Awaken the giant within

One-sentence summary of “Awaken the giant within”: To be successful, you

have to succeed in mastering your emotions, body, relationships, belief and finance,

in other words your whole life, which is what Anthony Robbins puts forward: capture

your dreams.

By Anthony Robbins, 1991, 566 pages.

Chronicle and summary of “Awaken the

giant within”:
When Anthony Robbins was in his twenties he lived in a small studio flat at the heart

of a big American city. His sink was also his dish-washer and washing-machine. He

was carrying a good 10 kilos too many and didn’t’ have a dime to his name. One day,

he had enough. And he decided to change things. From the moment the decision was

taken, Tony put his best foot forward to attain his dreams. Today, Anthony Robbins is

a world-reknown coach as well as being the CEO of various companies. Thanks to

books, cassettes, training and seminars, he has changed the lives of millions: the

homeless, employees, entrepreneurs and even Presidents like Bill Clinton!

He is also married and the happy father of four children, and lives in a luxurious

villa. His book “Awaken The Giant Within” is the result of over 20 years’ of research

analysing the difference between those who succeed and those stay at the bottom of

the pile. The point of this book? To help you reach your dreams! It’s

therefore a very rich book, full of historical anecdotes,divided into four sections.

The first, “Understanding your power”, takes you on a trip of self-discovery. Because

your success is within you. The second, “Taking control: the master plan”talks of

specific keys, like how do you think? The third, “7 days to remodel your life”, provides

7 principals to apply to your everyday life. And finally, Tony talks about one’s destiny.

In “Awaken The Giant Within”he will take you deep into the world of personal

development, in order to uncover the mysteries of your identity. How do beliefs

influence you, how to get what you want, why ask the best questions? Changing one’s

vocabulary, how do your values and rules determine your happiness? You will obtain

the answers to all these questions.

Part 1 : Understanding your power

Without doubt the biggest part of the book. It takes you to the very heart of yourself,

and shows you what determines your success. Or your failure.We find out that all

we need to succeed is already inside us.

All I need is in me now ! — Anthony Robbins

Chapter 1: Dreams of destiny

This book starts with a story. His story. Like everyone, he also had dreams. He had

dreams of change. And to find out how to effect real changes, long lasting changes, he
sought out all the key elements of successful people, that has achieved these changes.

This research showed him the commonalities shared by all successful people; success

factors. Thus, he established 3 stages to reach success:

1. Raise your standards: For example, he made a list of everything he

could no longer tolerate in his life.

2. Change those belief that limit you: Belief are “orders” that come from your
subconscious. They influence each of your actions. If you want to reach

your goals, your dreams have to be in sync with your belief.

3. Modify your strategy: The most important thing is to persevere, but if you
want to reach your goals, you must adopt the best and most appropriate

strategies. But you can also change them on the fly! If something isn’t

working, change it!

Three steps to reach your goal is all very well but you will need to acquire certain
qualities. And to obtain those, Anthony Robbins proposes he becomes your personal

trainer via this book. He plans to get you to master 5 aspects of life:
 1. Master your emotions,

2. Your body,

3. Your relationships,

4. The money,

5. And Master the time.

He is also very clear that:

Awaken The Giant Within is intended as a step guide, a manual designed to increase

your quality of life and the satisfaction you can get from it.

You’ve understood it. Tony doesn’t do things by halves. He intends to get the best

possible results, even without being physically present. But, it depends entirely

upon you.

Chapter 2: Decisions: the power path

At the start of this chronicle I mentioned that his life changed the moment he decided
to not tolerate certain things. It’s the moment you make your decision that

determines your future! The day a smoker stops smoking is not the day he has his

last cigarette, it is the day he decides to stop. What I want to illustrate is that this

power, the power to decide, is already within you! As Tony puts it, making a real

decision is about being determined to get a particular result and to refuse any other

possibility. Then, this power can be worked on like a muscle, and you can train it. To

make good decisions you must make as many as possible!

Even if you make mistakes; even if you encounter failure. Do you know any CEOs?

