Tony Robbins (with the help of his editors) distilled the work of all the self help gurus of earlier generations into this one book.

I wrote this product review to earn a Merit Badge back in 2013. (For additional information see this: "Note: It's another... Merit Badge Challenge! Th..." by The StoryMaster .)

Today May 10,2016, I am going to add a little bit to this product review.

I own two of Robbins books. I bought Awaken The Giant Within   first and read it through pretty much in one day. Since then, I have read and reread much of it. It is a relatively well-written book.

Something he did throughout this book was to reference his first book: Unlimited Power  . Guess what I did quite quickly after reading Awaken The Giant Within  ?

I went straight to a bookstore and purchased his first book.

Guess what I found? A POORLY WRITTEN BOOK!

You can tell that after the success he had with that first poorly written book, a published and editor worked with him to produce his second book. The difference is very, very noticeable.

Both of these tidbits are food for thoughts for all of us looking for success as writers, eh?

I applied some of techniques with good results.

What follows was added in May 2016:

There was a specific technique I want to write about today. I can not remember if it is referenced in Robbins second book. I believe that it is but that it is covered in more detail in his first book. Either way, he is the person in whose writing I discovered this technique. I am going to share both a blurb about the technique and an example of how I used it and it helped me.

I am going to use an outline to guide my writing a bit:

Looking a life as adjustable...

I can't remember what Anthony Robbins called this but I can remember what it entails and how to do it:

First, bring to mind two incidents or things from your past: one really good thing and one bad thing.

Second, bring the good thing to mind and ask yourself some questions about it:

Is is light or dark?
Is your recall of it like a photo or like a movie?
Is it loud or quiet?
What do you hear?

There was a long list of questions like this in his book. I probably remember these because they are the ones that had an impact on my life.

Other questions might be things like: Was it blurry or clear. Close or far? Even things like: Which direction do your eyeballs move when you think of it?

Anyway, after you do all this with the first memory -- the good one. (I would suggest writing down the answers to these questions.) The next step is to do the very same thing with the bad memory.

Third, compare the two lists. Look for differences between them.

Fourth, now, pretend you can adjust what you see like you might adjust your television.

Do you have something you are worried about? Bring it to mind and turn up the volume or turn it down. Change it from a photo to a movie or vice versa. You get the idea. You want to make what you see, hear, feel as you think about what's troubling you so that it matches the different aspects of these things when you call your really good memory to mind.

Now here is my personal example:

My husband had been physically abusive to me. I had had him arrested. I had gotten an order of protection. Eventually, he and I had reconciled. I asked the judge to alter the order of protection so the we could live together but he was still not allowed to hurt me or to destroy my property.

There came a day he destroyed a bunch of my property and he was arrested for violating the order of protection.

As the day of his trial approached, he and his lawyer were suggesting the I would regret having filed charges against him. They alluded to ripping me apart on the stand. He gave me the impression he would deny everything and it would be his word against mine.

I was so stressed out as I thought about the impending trial. That was the upsetting thought I brought to mind and used this technique on.

Here are two points I remember:

First, my good memory was light and my bad memory was dark. When I thought about facing my husband and his attorney in court, the scene of the courtroom in my mind's eye was dark. So, I used my imaginary brightness control and lightened the scene up.

The second thing I remember is the thing that had the biggest impact on me: what I heard. in my good memory, I heard me. In my dreaded confrontation in the courtroom scene in my mind, I heard my husband. I heard his attorney. I may have even heard the judge. I did NOT hear me or if I did, it was a weak, quiet barely audible voice. Actually, in the tortuous scene, I never managed to state a complete thought before one of those other voices would cut me off.

That was about to change. I took hold of the imaginary knob that controlled the volume. I turned all their voices DOWN and I turned my voice UP.

The whole experience changed for me when I made this last adjustment. The light was the first adjustment, there were some others that did not seem quite as significant and then there was this last one -- and I was FREE!

Literally, I was no longer troubled by the feelings of anxiety that arose whenever I thought about the impending trial. Actually, as I look back, I was no longer bothered by the impending trial much at all and gave it much less thought than I had before.

This technique had given me relief.

It might work for YOU, too.

Some of the things Robbins suggests when dealing with others seem manipulative and unethical to me. Take what you like and leave the rest. It is what I did.

Created Jun 04, 2013 at 1:51pm

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Created Jun 04, 2013 at 1:51pm • Submit your own review...