Tony Robbins || Get The Edge (Day 2)

[Music] Thank you. Hi, this is Tony Robbins, and welcome back to session number two in "Get The Edge." How do we transform our bodies, our emotions, our finances, our relationships, and our life?

First, I want to congratulate you for making it to session number two. Because, as you probably know, this blows my mind. Most people will invest in a book, a tape, something to change their life, and the minute they get it, they feel comfortable. The minute they get it, they feel no more drive to create a change. And so they look at the package and they feel good, and they put it on the shelf. Very few people will ever read past the first chapter in a book. For example, I remember reading years ago that less than 10 percent of people buy a book read past the first chapter. Well, the first session in an audio program is the equivalent of the first chapter. So if you're here, I know you're one of the few who do versus the many who talk. And I want to welcome you back.

Here's our focus in this session. There are patterns of success, and there are patterns of failure. What I mean by that is that success leaves clues. People who succeed are not lucky. People that are happy on a consistent basis are not just born under the right star. There are certain things they do on a regular basis to make them happy. People that are physically fit and vital and healthy and energetic are not just born with that. They have a pattern of things they think about and they do.

So, in our first session, we wanted to get you to establish a pattern, an ultimate pattern that would give you time with yourself so that you would focus on the things that matter most and not get sucked into the hypnosis of the culture that says, "Just go, go, go, go, go, go, and maybe one day wake up someday and you'll be happy." You know, someday when I have more money, someday when my kids grow up, someday when my kids finally get out of school, someday when I find that person, someday when I get that raise. But of course, the road to Sunday leads to a town called Nowhere. It never shows up.

So, what I really want to do with you today is I want to have a session with you that I call a "Results Workshop." This is not just listen passively and kind of understand stuff. Well, you can do that in the beginning, but I'm going to take you through seven steps that will help you, you to absolutely take yourself from having an idea to actually making it work, from having a complaint to having the results you deserve. And it's really simple, and we'll make it fun.

But first, before we do that, one thing we've got to look at is what prevents you from following through? What's preventing you from taking action? And let's relate this both to what we talked about yesterday in creating this beautiful Hour of Power, you know, this commitment to yourself, this connection with yourself, but what's also related to dietary change or any other change you want to make. Why don't we follow through? And then let's say, what does it take to follow through? And then let's just do it.

Well, the first thing to realize is the difference in people's lives is the difference in their standards. Now, I know that sounds pretty darn basic, but when I say to people, "What does it take to change your life?" the first thing I always say is, "Raise your standards." Now, when you raise your standards, how basic can you get? What I mean is, you've got to turn your "shoulds" into "musts." Everybody's got a list of the "shoulds." "I should do this. I should follow through. I should go on a diet. I should do my Hour of Power. I should spend more time with my kids. I should make more cold calls in my business." But don't actually do anything. What you've got to do is make it a "must." When something is a "must," you follow through.

But most of us don't, because we think, you know, it's too big a task, or it's overwhelming, or we just flat don't really believe that we're going to get the result. Very often, what we do is we focus on the process we have to go through instead of the outcome. I mean, most people that own their own business, if I ask them today, "If you knew all you had to go through to make this business succeed, would you've even started?" And most of them laugh and say, "I don't know that I would." See, people that succeed, they focus on how they're going to feel at the end of the process. People that never start look at what they've got to go through.

So let me tell you up front, this day is a "Results Workshop." Again, what that means is I'm like every other day except the relationship day. This is going to be two CDs or a large audio tape, which means you can choose to split this in half, and I'll let you know at the halfway point, and you can make this a 10-day program if you want instead of seven days. Not bad to have 10 days to change your life, but I want you to really take the time here to make the changes, to walk through these seven steps. Because if you do, the changes can be extraordinary. If there's something you keep talking about doing and you're not following through, I promise you, as you go through these seven steps, you're going to find out not only why you're not doing it, but what you need to do to change it. And you can do it today. So stay with me, okay?

And, you know, this may seem unreasonable to take time for yourself each day. It's an unreasonable amount of time, an hour for yourself. I think that's ridiculous, and I know you probably do too. You wouldn't be listening to this. But a lot of people think that way. And you know what? Unreasonable people rule the world. You know, it's unreasonable to think a man can be locked up for 27 years against his will when he did nothing wrong, but Nelson Mandela not only went through that process but came on the other side and came out and said, "No, let's work together. Bring the country together." Anyone would have understood if he wanted to kill everybody who took a quarter of a century of his life. But he's an unreasonable man. That's why he's respected. To think some nun who had no money and no background and no political contacts could literally help people that were dying in more than a hundred nations around the world, and then when she actually passed away, virtually every leader, major leader in the world would come to her funeral. Would seem ridiculous. But Mother Teresa was an unreasonable woman. An unreasonable amount of love for people that no one else would love. Get unreasonable, and everything's possible. If you get reasonable, you're gonna have to lower your standards and drop down to what everybody else expects. And if you get your expectations down at the same level as the average person, you can have an average life. Nobody listened to a program like this, certainly not you, and I would ever settle for that.

So, if I'm intense, no, it's because the more you demand of yourself, the more you're going to get out of this program. Because remember what we said, only one thing creates an extraordinary life: an extraordinary mindset, an extraordinary psychology. Remember the three things you've got to have to feel great or to feel bad. If you're going to feel great or bad, you've got to change the way you use your body. So, even if you're listening to me here, maybe sit up in your chair, or if you're walking, breathe and feel strong. And second thing, you're going to do is focus on what it is you want instead of what you've got to go through. If you focus on the result of what you want to change and how good you're going to feel at the end of this, then these two CDs will whip by in no time. And you can stop them if I get talking too fast and crazy and take a breath and go, "This guy's nuts." But you know, he's pushing me, and that's a good thing. What else you've got to do? Give things a powerful, positive meaning. If you find something in these seven steps you don't like about the way you've been believing and the way you've been acting, that's good. Don't beat yourself up. Just say, "You know what? Now I know it, so I can change it." And thirdly, remember to watch your language. Those language patterns. When you say, "Oh, do I have to do this?" No, you *get* to do it. This is your gift to yourself.

So, let's answer that first question here. We spent the first CD or or cassette tape talking to you about giving yourself time for yourself, a time to enjoy, a time to lock in what you want, a time for gratitude, a time to really program yourself for the kinds of successes you deserve. So why wouldn't people take that time out? Well, one reason is that people see the exercises involved, and people have an interesting association to exercise. That's why I say, "Just start by moving." Right? But what happens is, we're not in practice. As a culture, we're not conditioned to discipline our focus, to discipline our bodies, to move ourselves. In fact, the word "discipline" for most people has a negative connotation, doesn't it? But the truth is, anyone who's done it for a while loves that word because it gives you pride, it gives you excitement. You love the feeling of knowing that discipline just means you are in charge, that when you say something to yourself, you do it, that your word means something. That is power. And most people don't have that. That's why they fear discipline. They think discipline means a lack of freedom. When discipline equals freedom. Discipline is, "Man, I don't even have to think about it. I decide, and I do." That has power.