They often make excellent decisions. Why? Because they spend all day making them.

But in our world, the ones with money are the managers, those who make decisions.

The rest take home the crumbs, in other words nothing. Decisions are essential to

your success and this power resides in you! So, don’t hesitate, decide.

Chapter 3: The power that determines

your life
Each of your actions is determined by one simple force. Even if you are not aware of it

yet. This force? Pain and pleasure. My life, your life, lives all over the world are

driven by this one force. We all seek pleasure and all seek to avoid short-term

pain. Imagine this: you have the choice of two things, the first means you avoid a bit

of short-term pleasure but will hurt you in the long term. The other means a bit of

pain in the short-term but will deliver enormous pleasure in the long-term.

What would you choose? Intellectually, there is no competition: the second offer is
surely perfect. But your brain doesn’t reason this way. It will default to the first

option. Why? Because it will do everything it can to avoid short-term pain, even if in

the long-term, it will cause even more pain. In fact we could go even further; it’s not

pleasure and pain that rules in most people, rather the idea of pleasure and the fear

of pain. Everything is question of reality perception. In this chapter, he teaches

you to use this phenomenon through associations.

Chapter 4: The belief system, the

power to create and destroy
What is a belief? It’s something we generalise, which becomes a feeling a

certainty, which we do not question. For example, if you got bad grades in French

when you were a teenager, you could have thought,“I’m rubbish at French”, and

because we generalise, you’ve adopted it and never question this belief, even now.

This belief crushes you, to the extent that you’ve stopped working on the subject,

which only drives even worse grades.This is the power of belief. But it also works

in reverse; a conviction such as “I’m good at French” can have positive effects, you

might then work harder to get better grades, motivated by your previous results. In

this chapter, Tony puts forward beliefs that are common amongst winners and helps

you obtain them thanks to a very powerful calling-into-question technique.

Chapter 5: Can one change

immediately?
This is the subject of the 5th chapter. The answer is simple, it’s up to you to believe in

it. If you have the conviction, the certainty that change can be immediate, then

you can change in a fraction of a second.

How many psychiatrists do you need to change a light bulb? — only one…but it’s very

expensive, takes a lot of time and crucially, the light bulb has to want to change.

According to Tony, we need to prepare ourselves for change, and take our lives into

our own hands, unlike the light bulb! The belief I mention above isn’t enough, you

have to be aware that no one other than you can be responsible for this

long term change!Finally, you have to believe with the bottom of your heart

that one thing needs to change.

Chapter 6: How to change any aspect
of your life: the science of neuro-
associative conditioning.
Anthony Robbins works on the basis that if we want to change our behaviour, we

have to associate insufferable pain to the old behaviour and sensations of

pleasure to the new one.This is the scientific basis of Neuro-associative

Conditioning, derived from PNL, that Tony created. To obtain change he used a

strategy of 6 conditioning steps:

1. Decide what you really want and what is stopping you from obtaining it

2. Find a motivation: associate profound suffering to not changing now, and

great joy to changing immediately!

3. Drop the model that restricts you

4. Find a new, dynamic model

5. Reproduce this new model so that it becomes constant

6. Put your model to the test!

These are the basics of Neuro-associative Conditioning.

Chapter 7: How to get what you really

want
You have to start with a simple question:
What do you want?

What really matters to you? A happy marriage, your children’s respect?A new car?

Money? And why do you want all these things? Is it to change the way you feel? But to

obtain what you want, you first have to be able to consciously change your state of

mind. Emotion is created by movement and you can do it by using your body.

Some movements help you to be calm, others to have self-confidence, and others to be

motivated. The way you use your body will affect your state of mind! To change your

life, you first have to change your state of mind!

Chapter 8: Questions are the best tools

Ask yourself a question: What determines your thoughts? Exactly. It’s the questions

that you ask yourself. And the difference between a CEO and homeless person, is the

quality of their questions. This is also why people are all so different. We all ask

different questions. But, why are questions so effective? It’s precisely because they

instantly modify our perspective therefore the way we feel. Also, if you ask a question,

your brain will do everything it can to answer it. So ask good questions. For example if

you encounter a problem, rather than pity yourself, ask key, stimulating questions

like:

• What is great about this problem?

