sight? What is calling you?

Sometimes all it takes is changing the questions you are asking. So for now, start with these and prepare to decide to get uncomfortable in order to become who you were always meant to be.