Tony Robbins ‘Unleash The Power Within’ – Scam Or Real Breakthrough? Get An Inside Look…

Time to get a little vulnerable. I wrote this post shortly after UPW last November and thought I’d re share as it’s approaching that time of again! I threw myself at various psychology trainings when I moved to LA in January 2014, simply knowing there was stuff I had to work on. The plan was to stay 3 months and I’m still here. Oops.

Having spent the last 4 days at Tony Robbins’ event, Unleash The Power Within, I decided to divulge why I’ve been following this man. I used to be a little…secretive, should we say, about my recent escapades into personal growth since being in the US. I’m English, what can I say. I wonder what has shifted there. I have close friends and family who heckle me for going to his events and I’m ok with that. We’re all different and that’s what makes life interesting.

Besides seeing this 56 year-old man, almost freak of a human, perform for 12 hours a day on stage, having you completely focused and in a ‘peak state’, without hardly taking a break and with more energy than most 20 year-olds in the room, experiencing his cheek, whit, emotional side, authenticity beyond doubt, and also seeing Wim Hof, aka The Iceman amidst learning some freaking cool Egoscue fitness techniques…there were some “emotional fitness” reasons I went to scrub up on as well. Below is a snippet of a 30 second Egoscue workout…I’ll look at some of his health insights from Day 4 shortly – my favourite day of course.

Some people refer to Tony Robbins as a motivational speaker. For me, that’s like calling a brain surgeon a nurse. Not that I have anything against nurses or indeed motivational speakers. My point is, that Tony Robbins is way more than a motivational speaker. I see him as a leading authority in human psychology. Ask Serena Williams, Andre Agassi, Hugh Jackman, Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, the world’s most successful investors – one of whom he has coached for 23 years. See what he has done for them, and you start to uncover what he’s about.  See here for a little more: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/biography/

Many years ago I decided that the conventional career route wasn’t for me. In fact, I decided this in my late teens, yet pursued it for many years. When I started playing around with non-conventional methods to earn a living about 6 years ago, trying and testing all sorts of different things, I become acutely aware of my inability to focus on one task until completion. In fact, my concentration and focus during school was quite the task. I was told I had the concentration span of a goldfish and one teacher said in my school report that I was so laid back I was almost horizontal. I found that hilarious. My parents didn’t. This struggle continued during university and then during a masters in 2006. I could only complete tasks when I crammed my work in and did all-nighters. I was never an academic. I was the guy who always messing about in class. Outside class was always building stuff, working with my hands, a kinaesthetic type of learner and human being. Sat in one place behind my computer was not my “flow” – and still isn’t.

I got so frustrated with my inability to focus, that in 2012 I started blogging about various ways to focus your mind. I followed a curation model, much like Arianna Huffington did with the Huffington post before it grew enormously. I started a blog called WaysToFocus.com. I curated some pretty cool content even if I do say so myself. I was getting 1000 unique visitors a day at one point, then Google changed their algorithm and my site disappeared. I lost focus…

I decided to create a program called Procrastination To Profit, based on all the information I had learned, and then procrastinated about getting it out there. Something was missing. How could I sell a program to help people break through procrastination when I wasn’t implementing what I was teaching? That’s not cool. That’s not walking the talk. I have little respect for anyone who doesn’t walk the talk. I refused to be that guy. So I barely tried. Even though the content could have helped thousands of people. I didn’t feel legit though. Little did I know that my inability to focus wasn’t actually an inability to focus at all.

In 2011 I wrote my first ebook and launched it in 2012. It was called The Truth About Man Boobs. Don’t ask. (Quite an in demand problem would you believe). I was trying to model a super successful ebook called The truth About Abs. It became Mojo Multiplier the ebook. I made some sales and then….lost focus. Something was up in my mind. Something was limiting me. Something was preventing me from completing tasks. Something was unconsciously happening that I become increasingly more aware of. I was unconsciously sabotaging myself. Why would I do that?

As I was writing about ways to focus your mind, I kept on hearing quotes from this guy called Tony Robbins. I attended seminars in England and by chance, saw him at the National Achievers’ Congress in 2012. When I saw him on stage I was hooked. I started listening to his audio programs and began to figure out some of my crazy patterns of behaviour, addictions, thought patterns, some of which were truly negative; limiting beliefs and values, none of which were serving me. In fact, they were driving a giant wedge between my family and me and even some of my closest friends.

