Motivation
by Anthony Robbins
Can excellence be copied?
Anthony Robbins wrote Unlimited Power in 1986, building on neuro-linguistic programming, or NLP. He asks why some people get far better results than others who start with the same advantages. His answer is that excellence has a structure, and that you can study it and copy it.
Hear a sample · read by Laura
Robbins's main tool is modelling. If someone gets a result you want, find out exactly how they do it and do the same. He copies three things, their beliefs, their mental syntax (the order of their thoughts) and their physiology, meaning how they use their body.
Robbins argues that everything you do comes from the state you're in, and that two things create that state. One is how you picture things and talk to yourself in your head. The other is your physiology, your posture, breathing and movement. Change either, he says, and the state changes.
Robbins gives four steps. Know exactly what outcome you want. Take action. Sharpen your senses so you notice whether what you're doing is working. Then keep changing your approach until you get there. He stresses the last step, flexibility. The most flexible person, he says, usually controls the outcome.
Robbins lists seven beliefs he says successful people share, and calls them lies because they may not be literally true, only useful. They include the idea that there's no such thing as failure, only results, and that everything happens for a reason that serves us.
The formula
Know what you want, take action, notice what's working, and keep changing your approach until you get it.
Modelling
When someone gets the results you want, study exactly what they do and do the same.
Your state
How you act depends on your state of mind, and you can change that state on purpose.
Beliefs
Beliefs act like orders to your brain. Expect to fail and you'll act in ways that make it true.
The body
Change how you stand and breathe, and your mood follows.
A story from the book
Robbins says the US Army asked him to improve its pistol training. He studied the army's best shooters, their beliefs, the steps they ran in their heads and how they held their bodies, then taught those to new recruits. By his account, more of them qualified, in less training time.
One thing to try
Next time you feel flat before something you have to do, change your physiology before your thoughts. Stand up, breathe deeper, move faster and hold your face the way you would if you felt keen. Robbins claims the feeling follows the body. Try it once and judge for yourself.
Knotd has the key ideas from 250+ non-fiction books, each in a few minutes, in plain words. Unlimited Power comes with a Name That Idea round to make it stick.
Get the whole book on KnotdOpen in the appCan excellence be copied? Anthony Robbins wrote Unlimited Power in 1986, building on neuro-linguistic programming, or NLP. He asks why some people get far better results than others who start with the same advantages. His answer is that excellence has a structure, and that you can study it and copy it.
Modelling; State and physiology; The Ultimate Success Formula; The seven lies of success.
Next time you feel flat before something you have to do, change your physiology before your thoughts. Stand up, breathe deeper, move faster and hold your face the way you would if you felt keen. Robbins claims the feeling follows the body. Try it once and judge for yourself.
Yes. Knotd has the key ideas from Unlimited Power in a few minutes, in plain words, plus a Name That Idea round to test them. It's one of 250+ non-fiction books in the app.