But why don't most people do it? They don't have practice at it. They've not conditioned themselves to do it. They just have no experience in it. And then they don't get there for the following reasons. First, number one reason: they rationalize. Now, we all rationalize at times, don't we? What's rationalization? It's when you tell yourself a story, when you come up with a reason why it's okay not to do something. You don't say, "It's okay." You just go, "Well, it's, you know, I know it's important, but..." or "You know, I'm really committed to it, but..." Whenever you hear somebody say "but," they usually have a big one because what happens is they haven't followed through. They're coming up with excuses about why not to do something, and so they don't do it. So they sit around, they never get the result they want.

See, the people say, "What are some of the rationalizations? What are some of the stories?" Because I always tell people, I said this to you in the first session, I hope you heard it: The only thing keeping you from what it is you really want is the story you have about why you can't have it. So, what's that story? Well, sometimes, "I don't have the time." Listen, this is the only thing that is equal in all of humanity. We do not have equal opportunity. We do not have equal strength or intelligence or background or education or love. The only thing that's equal is the amount of hours we have. And so the truth of the matter is, you have all the time there is. Whatever you make a "must," you will make happen. If it's a "should," it'll happen only if it comes together. So it's not "you don't have time" because who creates your schedule? So I'm responsible to everybody, then taking an hour less of sleep and give this to yourself. I guarantee you're going to get further by this hour of focus and movement than you're ever going to do by sleeping. And most people sleep way too much anyway. They're sleeping their life away.

But here's the real question: Not what other people do, what do *you* do? Honestly, how do you rationalize not doing things? What's the most common rationalizations? In fact, in a moment, I want to turn this tape off because I bet there's a pattern. Remember, we said there are patterns to success and patterns to failure. I'd like to stop for a second. I want you to write down, just for two minutes. I want you to turn off your tape, or if it's a CD, don't turn it off, just put it on pause. You don't lose your place. And I want you to write down, "What are the most common reasons why you don't do things? What are the stories you tell yourself?" Because you can discover the same story about exercise you use for other things you don't do. I want you to take a moment and be honest with yourself, because the antidote to rationalization is self-honesty. And there's immense power in that. Do you agree with me on this? So, if you're just in your car and you can't write, pull over. You can write. Grab a pen. All right? Get real. This is your life. It'll only take you a minute. Pull over, or at least do what you had. Turn the tape off right now. Turn the CD off right now and write down at least five rationalizations you use not to follow through. Go.

Well, welcome back from your rationalization exercise. Now, what did you learn? Oh, I played what? When I did this, I learned that I was one lying sack of something. I was just telling myself story after story. Did you find that out too? Were you honest with yourself? Seriously. Here are the common things people say. The first thing is the one we've already covered: "Because I just don't have time." You'll hear all kinds of patterns around time, by the way. So, "I don't have time." That's the most common one. But then other people say things like, "Well, I can do it tomorrow." They just manipulate time. It's the ultimate "manana" syndrome, and "manana" never comes.

So, this is one of the biggest rationalizations. And what this becomes, understanding how to change, becomes understanding "The Power of Now." See, when you begin to understand the power of now, it's amazing what occurs. Now is what you can do in a moment. The reason people don't start things very often, why they feel they have to rationalize, is they think doing the project is going to be too difficult, it's going to cost them something: time, energy, money, resources. And they want something else. They want immediate comfort. They want to feel good in this moment. They say, "Well, I'm too tired," or "It'll take too long," or "It's too far." There's all kinds of these "too"s that hang out with people. And the pattern of "it's too something" is really that the person has made what they need to do too big in their head.

So, one thing you've got to do is understand the Power of Now and understand the power of "chunking," which simply means instead of rationalizing, saying, "Okay, I'm going to do one thing right now. Let me just make one phone call on this. Let me write one paragraph. Let me go out and just walk for 10 minutes." Because see, I used to say, "I don't have the hour." So I said, "You know what? I've got 10 minutes." You know, or I've got 20. There's no excuse not to work out for 15 minutes. I can walk for five, be grateful, and run for 15, and I'll get a good sweat up. But I can be back in 20 minutes and rock and roll. There's no excuse for that." And you know what's happened? I've never gone out and worked out for 20 minutes because once you get out there and you start getting into state, you get momentum, don't you? Or I say, "Okay, I'm just going to make one phone call." I make one. Just getting out of the chair, making a phone call. Now I'm in the chair. Why don't I make three phone calls? I'm pretty soon I make ten, and I get in a conversation, then I get stimulated, then I'm in state, right?

This is the kind of thing that happens. It also happens on the negative side. You go, "Well, you know, I'll just take a minute to rest here." Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Because once that butt is in the chair, right? Once something gets in motion, it tends to stay in motion. Once something stops, it tends to stay there, right? So you can't let that happen. "I'll just watch one TV program." Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Then you'll watch the next inane thing because you need completion, don't you? Because you get in state. Momentum is a powerful way to overcome rationalization. Momentum and chunking.

So, you've got to start looking at things in a different way. Instead of saying, "Well, I just need my freedom right now. I need my space right now. I need to rest right now. I need to get out of stress." Let me tell you something, the fastest way out of stress is to work out. Think about it. Most people say, "Oh, stress is because we're so hyped up." What you need to do is get rid of the stress that's in your body. And the only way to do this is push through your comfort zone, change your focus, push your comfort zone, and watch how great you feel. The stress will disappear. So most people are avoiding the very thing that would free them. They're avoiding the very thing that would free them also from the feelings that they have that they have this huge project to deal with. Just do it.

And in the context of your Hour of Power, there's no excuse. You should wake up and move. Throw on your clothes and go. Throw on your attention to go. Don't even take time to think. Make it a habit that when you roll out of bed into your shoes, you roll out of bed into your gear. If you'll do that, you'll have momentum. You won't have time to rationalize. You'll be busy rationalizing while you're walking, and by the time it'll be too late. Okay? So setting up systems is a great way. But the first step is identifying what you're doing. A good job of here. What is the story you're telling yourself about why you can't do this? "It'll be better tomorrow. I don't have time. I'm too tired. It's too late. It's too far. It might not work." Or "It might work, and it'll be more successful, and it'll be even more busy. They have no time." Whatever story you're telling yourself, drop the story. Because what I've learned is that most people lie to themselves, and that those lies are sucking the juice out of your life. Honesty, even if it's a little uncomfortable, creates freedom. And so the real freedom is when you can tell yourself the truth and you can act upon it quickly and not sit there and think about it forever.

I remember I met General Schwarzkopf for the first time many years ago, as a good friend. And when I first met him, I was talking about, "What is it that a leader must do?" And he said, "Tell the truth. Tell the truth to himself. Tell the truth to the troops." And that's what leaders got to do. Get people and tell the truth to each other. He said, "Because I gotta tell you something, no organization, whether it be the Army, whether it be a business, or whether it be an individual, nothing gets better until you admit something's wrong." And no one wants to admit that because it sounds so horrible. No one wants to be wrong. But you know what? If it's not at the level you want it, it's wrong. If it's not the level that you'd be proud of, it's wrong. Because you deserve to have it right. Have it at the level you deserve. Living on the edge of what is possible, living at the peak, living life at that level of fulfillment. And that only happens when you stop telling the story, you stop rationalizing, you tell yourself the truth.

