What We Talked About

I have just spent a few meaningful hours in the company of Anthony Robbins -- there were a few hundred (thousand?) others but he was talking to me, me, me.

Oh my god I love this man. First of all, he is HUGE in every respect -- huge personality, huge head, teeth, hands like plates. But mostly, he is a huge presence and you could call him god-like except for his profane and totally guy-next-door way of speaking. It's great, really -- god made man.

What's brilliant about Tony, and I feel I can call him that, is that he was SO far ahead of the curve, a huge wave currently flowing through psychology, books, self-help. First of all, he was the original coach, back when we didn't have coaches for everything from potty training to career building, when coaches were the gruff guys on the field. Now it's an industry and an industry created by my good friend Tony.

But more than that, he was onto something WAY before even the shrinkiest shrinks cottoned on. He recognized that if you start to think differently, you THINK DIFFERENTLY -- that changing your mind changes your mind. Oh I know this sounds like one of those zen riddles that mean nothing (what animal walks on four legs then two then three etc etc) but it is true. There is a movement today in plasticity, psychiatrists and neurologists coming together to really understand that the brain and the mind are one, and that changes in thinking can change the chemistry and the physical nature of the brain itself. Which in turn changes psychology. And so on and so on. Tony caught on to that idea early. He also recognized that we are physical beings, and that our physiology - the very way we move - changes the way we see the world.

Tons of books have been spawned via his thinking. The Success Principles by that chicken soup guy Jack Canfield or Canned Field. The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge. O Magazine. Tons of stuff.

Oh my, I do love my Tony.

He is so right. Stand up, jump, shout YES! and then how do you feel? My heavens, you FEEL BETTER!

But there is more. He stands for the proposition that you live your life, it doesn't live you; that you have the power to change, that pain is a sign of a misalignment between what your blueprint of life is and your actual life, or a misalignment between your STATE of mind, or your STATE as Tony calls it, and where you need to be.

He has some good mantras but that's not all he's about -- though lots of pretenders to his throne might be only mantrasities. For example, in life "I hope this works out" is not a decision. It's a preference. So, not powerful enough to qualify for what you need to do to live the best life you can. Or, how's this one: "Your STATE of mind when you learn affects what you learn." Think about that for a moment. Or this: When in pain, you have three choices (and only three): Blame. Change your life conditions. Or, change the blueprint of what you wanted out of life.

It is utterly simple. It is utterly human. It is utterly correct. It only looks simple and obvious because he's been able to articulate it so clearly.

My Tony has changed my life. Watch me go.