Back to Tony. Without his insights and teachings, there is no way I’d have created what I have created to this day. I’ve impacted more lives that I could ever dream would be possible. I’ve helped people reverse illnesses that have left their doctors baffled and impressed. I received The Southern California Sustainable Business Award for my The Inflammation Solution. I’m helping people realise they have the ability to heal their own body and come off medications (or rather their doctors are taking them off medications after they have worked with me) – all of which come with harmful side effects. I’m coaching people to burn record amounts of fat near effortlessly. One of my most recent clients has burned over 42 pounds of fat in just over 6 weeks. His arthritis has gone and his energy is through the roof. I’ve helped people reverse pre-diabetes, type-2 diabetes, high cholesterol, reduce high blood pressure, reverse arthritis – even Parkinson’s. It all starts with one thing….psychology. And a lot of what I teach, I get from none other than…Tony Robbins. I put a lot of the success my clients have had, down to my sharing with them lots of what I have learned from this man.

There’s no way I’d have found myself living in LA in the health and fitness capital of the US, meeting some of the brightest minds in health and performance, had I not started to implement Tony Robbins’ teachings. I’d still be getting “stressed out” over menial pointless sh1t. I’d still be focusing on the small stuff and not creating my future. I’d be playing small. I’d probably be depressed with insomnia – as I had once suffered for 16 months during my last employment between 2007 and 2009. Maybe I’d never have found my true purpose by my mid thirties.

I rarely allow myself to be stressed these days. I may get overwhelmed and frustrated – I can’t pretend I don’t, but every time I reach this state, I’m able to ask myself more empowering questions that enable me to find better answers and relax with faith. I used to beat myself up an enormous amount. I would get angry and upset. One of my favourite quotes of his is “the quality of your life is in direct relation to the quality of the questions you ask yourself.” Ask a sh1tty question, get a sh1tty answer. I used to ask myself: “What’s wrong with you?” Needless to say, the answers didn’t exactly propel me forward.

Time to be more vulnerable: I was also living the life of a victim for over a decade. I’d blame others for my lack of success. I felt 100% in my own right to blame those people and then I realised how toxic that emotion that was. Tony Robbins taught me about conscious blaming – if you’re going to blame others for where you are, blame them for all the good stuff too. And wow, that was easy. It put everything in a whole new light. I realised that living the life of a victim was a horrific state to be in and was only driving those closest to me away. Being rid of blame is one of the most powerful ways to find your power. I haven’t blamed anyone for anything for several years now. Now I ask myself: what have I learned from this valuable lesson that life has presented for me? What’s the gift in this ffffffffascinating situation that has showed up?

I realised that when you blame others for anything, you are not accepting full responsibility for your life. Living in ‘victim mode’ when you blame others leaves you powerless. You have absolutely no power to act. It immobilises you. You push others away in the process and harm those closest to you. I’m not perfect, and I’m a work in progress. Ultimately, what encapsulates everything about what Tony Robbins teaches is accepting full responsibility for your life. All of his teachings are worthless unless you accept full responsibility for your life – everything. For rape victims, this is a tough one to get their head around. But when they do, wow… The power it gives them? To find new meaning rather than to suffer? This is second to none the most incredible way to revive your power and move on. Tony Robbins often refers to the book by Victor Frankyl: Man Search For Meaning. I read that too. The author was able to survive the horrific conditions in concentrations camps – but not just survive, to find new meanings for the trauma.

A gem I heard form Tony Robbins a few years ago was that suffering comes from creating meaning for events that do not serve us. Really, every event, be it an argument or disagreement between two people is neutral. The only meanings they have are the meanings we give to them. And the meanings we give to events are based on stories from our past. We have those stories embedded in our unconscious mind – the dictator of all decisions by the way. Think you’re consciously making decisions? Think again… That little reptilian brain – our survival brain – is in full control most of the time – unless you learn how to control it.

I realised I was becoming addicted to my problems as they were satisfying a number of human needs out of certainty and uncertainty, significance, love and connection, growth and contribution. The last 2 are more higher level, spiritual needs. They weren’t being met. They are now. When you’re addicted to your problems, they can also become your identity – in your subconscious mind that is. You are not aware of it. This is also known as a negative identity. A lot of people with health problems are addicted to their problems believe it or not. It’s possible to become addicted to smoking, not because of the smoking itself, but by the fact you have developed an identity with it. Guess what our greatest addictions are….our problems. Get your head around that little badger.

Knowledge of this and how to get people to work around their health problem addictions, is one way how I’m able to get phenomenal results for my clients.

I could write for about a week on this stuff. I guess I can sum it up with…if there is any area of your life that you know needs work – be it your physical body/health (#1 value of course), relationships, intimate relationships, emotions and meaning, time, finances, career/work/mission, contribution, spirituality…it all starts with psychology. Success in anything in life is 80% psychology and 20% mechanics (give or take) according to Tony. It makes sense. We are not taught psychology growing up. And it’s pretty incredible just how shaped we are by the time we hit double digits. We have a blueprint. We have a money blueprint. Our limiting beliefs begin to get embedded deep. Very deep.