Now, some people say, "Well, I'm not lying to myself." But what they're doing is they're using "softeners." You know what I mean by that? Like, and someone says, "Well, it's not that bad. It's a month of summer. I mean, I'm only a few pounds overweight." Or they compare to something else. They say things like, "Well, you know, I'm much better than I used to be." It makes himself feel good. Because if you feel bad, you've got to do something to change. And if you feel good, you don't have to change. You lose the drive. You don't want to lose your drive. Most people are constantly trying to make themselves feel good without actually changing anything. When you do that, you train yourself to accept mediocrity. And mediocrity, by the way, doesn't mean compared to other people. Mediocrity is anytime you settle for less than who you really are. Because even though you may be doing much better than anybody around you, maybe hanging around with the wrong people to hang around with, and you just do it because it makes you feel good. You know, the only thing that makes us feel good long term is living life at our level.

I remember I met years ago John Wooden, the UCLA basketball coach, the winningest coach of all time in college basketball history. Won 11 out of 12 national championships, NCAA championships, and he won seven in a row. I mean, the most anybody else has won in a row is three in a row of national championships. Now, this guy was a genius. And I'll tell you, he won more than anybody, but he didn't focus on winning. He focused on getting guys to tell the truth. He focused on eliminating rationalization. And the way he did it is he said, "Here's a real simple thing. I want you men to know at the end of every game, only you will know whether you really won or lost. And it will not be based on the points on the board. Because there's some times when you play nowhere near your potential and you beat the other team just because they're terrible or 'cause you got lucky. And if you got more points on the board, but you didn't give your all, you're a loser. Because in life, what you give, you get to keep. What you fail to give, you lose forever." He said, "If at the end of the day, you got fewer points on the board, but you gave every ounce of your soul on that court, you know you walk away the winner. Because they may have been lucky, they may have had more skill, they may have had a better team, but they didn't get more out of themselves." Winning and losing in life is an internal game, and it comes from telling yourself the truth. And if you do that, if every day you demand more from yourself than other people would expect, you give your all, you're gonna most often with more points on the board than the other team.

So, we've got to tell ourselves the truth, and we can't use softeners. You can't say, "Well, I'm a little overweight. You know, I'm a bit robust." No, your butt is bigger than Chicago. You're fat. Tell yourself the truth. 'Cause until you do that, you have no reason to change.

So, the reason people don't change: Number one, they're out of practice. Number two, they rationalize. They tell stories. They use softeners. They lie to themselves. Third reason is they've got an ineffective strategy. Some people, they're willing to go for it, and they're not even rationalizing, but you know, they're running east looking for a sunset. And I don't care how positive you are, I don't care how committed you are, I don't care how your standards are. If you've got a strategy that doesn't work, you've got a problem.

And let me tell you, the number one thing that doesn't work for people, since our first focus here is to get an extraordinary life and extraordinary psychology, is getting an extraordinary body, right? And if you're going to have that extraordinary body, you've gotta have this time to make it strong every day, increase that metabolism, feel that feeling of power and passion in your body. But you know what most people do? They want to look good. And so their primary strategy has changed their diet. And they do that alone. Diet alone is never going to give you the level of health you deserve. It's a critical component, but diet alone is not enough. Because what happens when you diet? Well, the very simple thing occurs is, as soon as you start the diet, what are you doing? You're depriving yourself. Well, as soon as you deprive yourself, guess what happens? The body's not getting as much. So it starts to use some of the fat built inside of you. And sure enough, you start to lose weight. Step two. But after you deprive yourself and lose weight for a while, there's a point when you get sick of depriving yourself. So what do you do? You binge. Step three. And when you binge, what happens? You gain back the same weight, usually a few pounds more. Because when you go on a diet where you're limiting your calories, one simple thing occurs: the body knows it has to conserve its energy. So what it does is it gets better at storing fat. So when you finally go to eat, your metabolism is dropped. It takes less food for you to gain fat faster. That's why five days out of the week, you've gotta have your Hour of Power. You're out there moving, exercise, and sweating at least to level seven, so you get that energy up. That's why you want to build some muscle on your body. So why it's critical.

But I'll give you an example of an ineffective strategy. Somebody who didn't rationalize for the most part, right? Was willing to discipline herself because we'll do almost anything. Was not using softeners. It was on the public stage, an amazing lady, Oprah Winfrey. Let's take a look at Oprah for a second. Here's a woman who is totally determined, strong, successful, an achiever, making a difference. But she also has incredibly high standards for herself. This woman really cares about people. This is not just some story. She's not just out to make some money. She is out there every single day of her life trying to connect with people on the raw edge of human emotion. And if she's out there giving her all, being a role, and also wanting to be the best, always, she's always raising her standards. She doesn't compete with anybody else. She's always trying to do better than she did the year before. That creates stress. That's just natural.

Now, Oprah's way of dealing with that stress started a long time ago when she got her first job back in Baltimore, working for the news there as an anchor. She was 140 pounds. But you know what? When she got that great opportunity, without additional stress, "Am I doing well enough? Am I good enough? Am I strong enough? Am I achieving enough?" And maybe even the fear about, "Will I be loved?" Some of those unconscious drives make us stress. Stress equals fear. Sure enough, she dealt with that, and she slowed herself down and comforted herself through food. She'd stop by the mall and she'd go buy all those little stalls they have, you know, little potato stall where they put lots of cheese all over a big potato with everything else on earth in it. There was another stall for pizza, you know, that deep dish stuff. And then there was another stall where they make her an 18-inch chocolate chip cookie, or they put one in with macadamia nuts. And she could really go. And she'd go stop at all three places, you know, and guess what? She felt good. She was certain she could be comfortable, right? She was connecting with herself. She was rewarding herself for a job well done, allowing her stress to disappear.

Well, as a result, you might guess her weight started to grow and started expanding pretty rapidly. So much so that at one point, she was invited to Chicago to try out for a coveted morning spot on a talk show, a show that later would become "The Oprah Winfrey Show." But all the way there, she had incredible anxiety thinking, "When they see me, it's over. They want a little skinny white blonde, and I'm this heavy-set African-American woman. There's just no way." And sure enough, the man who saw her there saw her talent above all else, and he said, "I want to give you the job." She said, "Don't you see? Don't you notice that I'm black? Don't you notice that I'm not blonde? Don't you notice that I'm fat?" He said, "Maybe you didn't notice me." And he lifted up his shirt and showed his big belly to her. For him, it didn't matter.

So, guess what? Oprah Winfrey got herself this morning talk show. And the interesting thing happened was there was no demands on her. So she ate some more. And pretty soon, she was out of control. It got to the point where, literally, at one stage, only a year later, she was described in Time or Newsweek as "the Big Mama of the South." And she hated reading that and made her decide she's going to do something. She didn't want to be known as that kind of person. Do you want to be known as fat? She was more than that.