• What isn’t quite perfect yet?

• Am I prepared to do to get what I want?

• How I can use this situation to my advantage?

I know it isn’t always easy to ask oneself questions. But in difficult moments, I can

recommend another, that I ask all the time.

Where is the gift in this situation?

One day or another, you will find it. Believe me, asking this question is not easy,

especially in some situations. But, if you take the time to do it, even despite sadness, I

can assure you, you will come out stronger.

Chapter 9: The vocabulary of ultimate

success
Words are used to describe your biggest failures just as much as your greatest

victories, great men have all too well understood the power of some of them, to get

people to react. By using the right words to describe experiences, we can intensify our

stimulating emotions, but if we choose badly we can destroy them. This is the power

of words.

People with limited vocabulary render their emotional life poorer; people with a rich

vocabulary have a large diversity of terms to describe their experiences — not only to

others, but also to themselves.

So, by simply changing the words you use every day, you can instantly

change the way you think, your feelings and your way of life. What I particularly

like about this book is that it is full of examples, exhilarating anecdotes as well as ways

to change. And here, Tony offers up a list of words you can use in your everyday life,

which will change the way you live. Here are my favourite ones to really get pumped
up!
 • Passionate,

• To revel,

• Seductive,

• Ironclad,

• Spectacular,

• Dynamite,

• Unstoppable,

• Fabulous,

• Phenomenal

Chapter 10: Overcome the obstacles

and launch your success: the power of
metaphors
Metaphors are pretty exceptional as their powers are out of the ordinary. In

hypnotherapy, I often use them as your subconscious is hyper-receptive to little

stories. So, what exactly is a metaphor? When you explain a concept by comparing it

to something else, it’s a metaphor. Imagine the following metaphor: You’re tired

and it feels like you’re carrying the world on your shoulders. Not a great feeling is it?

Wouldn’t the best way to rid yourself of this, be to just put the world down? Doing this

will break your train of thought. Even if this method might seem simplistic, test it out

and tell me about it. It’s up to you to take control of your metaphors!
Life is a game

That’s a metaphor that can completely change your life, especially if you think life is a

battle…

Chapter 11: The ten dynamic emotions

Too many people are locked in a routine. Everyday, they get up at the same time and

do the same thing, which goes on forever. For twenty, sometimes 30 years, if not

more. Their lives are comfortable but there is no passion. Too many people think they

have no control over their emotions. So, they allow themselves to get stuck in a

routine, one that is always much the same, so as to not have to suffer through

anything else. Tony works on the basis that there are 4 ways to reckon with your

emotions:

• Avoid them,

• Deny them,

• Exaggerate them,

• Learn from them and use them

On this basis, all your emotions are practical. Those that you consider to be

negative become calls to action!Anthony Robbins calls themaction signals. All

emotions that you feel, are a gift. But where does this gift come from? Where do these

emotions come from? They come from within you. You are the source!So,since you

are the source, you can always feel exactly the way you want to feel.
You don’t need to a particular reason to feel good; you could decide right now to feel

good, simply because you are alive, and because it’s what you want.

Anthony Robbins — Awakening The Giant Within

This coach has fine-tuned a six-step method to help you master your emotions:

1. Identify the real feelings you are experiencing,

2. Discover and appreciate your emotions, realise that they are there to help

you,

3. Be curious about the messages your emotions are giving you,

4. Be confident,

5. To ensure you will easily handle this emotion in the future, plan the

strategy you intend to use,

6. Get motivated and act!

Thanks to this method, you’ll always benefit from these action signals in order to

progress!

Chapter 12: A magnificent obsession:

an extraordinary future
Big goals stimulate motivation. Imagine if you became a kid again, with big dreams.

It’s those dreams that will give you the energy to attain them! For Tony, no one is lazy,
it’s just goals that make some powerless. If after too short a night’s sleep you’re able to
get up, that’s because you’re really passionate about your goals! To reach them you’ll

need all your energy, which is why living your dreams is so important.