We all have limiting beliefs in certain areas of our lives that are preventing us from taking action, and finding out the origins is fascinating. What’s more fascinating is figuring out a way to move past them and ‘unleash your true power’ – your full potential.

This is where I might alienate you if I haven’t already: We are conditioned to be unconscious. We have been conditioned to not think for ourselves. We have been conditioned to accept the status quo. We have been conditioned to accept what life presents us – and to just deal with it. Fear engulfs us. How often do you watch the news and how much of it do you believe around health? Most of what I read around the subject is complete BS. One example of Bullshit Media is here, one written by an Oxford Researcher for The Guardian, a “reputable” newspaper. How can anyone learn how to heal their body when this is put in their faces?!

From a health perspective, we have been conditioned to just listen and accept what doctors tell us, without taking full responsibility for our health and deciding to do our own investigation. If we do, we are penalised. Doctors get penalised if they don’t follow protocol – which does not work for common illnesses and chronic diseases. We have been conditioned to give our power to heal our own bodies away to others. And many people end up intoxicating their bodies with harmful pharmaceutical drugs when they are almost never needed. And this is why we have such a gigantic health epidemic on our hands these days. Did you know medical bills are the #1 reason for bankruptcy in America? We can blame pharma. We can blame doctors. We can blame the media. We can blame “Ask your doctor for this drug” and lack of advertising regulations. We can blame a messed up government. Or…. We accept full responsibility and make a decision to take our health into our own hands and full ownership of our bodies.

Talking of health, what I love about Tony Robbins is the simplicity with which he explains things. I’ve not really heard much of his health advice until Sunday. He’s not actually an authority in health as he’ll openly admit. That said, he does mix with the best of the best and leaders in the field. A lot of what he said resonated with what I teach about inflammation and how to prevent disease. That is, that chronic disease does not just “strike” unlucky people. We create it. Disease is created out of an environment in our bodies that fuels disease. We’re putting toxins in our bodies every day that create the building blocks for disease and we are often thinking we’re being “healthy”. He said “Disease Is the Cure” – which is similar to how I have heard cancer referred to as “a symptom of toxicity in the body” and nothing else. It’s merely an action signal for change. Drastic change in some cases.

One of my favourite takeaways: We get energy from our cells. Cells require 3 main things to thrive: Oxygen, Water and Elimination of waste. They also require nutrients. Most of us are missing out at the most important part – oxygen, as we’re not breathing sufficiently. (We use the top third section of our lungs and neglect the bottom 2 thirds – where most of the most important capillaries are located.) Our blood is “the river of life” and it’s missing out on oxygen and water – as we are mostly dehydrated and drinking poor quality liquids and even the water supply is toxic. Cells die due to a lack of oxygen, disturbances in their electrical fields and physical rupture. So when we’re depriving our cells of oxygen and water what’s left? Drainage? Since we’re living sedentary lives for the most part, our cells throughout the body are not draining properly. No wonder we’re low on energy. We’re not eating for nutrient content. We’re eating what looks nice on packaging and we’re listening to advertising. We’re not consuming sufficient live enzymes from the likes of fresh veggies and fruits. There was a ton of emphasis on too much acid in the body too.

We’re not taught this at school. We are not taught nutrition in school. We are not taught why we must move our bodies or they break down and fall apart. We are not taught about the crucial importance to breathe properly and to get sufficient oxygen. We are not taught that our bodies have to move to drain waste. (Side note: Did you know there is a part of the immune system, the lymphatic system, that does not work unless your body is moving? It does not have a pump like your cardiovascular system does – your heart. And we live pretty sedentary live these days spending most of our time on chairs – the worst invention ever for our backs. Sitting really is, the new smoking.)

We are not taught psychology at school. Our parents to not teach us about psychology. Their parents did not teach them, and their parents’ parents did not teach them.

Is there something you want to do and you’re not doing? Which areas of your life are you wanting to change and are not taking action on? Are you coasting? Are others suffering because you’re not getting past certain setbacks? This is one of the greatest drivers for me.

I’ll conclude with this. I have now found my purpose. I have unleashed my power to take action. That’s why I love Tony Robbins. And I’ll be forever grateful.

But he’s not for everyone…

If you have a health challenge related to inflammation (which is most common illnesses and chronic diseases), I’d love to have a conversation with you. We can find out what is standing in the way of your ultimate version of you and figure out a way around it. Apply here.

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