So she went on the Atkins diet. Sure enough, you know, the diet where you eat all the fat you can possibly consume and try and convince yourself you're being healthy, right? Eat nothing alive, no fruit, no vegetables, nothing else. And then you pee on a stick, as she says, just to see whether or not you're breaking down too fast, creating too much acid in your system. You lose weight on it, all right? Your body figures out how to get rid of every ounce of water in the system to try and get rid of the acid. In an incredibly unhealthy way to live, your body starts breaking down, and boy, do you smell like it. You better make sure you've got plenty of breath mints when you're on that diet. And Oprah attests to it whenever she talks about those days.

But, you know what? She lost herself 10, 12, 14 pounds. Of course, she gained it back within three or four weeks. Then it was the Scarsdale diet. Lose the weight, gained it. Then it was the Beverly Hills diet. Wow, 17 pounds eating nothing but fruit, a different fruit every day. Sure enough, four weeks later, all that weight and then some more. It got so bad that at one point she went to a fight for Mike Tyson. And as she's sitting in the audience, at 218 pounds, she heard the announcer call out to the audience, "And in this corner, the heavyweight champion of the world, weighing in at 218 pounds, Mike Tyson." And she thought, "Oh my God, I'm as heavy as the heavyweight champion of the world."

Well, guess what? She's driven again to go on another diet. Finally, she went on something called Optifast. You know, you know what you do here? You eat nothing for basically four months. She was up to 237 pounds. She was so frustrated. She'd do almost anything to change it. So, sure enough, the first three or four days, you're starving. But after that, you're not even hungry. You drink this little drink, you don't eat anything, and your body adjusts. Sure enough, over a period of four months, she was obsessed. Her whole focus was to get in some size 10 jeans she had when she was in Baltimore at 140 pounds. And sure enough, she got there at 141 pounds. She fit in those jeans. And she ended her fast that day. Was the only day she was 141 pounds. The next day, she was 145. Within two weeks, she was 155 and was embarrassed to go back out because on the two-week anniversary of doing a show where she demonstrated people all the weights she'd lost, she was already getting fat again. She was so miserable that she finally told People magazine, "I'm done. I've had it. No more. I absolutely, I'm just going to enjoy being fat. I'm just made to be this way. This is just my life. I got to become fulfilled with it, and people gonna have to accept me this way." She copped out. She didn't know what else to do. She felt she tried everything. Of course, she hadn't tried everything.

She found herself one day sitting, waiting for the Emmy announcement to see who had the best daytime talk show. And she was hoping like crazy, praying to God that Phil Donahue would win because she didn't want to get up in front of this crowd in a dress that stressed across her huge bottom where everyone would be staring at her. Of course, she did win, and she felt humiliated, which drove her again to go on another diet. It wasn't until she finally got clear that she had to exercise the life began to change. When she finally met a great trainer named Bob Greene, and she wrote a book called "Making the Connection." She and Greene wrote it together. And what it's about, it's real simple. He said to her, "I don't care what you do, you gotta exercise at least five days a week." And for Oprah, it was seven. You gotta do it first thing in the morning, also, same as I teach. And you've got to make sure that you work on a scale from zero to ten, where you're at least seven in your level of intensity and effort for at least 45 minutes each day. He said, "That's it. There's no way around it. You've got to build your metabolism."

Now, today, Oprah's managed to stay close to her prime on a consistent basis. She's gotten herself to develop the ritual of working out five times a week or more. It's her time for herself. She lives the same thing I'm teaching you. She's lived it. And as she's lived it, she's gotten lasting results because she isn't just dieting, she is moving her body. Her metabolism is strong. But more importantly, for a woman who's already so powerful in so many areas, she's taken the one area of her life that was a wound and put it to bed. Don't you deserve to have the same? Don't you deserve to create the rituals that for a lifetime will give you the health, the vitality, the energy you deserve? You won't get it by rationalizing. You won't get it by softening. You get it by telling yourself the truth and getting your butt in gear. But also at making a strategy that works.

Now, by the way, let me tell you why most people don't make the change. Besides the rationalization, they get hooked in another pattern. And that pattern is, they get in what I call the "pressure cooker." The pressure cooker is here's what occurs: People don't change, don't change, don't change. So things get worse, worse, worse, worse until finally it gets so bad you gotta change. And what makes it so bad is you get so much pain one day. You know, you can't pick up your own telephone calls because you're afraid it's going to be a bill collector. You know, you get to the point where you can't get your butt to squeeze in the regular class seat on the airplane without having your ability to breathe impaired. You know, something occurs that finally pushes you over the edge. You go, "Not another day, another moment." You get so much pain, step one, that you take step two, you take action. Now, when you take action, you go to step three, you get results. You start to lose weight, as an example. When you start to lose weight, step four happens: the pain reduces. When the pain reduces, step five happens: you lose your drive. When you lose your drive, step six happens: you stop taking action at the same level. And when you stop taking action at the same level, the final step occurs, step seven: you go right back to where you started from. This is the pressure cooker. And then people do it again and again and again.

The way to avoid the pressure cooker is to walk yourself through the seven steps of conscious change. And these seven steps, we want to use right now so that you really implement your Hour of Power, so you keep that advantage to your life, keep that edge, but also so you get that extraordinary experience of connection with yourself, that time with yourself. Also, these would be the same seven steps you'll go through to make a dietary change. So let's get to them real fast. Here they are. They're really simple.

Number one: Get Disturbed. They might say, "Get the stir." That doesn't sound like a very sweet first step, Tony. Well, it isn't sweet, but it works. Because we can't possibly change unless we get ourselves disturbed enough that we're going to do something about it. What it really means is get honest with yourself. Don't use any softeners. Don't use any rationalizations. Don't compare yourself to other people so you can feel okay. Don't compare how you used to be and say, "Look, I used to be worse, so it's not that bad." All those things will steal away your drive. See, if you really want to get disturbed, and you feel like you're overweight, then rip off your clothes. You wouldn't have thought of something you wanted to change unless there was something about it that wasn't good enough. And the challenge is just getting yourself to get something visceral, something that will move you. Maybe you need to go do a blood test and see what your blood looks like after having all these big fatty meals and watching all the red blood cells sticking together. They stick together, they move more slowly, so you get less oxygen. You get less oxygen, you got less energy. Cells get weak, they die. Maybe seeing that makes it more visceral for you. But if you're not disturbed, you're not going to change. It's that simple.

And most of us, when we get disturbed, what do we do? Immediately. We immediately placate ourselves. We immediately try and get rid of the pain. Pain is your friend, if you don't just live there, if you use it for drive. See, there's a reason you begin this pain. It's a signal to your nervous system saying, "This isn't working. You must do something." But what we do is we pop an aspirin or drug or smoke a cigarette or eat some more food or distract ourselves. The "tea" will you find some drug of choice that's acceptable in society or in our peer group, and we kill the pain, therefore we kill the drive. Pain is your friend. You will only have drive if you are disturbed. Get disturbed by getting really clear with yourself. When you have hunger, you'll move forward. I don't mean physical hunger, I mean a hunger for something deeper and richer. Hunger only happens by getting disturbed.

