Tony Robbins is one of the most recognized personalities in Neuro Linguistic Programming today. Here are some of his ideas and patterns.
Decisions
Our most important decisions are
- What to focus on.
- What things mean to you.
- What to do to create desired results.
Our decisions are based on
- Our core beliefs and rules.
- Our values.
- Our references.
- The habitual questions we ask ourselves.
- Our emotional states that either enhance or stop our actions.
Beliefs
Beliefs are our way of generalizing reality. They create a sense of certainty and we rarely question them. They are usually based on large numbers of emotionally charged experiences.
Consider also that a “belief” is a Nominalization – the process of believing something that gets turned into a fixed thing that we call a belief. Tony Robbins belief change process involves associating pain to beliefs and pleasure to new beliefs, and is part of his technique of Neuro Associative Conditioning – see Awaken the Giant Within
Motivation
Studies have shown that behaviorism (use of positive and negative reinforcements) only works for a limited time. Neuro Associative Conditioning uses a variable schedule of reinforcement and concepts such as the jackpot principle.
Questions
The use of quality questions are a powerful aspect of Tony Robbins training. Different questions can create doubt, change focus, and change what we delete. A different question can also change what resources we notice. For instance “why does this always happen to me?” Is very different from “what can I do to change this?”
Words
Particular words that we habitually use can have a huge impact on our quality of life. By lowering or increasing the intensity of emotionally charged words, we can change our experience.
For instance, try saying to yourself “I am utterly enraged about this situation” and then “I am a bit peeved about this situation” and notice the difference in how it feels. He also considers that you can adopt the emotional patterns of other people by using their words.
Metaphors
We use metaphors every day. Learning is the process of making new associations. Metaphors can assist learning by creating links between the known and the unknown.
However, metaphors also contain limiting beliefs, rules and preconceptions. The metaphors that we use affect the way we see life. Is business like thrashing your way through a jungle, or farming the world’s abundance?
Emotions
People deal with emotions in many ways, by avoiding situations, by dissociating from them, by indulging in them (feeling sorry for themselves) or by using them as an informative message. Our interpretations of meaning trigger our emotions.
The use of positive powerful emotions and emotionally charged words is foundational to Tony Robbins’ work. They underlie the motivation and enthusiasm of his energetic presentations.
Values
Changing values might be an unusual idea to some. Making the process of valuing into a noun, we tend to think of it as something that is part of who we are rather than something we do.
Values are essentially things that are important to us. Tony Robbins work on values elicitation and change offers many insights into the NLP values processes. His idea is to decide what your values need to be in order to fulfill your “compelling destiny”
Having clear values involves.
- Sorting out values conflicts, where one value competes with another (having independence and connection as important values).
- Re-evaluating inherited values, you haven’t chosen. Values that were handed down by parents and significant people in childhood.
Creating a compelling future
The compelling future (or destiny) process uses Time Line and values in several different areas. Making things a priority creates emotional intensity. You can reinforce goals by making commitments and taking action every day.
It is not the getting of the goal but who you become in the process that is important. Some important Tony questions:
- “Why am I absolutely committed to achieving this goal?”
- “What traits, attitudes, skills, abilities and beliefs do I need to develop to achieve my compelling future?”
Read more about Anthony Robbins…Anthony Robbins – Master of Positive Powerful States