We need to discover everything or come up with a magnificent obsession that can

stimulate us.

It’s up to you to transform the invisible into the visible! Once you have your

target in mind, you must immediately create a plan to take the necessary steps to hit

it. To maintain this motivation, at least once a day you need to feel that you have

reached each of your goals, in the short term.

Chapter 13: The ten day challenge

1 challenge, 10 days, 4 rules.

1. For 10 consecutive days, refuse to be drawn into unproductive thoughts or

feelings.

2. If you concentrate on negative things, use different techniques to get

yourself into a productive state of mind.

3. Concentrate only on solutions.

4. If you get moments of weakness, pull yourself together!

Part 2 : Taking control: the master plan

This part of the book is designed to help you to take control of your master plan of

evaluation, in other words the power that controls the way you think and act at every
moment.
Chapter 14: Supreme influence : your
master plan
What is a master plan? It’s 5 elements that determine how you evaluate life events.

Once you understand someone’s master plan, you’ll know their values and will

understand what motivates them.Above all, bear in mind that people are about more

than just their behaviour. Never judge someone on an isolated act. We all use a

system to determine the meaning of things and what we should do in

nearly all situations.We don’t all allocate the same importance to things.

Everything depends on perspective. If you want to achieve success, you have to be

able to assess every aspect of your life, and do so in a way that will produce the results

you want. Using this kind of process isn’t always easy. Tony has put together a method

that can help you enhance the process:

1. Your state of mind makes all the difference. Always have a positive

mindset before taking important decisions,

2. Ask yourself the right questions,

3. Are you in sync with your values?

4. Are you in sync with your overall beliefs and rules?

5. Do you have standards?

This is what makes up a master plan.

Chapter 15: Values: your personal
compass
What is a value? It’s more than a belief; in a way it’s an ideal. You need to clearly

define your values in order to uphold them, whatever the situation is. You must

remain faithful to your values at all times, even if life doesn’t always reward you for

it. If you want to be happy, you have to live by your ideals.We often don’t

choose our own values. They are carved into us, as we move through our life story. If

you had to write down your values by order of importance, would you be able to? If

you don’t know your ideals, how do you make good decisions? In order to help you

find those ideals that suit you best, Tony provides various exercises to do, which

clarify the mind.

Chapter 16: The rules: if you are

unhappy here is why!
The rules are the beliefs that determine whether we feel pleasure or pain. What needs

to happen for you to feel happy? All the reasons are the rules. But, on the other hand,

you don’t need anything in particular to feel good. You have to want it.In today’s

society, most people have a huge amount of reasons to be unhappy and very few to be
happy. As a result, they are unhappy most of the time. It’s therefore time to change

the system, and rely on rules that allow us to be happy, every time we want to! It’s up

to you to set the rules of the game,for you to be happy. A rule can provide a lot of

power, or conversely deny it. How do you know which? These 3 criteria will help you.

A rule removes power from you if:

1. It is impossible to adhere to,

 2. You rely on something that is out of your control in order to respect it,

3. It provides a few ways to be happy but dozens of ways to be unhappy.

So, if you have this kind of rule, best to adjust it as soon as possible. Rules are really

the basis of your personality. They are often the source of conflict between people.

Also, there are some that you simply cannot break.

Chapter 17 :Standards, the fabric of

life
Standards are all the experiences you’ve stored in your nervous system. In other

words everything you’ve seen, heard, tasted, felt. You can be conscious or unconscious

of these standards. These standards are used to support your beliefs but you must

constantly develop them, grow them as much as possible. People can have the same

experience, but create different beliefs from it. Because, it’s not the standard

itself that is important, it is the meaning you attach to it.Limited standards

create a limited life.If you want to enrich your life, you must extend your standards by

nurturing ideas and experiences that wouldn’t be part of your life if you didn’t seek

them out. And you can find standards everywhere.