Now, here's another way to get disturbed. Not just look at how bad it is. Get around where it's better. Get around people who are playing life at a higher level, where they are really physically fit, they're strong, they're energetic, they're passionate, they're fun, they got a great relationship. Because seeing that will also disturb you because you won't be able to separate the fact that your life is not like that. You can try to rationalize all you want, but the more you're around people who are playing life at the highest level, the more disturbed you'll get. You'll either run back to your friends so you can feel good about your life compared to them, or you'll join a new peer group. Like I said earlier, you want to be good at tennis, you got to play somebody better than you are, which is disturbing and it creates drive and it makes you have to get better. Play somebody who's worse than you are, there's nothing disturbing about that. It's boring. It's not disturbing. And staying where you are is boring. So you've got to get disturbed.

Now, if all you do is get disturbed and get all stirred up, that's not going to be really good. And after a while, you're going to want to escape that. So you've got to turn that feeling of being disturbed into drive. And the way you do that is, while you're disturbed, step two, you make a real decision. And that decision requires that you understand just what to do. Because some people get disturbed about, let's say, their body and say, "Okay, I'm gonna run 22 miles." They make a decision, but that's not what they want. They don't want to run 22 miles. That's the game plan. See, everyone who's successful has what I call an RPM plan. Doesn't matter what we teach in the time of your life. An RPM plan means the plan that has three answers to three questions. Number one, they know what result they're after. That's what they are. They know what they want, the result, the specific result they're committed to. I've never met a successful person who doesn't know what they want. Because your chances of suddenly bumping into what you want without knowing what it is are slim and none.

Number two, they know their purpose. Which means they know *why* they want it. If you want something, "I want a million dollars. I want, you know, 12% body fat. I want, you know, this great relationship." Well, that's wonderful, but that's a "should." What makes it a "must" is when you have enough reasons, enough reasons to make it happen, no matter what. Enough purpose behind it. Purpose has power. You can't just know what it is you want, you don't know why you want it. The purpose for it. And the image. You need a Massive Action Plan. And the Massive Action Plan means lots of ways to get the job done. Because if you say, "Only run 20 miles," and then you get to about three and you can't go another step, and then all of a sudden you're tight as heck. Now you're gonna go, "Well, I can't run." Well, your purpose, your outcome, is not to run. The result you're after wasn't running. It was to lose 20 pounds. It was to be energetic. It was to have your energy increased. So you're focusing on something you can't do instead of saying, "I can lose the weight, though, because I must. Here's why, and here's my plan. Okay, I'll swim. The running didn't work. I'll swim. I'll walk. I'll do this." There are a million ways. You need a massive action plan.

So, get disturbed, and then make a decision about what you want and why you want it. What's your ultimate vision? What's your ultimate purpose? So, let's try this with you right now. Let's get honest. Let's take a moment right now. What is it in your life that is not good enough, and if you're honest, is really disgusting you? "Go, Tony, I'm really glad I came to this positive tape today. What's disgusting in my life? Thank you very much. Nothing. My life is perfect." Well, nobody's life is perfect. If they're healthy, I mean, think about anybody who's honest has a gap in their life between where they are and where they want to be in some area. If your body's perfect, then you don't have enough time. If your time is perfect, then you don't know your children. If your children are perfect, then your finances are screwed up. Come on, it's part of being human. So honest people, I can look at the gap. And because they look at it and close the gap between where they are and where they want to be quickly. But you know what? As soon as you close it, you'll just create another one because you'll raise your standards. That's what life's about, right?

So, let's get honest right now. What's disturbing? I want you to turn this disc off, a CD or tape, whatever you're listening to. And I want you two things. I want you to write down: Number one, what, if you're honest, are you unhappy about in your career, in your business, in yourself? Is it a habit of eating? Is it emotion? Is it not taking time for yourself? What's something that's disturbing? And it's step number two: What do you want? Don't just stay disturbed. You're right, that won't feel good. Get disturbed so you have the energy to make change a "must" and not a "should." Write it down. What is it you're really tired of? You're sick of? You're going to change now. And then step two, make a decision. Write down what you really want. Now, what are you going to do instead? The result I'm committed to doing instead is this: I'm going to feel this way. I'm going to change my state. I'm going to stop telling my story. I'm gonna schedule this time with my kids or with myself. I'm gonna work out. I'm gonna hire a trainer tomorrow. Make a decision. That's where all the power is. Don't just say, "I want to make more money." Fine. Here's a dollar. Get out of here. Don't say, "I want to lose some weight." Fine. Lose a pound and get out of here. You've got to be specific about what it is that's disturbing you, why it's disturbing you, and then secondly, write down what you're committed to now and why. Then turn me back on. Don't go do it right now. Don't you keep listening to me. Turn this off. I don't care if you're in the car, you can still do this. Come on, turn it off. This is about taking action. You don't get the edge by talking and listening. You get the edge by doing. Let's do it. Come back to me when you're done. Bye.

Okay, welcome back. Now, what did you learn? And...

What did you experience? I had some people here in the studio while we're doing this tape. I asked them to do the homework and see what experiences they've had. They said it was a bit painful. I hope it was for you, because, you know, two things drive us in a life: pain and pleasure. And what you're really doing in this process is, by discovering what disturbs you, is you're tapping into the power of pain. When it's used intelligently, when it's used with your capacity to create drive. Remember, if you don't get disturbed by anything, something that's undisturbed is not going to move. It's certainly not going to make it through the obstacles that are necessary to achieve something of significant value for your life.

So, once you do that, though, you don't want to just be disturbed. As I said, you've got enough focus on, "Okay, this is not good enough." That's good. That creates energy. Now that it's not good enough, what do you want? Because if you stay focused on what you don't do, what you're not following through on, what you're unhappy about, then all you'll do is continue to rotate through the emotion that makes you disempowered. So you got to get clear on the result and get as specific as possible, and then know why you're going to follow through, why it's a must.

Now, let's take a couple of examples. Typical things that I hear, and some things that we actually heard here in the studio as well. One person here said there were actually two things that were disturbing him. He said the first one is that he's got this great workout equipment. He spent all the money and all the energy to make sure he got the very best stuff. He configured it, organized it, so that was ready to go, but he just doesn't work out. The reason is, he goes through all those things we talked about earlier, right? All the stories about, "I don't have time. I'll get to it tomorrow." I said, "But what's really disturbing about it?" So, what's disturbing is that it's inconsistent with me as a person, because I'm an achiever. I make things happen. And he said, "You know, I'm not following through." And he said, "What's really disturbing, honestly, is I know I'm not doing it because I'm getting older, and I realize I don't have the same capacity as I used to have, and I refuse to grow old." So rather than face the fact that maybe I'm lifting a little less, or I have a little less aerobic capacity than I had before, I just kind of say, "I'll do this tomorrow."

