Master Your Emotions
Master Your Life
By Cynthia Logan
That ever-famous New Year's resolution
list is just around the corner. We all mean well and some of us
even keep the resolutions all the way into March! Wouldn't it
be great to have a personal trainer to help us make those positive
goals permanent? Many of us can't afford a "life coach,"
but the next best thing is as close as your nearest Barnes and
Noble. Anthony Robbins (the famous "Firewalk" leader
and author of "Awaken The Giant Within"), has a series
of motivational lessons that are truly empowering. Available on
either CD or audiocassette, the 30-day Personal Power II program
has the potential to galvanize you into action.
A master motivator (he prides himself in being able to help people
overcome lifelong phobias within minutes), Robbins is a passionate
speaker who has inspired millions through his books, seminars
and electronic recordings. He has worked with world leaders, the
U.S. military, Hollywood stars, business giants and sports heroes.
After a brief history of his own rise from a painful past, stunning
success and subsequent financial ruin to then achieving what he
considers "massive abundance in every area of life,"
Robbins identifies our basic drives as being towards pleasure
and away from pain.
Seems simple enough, but most of us have made it more complicated
by linking some of our worst habits with pleasure ("Hey",
says Robbins, "no one smokes to deliberately kill themselves")
and the things we say we want with pain (we may want to make more
money, but associate the work or commitment it would take with
more pain than with the pleasure we would get from having the
money). He points out that few people understand the power of
decision making. The word "decide" comes from the Latin
"decidere," which means "to cut off." In making
a definite decision, we are cutting off other possibilities, or
the possibility of not reaching our goal. A true decision means
no turning back!
Robbins' enthusiastic style and dynamic personality come right
through the medium, and can truly ignite the "power within."
Having read over 700 self-help and success books like Napolean
Hill's classic, "Think and Grow Rich," he offers a synthesis
of distilled wisdom at a pace and intensity even a New Yorker
would find invigorating. Each session contains principles, examples,
exercises and a "homework assignment." A focal concept
is that of "managing your states." He points out that,
in accordance with the latest scientific understanding, we create
our external reality by our internal states. "Your experience
of a situation is created by your brain firing off interpretive
reactions-reactions that you have the power to control,"
he states. The instruction on managing states includes what Robbins
calls, "Neuro-associative-conditioning," or NAC. Similar
to Neurolinguistic Programming (whose founder Robbins worked with),
NAC is a cornerstone in the Personal Power program. He conducts
a mini-session that teaches "anchoring" a positive emotional
state with a physical action that can later be a catalyst for
recalling the peak state at will.
According to Robbins, we don't just experience the emotions that
comprise our states, we actually create them through what he calls
"rituals." "You have a ritual you run when you
'get depressed'," he states. "You have particular things
you do with your body, your voice, your thoughts, etc. to create
what you call depression." He suggests listing five negative
and five positive emotions, then breaking them down step by step.
"For example," he says, "if you were going to teach
me how to be as motivated as you are, what would I need to do
to get there?"
In addition to managing your emotional states, knowing your values,
beliefs, and "the whys" behind your goals, Robbins suggests
finding a role model whose success you can emulate. And, though
he offers many tools, Robbins summarizes just four steps to success:
1) Know your outcome; what do you want? It's amazing that, for
many of us, desires are very generalized. Since clarity is power,
capturing a specific desire and putting it down on paper can be
empowering in and of itself. It also stimulates the brain's "reticular
activating system," which acts like a filter, setting up
synchronicities all around you. (Once you've decided to buy a
yellow car, for instance, you begin to notice yellow cars everywhere-that's
the RAS working); 2) Get yourself to take action. "Action
carries with it power, whereas inertia binds you to stagnation,"
he says. Robbins is big on creating "leverage," and
suggests writing down all the reasons NOT taking action will bring
you pain, and the reasons taking the action will result in "massive"
pleasure; 3) Notice whether or not the action you took is working-doing
so requires what Robbins describes as "sensory acuity"-pay
attention and notice the impact of your action; 4) If your strategy
isn't working, change your approach. "Flexibility is power,"
says Robbins. "Don't stick to a plan or even a goal that
isn't bringing you the results you want." He cites airplane
pilots staying on course by constantly shifting direction and
making corrections in flight as an example of staying on course.
Another practical piece of the program is Robbins' problem-solving
strategy. "Spend 20% of your time and energy in identifying
the challenge, then spend 80% of your time on finding the solutions,"
he advises. "Your brain can answer any challenge or problem
if you ask effective questions." He admonishes us to "stay
out of overwhelm and stay resourceful," pointing out that
some of the most satisfying moments in life come from taking on
a challenge that seems overwhelming and solving it creatively.
He suggests asking the following questions in a difficult situation:
1) What's great about this? Or, what could be great about it?
2) What's not perfect yet? 3) What am I willing to do to make
it the way I want it? 4) What am I willing to no longer do in
order to make things the way I want them? And, 5) How can I do
what is necessary to get this job done and enjoy the process?
Robbins stresses that the quality of our lives is determined by
the questions we ask ourselves on a daily basis. What do you ask
yourself first thing in the morning? Is it something like, "Why
do I have to get up this early and go to work"? If so, it
may not be the best question you could be asking. Why not ask,
"What can I learn today"? or "What can I do to
improve the quality of the service (or product) I offer"?
As he sums up succinctly, "It's not what we can do, it's
what we will do that determines our destiny." If you're not
living the life you dream of, ask better questions, get some clear,
definite goals, learn how to manage your states and create some
positive rituals that will assist you to monitor and choose your
emotions. Find a role model you can emulate. And consider investing
in the Personal Power II CD or tape series. Robbins own personal
power is strong enough to help you make and maintain positive
changes in every area of life-a life you can, as he often says,
"live with passion."