Personality

Every day new ones are added to your personality through people you meet, your

adventures and even by reading! Also, standards are not limited to just your

experience. Anthony Robbins cites the example of Roger Bannister the first man to

run a mile in four minutes. He developed the certainty that it was possible, using

visualisation. Just by using imagination he convinced himself it was possible, and did
it!
Unbridled imagination delivers a sense certainty far beyond the limits of

our past. If you have experienced what we commonly call “failure” don’t forget

whatever you do, do not go searching in the past using a rear-view mirror as a guide.

If you want to learn from past experience, don’t live in the past; concentrate on the

things that give you power!And you will succeed! To build up your standards to the

best they can be, do something unusual, why not take up a new language, leave home,

discover and help the world?

Chapter 18: Identity: the key to

personal growth
At the beginning of every chapter, Anthony Robbins recounts a real story and I want

to share this particular with you. An American soldier was captured by Chinese

Communists. They didn’t torture him, quite the opposite, they even offered him a

cigarette. At the end of the conversation, the American soldier held a document he

had written himself, describing on the one hand the countless injustices and

destructive effects of American life — a capitalist society — and on the other the
merits of a communist system. Later on, this very same soldier would divulge military

secrets, betray his own compatriots and fervently denounce his own country. How

was it that this man completely changed his vision of the world, abandoned his beliefs

and renounced all his values in order to collaborate with the enemy? In fact, he ended

up transforming his very identity.

Various types of beliefs

There are various types of beliefs, specific ones, general ones, and those that

determine our identity. Your abilities are a constant, but the use you make of

them depends on the meaning of your identity. Also, what others perceive
(belief) of your personality will determine the way they want to interact with
you.Even if it has nothing to do with who you really are. We therefore always behave

based on the perceptions of who we really are, whether those perceptions are correct

or not.

And we all need continuity, certainty. Most people are afraid of the unknown so

they prefer to stay as they are. Even if the consequences could be disastrous. If you

don’t know who you are, how can you make good decisions? How do you adopt

values, rules for happiness? How do you succeed? Therefore right from the start, it’s

important to adopt the belief that one can change. And develop new beliefs that define

our identity. Our behaviour will adapt as result of these new beliefs.

Who are you?

It’s a question that is often met with blank looks or incomplete answers. In this

chapter, you’ll learn how to create your best calling card. Imagine if you were in the

dictionary, what would your description be?

Part 3: Remodel your life in seven days

You have seven days to transform every aspect of yourself…

Chapter 19: Emotional destiny: the

only real success
Day one

At the end of the first day, you will have taken control of your emotions, and begin to
consciously and voluntarily reshape your daily life.
There is no real success without emotional success. ~Anthony Robbins

In Awaken the Giant Within, Tony provides many tools to spend more time in a

positive state of mind.

Here is a list of different factors that you can influence in order to be more dynamic:

• Your physiology,

• Your perspective,

• The questions you have,

• Sub-conscious,

• Vocabulary,

• Metaphors,

• Neuro-associative conditioning,

• Your beliefs,

• A promising future,

• Your values,

• The rules,

• Your standards,

• Sense of identity.

It is quite a lot, it’s true.

Chapter 20: Physical destiny: pain
prison or pleasure palace
Day two

At the end of day two, you will learn how to condition your metabolism and your

muscles so that they provide you with the energy and fitness you desire because your

physical destiny depends on it.

In this chapter, Anthony Robbins shows you why and how you can be healthy and

physically fit!

True to himself, he delivers a plan but this time in seven steps:

1. Differentiate between being in good shape and being healthy: to

be in good shape is the physical ability to engage in athletic activities.

Being healthy is when all systems of the organism function optimally.

2. Take the decision to be in good shape,

3. Work out what state you’re in: Do you need to start exercising? Are

you tired first thing in the morning?

4. Buy a heart rate monitor,

5. Establish an exercise routine,

6. Take on a bigger challenge, the one in his book Unlimited Power,

“Energy: the fuel of excellence”

7. Decide to integrate your exercise into your sense of identity.

Chapter 21: The destiny of human
relationships: sharing and love
Day three

At the end of day three, you will have improved the quality of your personal

relationships and your emotional ties with those who are most dear to you.