Now, the truth of the matter is, to educate him or anybody else, they've been doing research over the last 10 years at several universities here in the United States where they're taking people who are in their mid-60s, people who have never worked out in their life, and trained to lift weights as an example. And they're developing within these men and women in their 60s the same level of muscular strength as men and women in their 20s and 30s. In fact, the latest research and how you can work out in a few minutes of session twice a week is on your videotape. This process called static contraction. Sounds like a mouthful of language, but I'll tell you what, it'll show you how to maximize the amount of strength you can generate in your body in the shortest period of time. So be sure to check out that videotape because it's going to walk you through that process. So it may not be that you're getting old as much as, as you've gotten older, you've made less of a priority to use these muscles in a way that puts a significant demand on them. It's like osteoporosis. You know, research now, all the doctors now see that if you don't make demands on your bones, they get weaker. They don't get stronger. But the point of the matter is, that's what was bothering him. And he said that what he really decided is he really is committed to working on a consistent basis. And of course, he could make that more specific: three times a week, two times a week. Because if he makes it general, he still won't achieve it. You won't have a way to measure whether you're making it or not. And then he said the why for him is he really truly wants that sense of passion, that energy, that sense of vitality back in his life, in the sense that he's able to conquer things.

Now, he said another thing that disturbed him. He was on a roll, he went for two. He said the other thing was that he's, he's been a songwriter for years. And he said, "20 years ago, Johnny Mercer, the guy that wrote Moon River and some of those classic songs, the person who told him, 'You write for the wastebasket.' This is what made him successful." That instead of writing, trying to be perfect, which no one can be, and that keeps you from actually writing, you write just for the sake of writing, getting it out, and knowing that whatever you get out, you're not going to judge it. It's designed for the wastebasket. And what that does, it gets momentum going. And then pretty soon, you start to actually get results. So when he heard that, he said he acted upon it. But he did it for six weeks. It was the best songwriting in his career. And for 20 years, he's been trying to get back to that. He said, "It's disturbing to think something's so simple not followed through on." I said, "Well, what do you want?" He says, "I want to make sure, and again, he said, I want to write more songs." But he wasn't specific.

So the reason I'm bringing this up is, as you're looking at what you wrote down, remember the reason we say not only what do you want, but we call it an RPM plan. What is the specific result? The measurable result? How many times a week? How many pages? Something that you can actually measure. Otherwise, it's a vague dream that you won't follow through on. By the way, he said throughout the day, he said, "I have this vague feeling that like songs are ready to be born, but he said, I don't pick up the pen and paper." And he said, "And I never even get pregnant." So this is a process. And I said, "Why do you want the CC?" "Because I am a songwriter. That's my purpose. That's what I'm about as a human being. And not to do this is not to be fully alive."

So what do we got within this man? We've got two areas of his life that he's disturbed about. He said it was painful to do this, but that's good. Because even though he said it's painful, it's interesting, his energy increased as he talked about it. And you can see, as I'm talking right now, I can see him through the glasses kind of nodding his head. And, you know, you can see him, he's like getting more committed. Because commitment comes because there's something sizable on the line, both pain if you don't follow through, and pleasure if you do. Now, we got to refine it. He's got an R and a P to his RPM plan. He knows the result. He knows the why. That'll give him drive. Now he's got to come up with a map. What's the Massive Action Plan? What are the little and big things he can do immediately to get results? Because that's the third step we're going to go through in these seven steps to get yourself to create lasting change, lasting improvement. Whether it's getting you to your Hour of Power or make a dietary change, you're gonna have to get disturbed with what you're doing. And you're not going to change your diet. You're going to have to get yourself to make a decision about what you really want specifically and why you want it. So once you decide, the why will get you to follow through. And then step three is you've got to come up with a real plan. And that's what an RPM plan is: a very specific result, a very specific purpose that moves you. It doesn't, how it sounds, does it move you to action? Does it get enough reasons, but positive, negative, move? And you got a map, a plan to make that occur. But before you do your map, let's look at some other examples.

Another person here in the studio is a gentleman, owns the studio, and he's a very successful man. He said, "What's really disturbing him is that he doesn't have enough time in his life." He said, "You know, I'm so busy working all the time because in my business, it's money and time are connected together. You have a lot of time and no money, or or a lot of money in no time." I think a lot of people can relate to this. And he said, "So he realized this a long time ago and he came up with a solution, which was to create some products so that he could make money while he slept." He said, "He's got four of those products that are 95% done." He said, "It would be so easy to just get them done and get them on the web, but he hasn't done it." That disturbs him. I said, "What really disturbs you about not having time?" Because I want to find a deeper level of pain, something to move him. He said, "Really, that my kids are growing up, and that I'm so busy, I'm not really there to experience and enjoy them." And you can hear his whole tone change. He'd go, "Robin, why are you making him feel it's kind of pain? What are you trying to impress him or something?" No, we're trying to get to what's real. We're so busy covering up the things we're unhappy about, or stuffing them down with food or alcohol or televisions that are more work, that we never get to what matters to us. See, the only way you get real lasting changes, get down to what really matters to you personally. And that's okay if it's painful. You're not gonna live there. You're just gonna go there to find what's real. Does that make sense? I hope it does for you. Because if that self-honesty, that makes all change possible.

So I said, "Okay, great. What do you want?" He said, "Well, I want to complete these four products." I said, "Okay, great." So now he's got a specific result. Now he's gonna side by when. All right? Because he got to be a specific result. A specific result is what? And by when? Otherwise, there's no way to measure it. And you can't manage something you can't measure, right? If it's too general, there's no way to get it. So he said, "Okay, I'm going to get these done by X time." And I said, "Why is it so important to you?" He said, "Why? Because the status quo is driving me crazy." So there's a positive reason. He said, "But also because it'll be fun. It'll be fulfilling to get it done. And it'll give me my time." And what's great about what he gave is he gave reasons that are painful and pleasurable. Listen, we're all creatures that need to avoid pain and we desire pleasure. Using those is being intelligent. Running around and pretending like there's nothing wrong, or you're totally fulfilled and happy when you're not, it's called lying to yourself, deceiving yourself. And it eventually will bite you. It may look good for a while on the surface, but it will not fulfill you. Does that make sense? I've said this a couple times, haven't I? But that's because I want you to get it. I want you to think about it. I want you to hear me rant. I want you to own it if it makes sense to you. If it doesn't, then throw it out. But I think if you look at it from your own life experience, you'll find this is true.

So let's go to step number three. Step number three is you got to create a real plan. Now, we've already begun that because an RPM plan, by the way, we call it RPM because RPM stands for the Rapid Planning Method. This is what I teach in the Time of Your Life. When we teach it in companies, and we show people how to immediately, bam, produce a quick plan that people really follow through on. Because most people, when they do a plan, they think the job's over. But the truth is, when you get a plan, the job's begun. And the only way you're going to follow through is if you have absolute clarity of what you're after. Because along the way, a lot of actions you take aren't going to work. So if you think the action is the goal, like we said earlier, if you think running 20 miles is the goal rather than losing 20 pounds, well, then if something interferes with your ability to run, then you can't achieve the goal. You got to make sure you know what you're after, and you can change your approach to get there. And you got to know why you're after it. Because when the going gets tough, the difference in falling through or not is having enough reasons. Reasons come first, answers come second. If you get a big enough why to do something, big enough reasons, you can figure out how to do it.