Success has no value if you cannot share it

Anthony Robbins

Here are the six fundamental principles for happy relationships:

1. If you do not understand the values and rules of the person you are in a

relationship with, prepare to suffer,

2. The relationship you are in can only last if you see through it the lens of

giving rather than receiving,

3. For a happy relationship, you should seek out certain things and avoid

others.

4. Make sure your relationship is the priority of your life!

5. Everyday strive to make your relationship better,

6. Remind yourself every day, what it is your love about the person you are

with. Reinforce your feelings of belonging and renew your feelings of

intimacy and the attraction you have for them.
Chapter 22: The financial objective:
small steps towards a small (or big)
fortune
Day four

You’ll take you financial future into your own hands on this fourth day.

To help, Tony provides five fundamentals in order to acquire wealth.

1. Make yourself even more useful,

2. Preserve your wealth: spend less than you earn and invest the

difference,

3. Increase your wealth: After having invested the difference, re-invest

your profits in order to obtain a compound return,

4. Protect your wealth,

5. Enjoy your wealth: Real wealth is a feeling of fulfillment.

Chapter 23: Be irreproachable: your

code of ethics
Day five
How would I feel if I was at my best? Which virtues should I aim for every day,

whatever the circumstances?

Anthony Robbins

This is a good question and it’s the theme for this fifth day. There are different credos

that help live an irreproachable life. Here is the credo in seven points by John

Wooden. Demand the best of yourself:

1. Be faithful to yourself,

2. Make every day a masterpiece,

3. Help others,

4. Dig deep into the source of good books,

5. Make friendship an art form,

6. Build yourself a shelter for difficult days,

7. Every day pray to God for guidance and thank the heavens for the

blessings.

Chapter 24: Master your time and your

life
Day six

The sixth and penultimate day is all about time.

Learn to use it to your advantage rather than let it stress you out. Our beliefs also

distort our perception of time. Tony explains “three tricks” he uses to save time.

1. The ability to distort time,

2. Managing your priorities,

3. Save years by using the experience of others.

Chapter 25: Rest and fun: even God

rested on the seventh day!
Day seven

Last and final day of the week. Your goal? Find balance.

You’ve worked hard to get where you are, now, have fun!

Part 4: A lesson in destiny

Chapter 26: The supreme challenge:

what everyone can do individually
For this final anecdote, Anthony Robbins tells the story of the tuna hunt. The boats

were tracking the dolphins, as they knew that schools of tuna would follow them, just

below. As soon as the dolphins got closer, the fishermen cast their nets and brought

them back in, sometimes containing a hundred dead dolphins as they couldn’t get
back to the surface to breathe. All this for what? Tuna! Then, they threw all the dead
fish back into the sea…To tackle this, a man decided to film this with a hidden camera.

He had conned himself onto the boat as a sailor and he knew he risked death if he was

caught. In the end, his expedition was a success.

The tuna hunt

An 11 minute film put an end to this barbaric activity. Thanks to this man, many big

companies stopped this massacre and many thousands of dolphins — if not more —

were saved. And this is just one of many examples. In all walks of life there are

injustices and miseries to combat. Nothing is more demoralising and

paralysing than a sense of impotence.It is the main obstacle that prevents us

from changing our life or doing something to help others to change theirs. Thanks to

this book you find out how to change yours, but it would be selfish to stop there. It’s

time to go beyond that and to contribute to collective decisions concerning the future

of the world. Your future, my future, our future, that of our families and the destiny of

all our children and grand-children. This is the theme of the final chapter.

The majority of problems in this world are caused by human behaviour. One can

therefore conclude that the solution is a change of behaviour. Anthony Robbins

believes that you and I and all the people we meet in our lives are capable of heroism,

and I fully believe this too.But when the time comes, will you have the

courage to be a hero and forget yourself for the benefit of those in need?

Will I have that courage too?A final word on this chapter is that our characters

are forged through challenges.