So you might want to juice up the result you wrote down, like, "This is what I'm after." Maybe be more specific, "By when?" And you might want to write a few more reasons. But then I want you to, step three, I want you to draw out a map. And when I say a map, I want it to be very simple and specific. Just write down anything first that you could do to achieve that goal. They're trying to be perfect again, saying, "Well, I go to this first, and then this, and then this." That makes it hard. Just brainstorm anything you could do. When you're done with that map, you're going to asterisk the things that you think are must. Meaning, you might come up with 10 or 15 things you could do to achieve that outcome, 10 or 15 steps. You might need to do them all, but I want you to asterisk the two, three, four, five of them that you must do, and that you can do, that are within your control, that would absolutely get you the result you're after. So you can have that sense of certainty that this is really going to happen.

So I want you to do that right now. You can refine your result, put a deadline on it, add a few reasons, so you got a good strong purpose. And then do the M in RPM, the Massive Action Plan. What specific actions are you going to take immediately to get this done? And by the way, I'll give you a clue: write down little things you can do immediately. Because one of the beliefs I have is, never ever leave the side of setting a goal without doing something towards its achievement. This is how you get momentum. If you get all excited and you start to create this plan and you don't actually do something immediately, you'll get back caught up. You'll get distracted by your other work commitments, or someone else have a demand from you, or something at home will get you. You get caught up in the normal grind. So I never leave the side of a setting a goal without doing something towards its attainment. Send an email, make a phone call, book a meeting, buy a tape, go get a book, right? Do something specific that moves you towards this immediately. So you want to make, write some things you can do immediately. And write some little things and some big things. One of the ways to get a really great plan is do something that really commits you in that action. So maybe if you're overweight again, using that same example, maybe what you do is, as soon as you turn to see to your tape, you go in the kitchen and you rip out everything in that kitchen, everything in the refrigerator that you know doesn't belong there, it's not good for you. And then you carry it under your arms delicately, and you head for the bathroom. You bring a CD player or an audio tape, and you lift up that porcelain goddess, and you play the music in the background as you dump the stuff down the toilet and you flush it away forever. Maybe the music you play is "We Are the Champions of the World." I don't know what you do. Do something crazy. Commit an act. Do something that commits yourself. Write down your Massive Action Plan and make it very specific things you're going to do. Maybe instead of saying, "Well, I'll do some research on the internet," maybe this week say, "On Thursday, I'm going to do one hour of research on the internet. I'm going to compare three companies to look at to decide where to invest." Or, "You know what? I'm gonna do exercise for 25 minutes, five times a week." Be as specific as possible. I don't know what the specific thing is for you, but do it. And if you can get yourself to not only write something down, but today go do something that commits you, you're going to get momentum. You're going to find yourself saying, "This is easy." And everybody around you, including yourself, is going to know you mean it. See, when we say we're going to do something and then we don't do anything, it tells your brain you don't mean it.

So let's start right now by coming up with that plan. Okay, write down your Massive Action Plan. And you can come up with all kinds of things. You can always shorten it later. Come up with a brainstorm, a whole list of things that you can shorten if you want to, all the possibilities. So you got a lot of choices. Okay? All right, go, go, go, do it right now. Pause the tape or CD and let's do it. Okay, I'm assuming that you really turned this tape off and that you're now back with me because you've completed your map. In fact, you've got an RPM plan. By the way, what does RPM stand for besides Rapid Planning Method? Well, it's a Results-focused, Purpose-driven, Massive Action Plan. And that's how you get life results. You don't get it by thinking about it or talking about it or rationalizing it. You get it by getting incredibly focused on the result. You get in the sense of drive from your purpose. And you create a map, a Massive Action Plan that'll get you going to get the result and to make that result a reality. Now, this RPM, by also as a metaphor, obviously, it's like in a car. When you increase the RPMs, increase the energy, the power to actually produce results. That's what this does as well.

So I'll give you a couple examples and let's see how these relate to yours, if there's anything you could learn from these. Uh, one of the people here earlier who said that they really want to do these songs, but haven't done them in 20 years at the same level anyway. So it's actually very simple. They decided they're going to make sure that they're working on songs every single week. And the action plan is: Number one, within this next week, he's going to put a clipboard by his bed. Step two, when he opens his eyes every single day, five days a week, he's gonna spend the first 30 minutes just writing, as if he's going to write stuff that's going to go in the trash. So there's no limitation. He's totally in the creative flow because once you get in that flow, more comes through you. Now, by the way, does this sound almost like a part of his Hour of Power? You bet. He's starting out with the first half hour for himself, right? With his greatest passion. By the way, how do you think that'll affect the rest of his day? No matter what else he does. So he said, then the next thing he's going to do is on the weekends, he's going to commit one hour to review those notes and edit them and actually put them into something that's real. See, if he can take from these great ideas and actually produce something of real value. Now, if he does that every single week, his chances of his songwriting exploding are absolutely, you know, I can't say guaranteed. Nothing in life is guaranteed, but the opportunity for that to happen, it's gonna occur. You know why? He's no longer talking about it. He's no longer just envisioning it. He's begun to plan it, which makes it possible. It's not possible when you're just talking about it. And now he's scheduling it, so it's real. That's going to get him the results he wants. And by the way, he has the same thing for his workout schedule. You see, he's got his outcome of what he wants to do. He's going to work out three times a week aerobically, twice anaerobically. He's got the days. And most importantly, he's got starting with today as his first action item. And he's got the time during the day. And he gave himself a little bit of flex factor between one and three because he knows his schedule flexes. So he's not setting himself up for failure, which we're going to talk about later on. He's setting himself up to win.

Another person here, the person who owns the studio, said that he's actually decided his result is he's locked in to complete his first product online by March 1st. What's great about that? It's very specific and it's got a deadline. So I said, "How are you going to do it?" He said, "Simple. I have 50 email responses I should have sent out a long time ago from people that already want this kind of product, and I'm going to send it out this week. Number two, I'm going to send out a hundred new emails to potential clients. Number three, I'm going to take out some banner ads with at least two different publications." And then on March 5th, you'll have a second product online, and on April 1st, a third. So he's very specific. And by the way, is this something achievable? Now, see, it's really hard, even if you get yourself motivated, then unless you got something very specific to focus on and you know the reasons, you know exactly what to do, you won't do it because you'll get caught up. That's why having this RPM planning process, this Rapid Planning Method, is so valuable. In the beginning, you're kind of weak at it, but after you do it for a while, you'll get really specific, you'll come up with great purposes, and you'll come up with great plans. Like anything, it's a little muscle. Use it a little, it's going to grow.

Another person here described the fact that they were unhappy or disturbed them. We didn't talk about their example, or there was being overweight and not being able to change it. They had lost weight, like 15 pounds a year ago, they gained it all back, and they've not been able to get rid of it. And so this person said, "Now the result is really clear. I'm going to produce this result. I'm going to lose these 15 pounds. And most importantly, because I deserve to, I deserve that the energy, the feeling, the sexiness, etc., etc., etc." They describe all things that disturb them to get the energy. But then this person focused on the result specifically, by when. And they had a powerful purpose. But what's interesting was what they learned when they did their action plan. This person said, "You know what? They realized what was missing is in the past, when they lost weight, they had a buddy. They had someone to share the experience with." And she became totally certain, and she wrote down who her buddy would be that she could then do this. The second step was to pull out that Darren StairMaster and actually plug it in. A unique concept. What does that do? Again, convenience, clarity. So many things we don't do just because they're not convenient, because they're not immediate. What's immediate gets our attention. So she's taking that up, making that happen. And then she has a date by which she's going to make this all happen for each of these specific aspects.

But I want to point something out here. We're going to talk about this later on when I talk about really setting yourself up to win, which is one of our principles. But as long as it's being said here, I'll tell you this: both of these people found something that they know will work because they modeled their successes from the past. You see, for this woman, she was able to lose the weight when she had a buddy. And I'll explain a little more why that worked later on, other than the obvious. The gentleman with the songwriting wrote a song that was on a TV show more than 20 years ago, but he stopped doing this and he hasn't had that kind of result in his songwriting since then. So what you've really got to be able to look at is, there are times in your life which you've already succeeded, and you need to go back and model what you did and putting together your action plan. Because then you'll have certainty it will work.

One thing I do in one of my seminars is I have people write down everything in their life that's here today that once was a dream, once was a goal, things you may now take for granted. Like, you know, the person who's now in your life that you hoped at one point would go out with you, or the job you now take for granted, at one point you were wishing for, or the business that you now own and you're complaining about, that one time in your life you would have prayed for. I've been having people write all these things down, and then I say, "Okay, now circle one or two that really seemed impossible." Now write down how you made that happen. And what you begin to see is that there's a pattern. The pattern is similar to what we talked about. Something disturbed them. They may have been upset, disturbed. Sometimes, as they saw something that disturbed their status quo, instead of being comfortable, they wanted more. It didn't have to be painful. You know, sometimes you're disturbed because you see something great and you want it. That's disturbing too. What's disturbing is you don't have it. That's a good thing. So someone said, "You know, I really want my own studio. I don't want to work for somebody else. You know, this is what I want. This is the kind of life I want to have on my terms." But then what happens is, you get disturbed. You get specific about what you want. You get enough reasons to follow through. You come up with a plan of action. You may do it consciously or unconsciously, and you get the psychology together, make it happen. You take Massive Action. You get results. But then we forget how we did this stuff. And then what happens is, pretty soon, there's a big gap between where we are and where we want to be. Because it's natural that once you achieve something, you want more. So you want to make sure you get your plan here, create a little map. Hopefully, these ideas have triggered you a bit.

And remember, if you want to take some action on something like you want to master your health, then get a coach. We got coaches here. Get the Living Health product. Look at something that will guide you step by step, day by day. The more specific the coaching, the more powerful you're going to be to follow through. And if there's someone physically there to follow up with you, then you can't make excuses because there's somebody else you're talking to other than yourself. It's so easy to talk yourself out of anything. But when you have a result there you got to make happen, it changes. One of my clients pays me more than a million dollars a year, and I coach him. And after five years or six years of working with him, at one point I said, "You know what? I know what you're going to do, when you're going to do it. You're so predictable now, and you know it too. I don't think you need me anymore." I mean, I'm your friend, and I appreciate it, and I'm certainly earning my money from the time I'm putting in, but honestly, I don't think you need me. He said, "Are you crazy? He said, "Don't you understand? Just knowing you're going to call makes me follow through on those things that I talked about." So if you don't get a professional coach in order to make your plan work, get a buddy, get some leverage, make sure that someone else knows your plan so you can't just create a plan and not follow through.

Okay, I know I'm a little nuts in this tape, but I really want you to get results. Because guess what happens? As soon as you come up with a plan, opponents show up, don't they? Yes. There's three kinds of opponents. If you read any good story, you watch any good movie, as soon as the main protagonist has this desire, and they get excited about it, they come up with a plan, then sure enough, opponents come to oppose it. That's what creates drama in your life. And there's three opponents. Number one is the external opponents. That's gonna be all the other people. They're gonna call you in the morning, or by the way, if you want to do this in the evening, obviously, you can do this evening, or at your lunch break, you can do this Hour of Power, and whatever time works for your schedule or for your body. But the ideal time, again, is in the morning. But the point is, the minute you try to do this, the opponents show up. The phone starts ringing. First thing in the morning, there's all these other projects, all these other demands that all want your time and attention, instead of giving it to yourself. When you come up with a plan, the same thing happens. All kinds of resistance will show up. And if it's not from the external opponents, it'll be from the intimate opponents. The people close to you who love you dearly, but they don't understand. You gotta have time for yourself. Your kids want this and want that. But if you don't take time for yourself, there's not as much of you to give them, is there? Same thing for your spouse. You know, the people around you, your friends who don't understand why you can't talk to them right now. Take those friends on a run with you, on a walk with you, get them to do The Hour of Power. I love to do this with my lady. It's one of the great things we share together. We do it side by side, and then we're after end, we share a celebration.

But also, there's the internal opponent. You know, the parts inside of you that are conflicted, saying, "Yeah, I really want to do this, but I also want to do that." You've got to put the opponents at bay. And the only way to do that is discover what are the beliefs, which is going to be our next step. What are the beliefs that are conflicting you? What are the beliefs that are stopping you? See, whenever you're upset about something, it's because of the beliefs you have. Beliefs control behavior. Whatever you do, you do it because of your beliefs. And you may not know what those beliefs are, because often they're unconscious. So we're going to discover the beliefs that may be holding you back, and the beliefs that will move you forward.

But I have to say this to you: you've been extraordinary. You listen to me babble and dump the whole load on you at incredibly intense pace, something that most people go through a seminar for. You've been doing in this results workshop. So I want to give you a chance to have a victory right now. If you want to limit your time today, remember this is one of only two days of the seven days where we have a double session in one day or a workshop in one day. So if you want to stop now, just for today, and start tomorrow with beliefs, you're welcome to do so. And it'll be a 10-day program for you if you do it in that format, which is fine. But let's remind you, here's what you've done today. You've gotten clear. You've got to get disturbed. You can't accept things. You can't make it. It's okay. You got to say, "Never again. This is done. Not even a minute, another day. This is changing." Step two, you gotta make a decision about what you do want. You don't want to just be upset. You want to be sure what you're after. Something will get you. Stay up late, get up early, and really go for it. Something that drives you. And then thirdly, you got to come up with your initial plan, that Massive Action Plan. We don't get excited, we don't change things by a little action here or there, trying something. We do it by just going full force at something and taking some Massive Action right now.

So today, if you want to take some action right now, review what you've done in your journal and take an action today. Turn the CD off, come join me tomorrow for beliefs. Or if you're one of those people that just can't stop, that wants to complete this workshop right now, this is insane and crazy as I am, then continue to listen to this tape, or grab the next CD, and we'll go to step number four, finding out the beliefs that control your behavior. This session continues on the next CD.

[Music]