These DAILY HABITS Will Prime Your Brain To Get ANYTHING YOU WANT | Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins 0:00 Anybody who doesn't have problems is either totally asleep at the wheel or they don't have much of any kind of a life. You know, no responsibility, nothing they're building. So my life is really about learn from the best, but I don't start with the how. I start with-

Lewis Howes 0:13 I think you gotta have a dream The school of greatness. Really? [laughs] Yeah. Please welcome Lewis Howes. I know your morning routine has evolved and shifted and changed over the years. Probably thirty years ago it might have been a little bit different than it is today because you've been researching so much about mindset, about neuroscience, about the body, about nutrition, about all the different medical things that are out there. Is there something new that you do with your morning routine now that is different then, and what has really helped accelerate your productivity, your joy, your peace at this level with your morning routine?

Tony Robbins 0:46 Well, there, I have certain fundamentals that haven't changed. You know, I, I think I've sh- shared with you before, the first thing I do every single morning [laughs] is I go in freezing cold water. And I've shared this with many people. It's not because I'm a masochist, but, uh, because the, it moves the lymph of your body, as you well know, and when you jump in, it never feels good to go in, but getting out, you feel incredible. But I, I do it for a different reason. I do it to train my brain to say, "When I say now, it means now. When I say go, we go." I don't stand there 'cause it's cold and go, "Maybe in a minute when I'm ready." And I, and I think I've shared with you before, I don't think I've ever had a morning [laughs] I looked forward to jumping in that water, ever. But I always do it, 'cause I've trained my brain this is how we work. And if you train your brain to do that every single day, then it'll do it on the more difficult and important things in life. But I also then I do my priming, I think you're familiar with, which is I do ten minutes, and I pick ten minutes because if I said do twenty minutes or thirty, "Oh, I don't have time." But if you don't have ten minutes for your life, you don't have much of a life. So I do this ten-minute process, and if people wanna know it, rather than walk through it right now, they can go to tonyrobbins/priming. There's a video, it's free. But the essence of it is I change my body radically and I do three things to make sure that my brain is primed. And what I mean by primed is most people think their thoughts are their thoughts, Lewis, and you and I know better, 'cause you and I have read the studies, right? Priming is a psychological principle where you think thoughts and you think they're yours, but very often they're created by the environment. So one example was Harvard has done multiple studies on this, and one of the studies they did was taking people, walking up to people. They hired two actors. They walked up to a hundred people. They had to do the exact same thing, men and women. And what they did is they'd walk up with a cup of coffee in their hand and they'd look at you and go, "Here, would you hold this for a second?" And then they'd look down and reach in their pocket to pull out their phone. And most people then take the coffee. There's nobody there, you're not looking to give it back, right? And then they do what they do on the phone, they put it back in, they go, "Thank you so much." And they take their coffee back and they walk away. But then about twenty minutes later, if you're in a mall or a school campus or whatever, a person comes by with a clipboard and they give you twenty dollars and they say, "Listen, I know this sounds crazy, but if you'll give me thirty seconds of your time, the twenty dollars is yours. I need you to read two minutes of this, literally this little story, and then just answer three questions for me." Here's the interesting part. Half the people have a reaction more than eighty percent and half have a reaction eighty percent difference and here's the question. They read the same story, but half the people are handed hot coffee, half the people are handed iced coffee. And the question they ask is, "How would you describe the main character of the story?" after they read a few paragraphs. And the people who are handed hot coffee say the person is warm and genuine, eighty-one percent of the people. Seventy-nine to eighty, seventy-nine point eight, it's almost, it's a one percent difference, you know, v- natural variability. Who are given the iced coffee say the person is cold and uncaring. And I could tell you twenty studies like that that would blow your mind how your brain is conditioned or primed by the environment. And think about all that's gone on with COVID over the last two years, and how many people's brains live in fear. And in my new health book I put in there just to remind people with COVID, outside being eighty years old, the number one f- or having four or five comorbidities, the number one factor, eighty percent of the people die of COVID, seventy-nine point eight percent are obese. That's something you can do something about. The second factor, according to the CDC, is fear. Because anxiety makes people get short of breath, they freak out, and their whole nervous system starts to go shut down. Your immune system can be shut down just by fear alone. And so this experience of life that we have, most people just don't understand that you are being primed all the time, and unless you prime yourself, you're gonna be primed by the environment. Which most people understand that your brain right now is being conditioned and triggered whether you know it or not if you're in any social network. It's being done continuously by algorithms. So I wanna take control of my brain.

Tony Robbins 4:52 So I do three quick things. One, I take three minutes of those ten minutes after I've changed my body, and I focus on three different events in my life that I'm grateful for. I usually pick two big ones and one small one. It could be as simple as a smile on my daughter's face, uh, the wind against, you know, my skin. But I really, I don't like... If you ever been on a rollercoaster and you remember the rollercoaster over there, it's not the same as remember going over the edge like you're there. So I do it in an associated way. And it changes your biochemistry. Now, it sounds pretty, you know, positive thinky, I'm gonna be grateful. But there's a value to it, 'cause the two emotions that mess up your business, your life, your relationships, are anger and fear. And you can't be angry and grateful simultaneously. And you can't be fearful and grateful simultaneously. So by starting my day with that, and it's not some fake pump up positive thinking, they're real experiences. So it literally teaches your body to go in that state, because otherwise, the environment we're in right now, there's a whole deal, lot of uncertainty and fear. Then real fast I do this three-minute process that's kinda like a blessing, and then three minutes, the last three minutes are called three to thrive, where I focus on three things I wanna accomplish, but instead of thinking I wanna accomplish, I see, feel, and experience it as done. I feel grateful. I celebrate it. And it trains your brain. So in ten minutes I'm done. Third thing that I'll do I immediately send a message or a text or an audio message to somebody as a sincere compliment. And I don't go, "Dude, great job," or, "Wow, you're cool." I say, "Listen, I saw you on Tuesday with those kids, and I saw you take that extra 20 minutes no one else did. And I just want you to know, I saw that. I thought that was incredible." So I'm always very specific-

Lewis Howes 6:31 Mm

Tony Robbins 6:31 ... so they know it's not just some positive thinking bull [censored] call. It's sincerely-

Lewis Howes 6:37 Right

Tony Robbins 6:37 ... doing it, and it makes me constantly look for the good in the people I work with. Fourth thing I do is whatever I don't wanna do, the most challenging part of the day. I wanna go handle that problem, I wanna handle that issue, 'cause after you do that, everything has momentum. So those four are my core. Now, my workouts, what I've done to be able to have more energy and vitality and strength, I just finished a book called Life Force. Spent three years on it, and in there I give all the details of what to do, depending upon what your goals are and what your direction is, stage of life, what you're... Are you looking for more energy or more strength? Are you looking to extend the quality of your life? Are you dealing with a real disease? And you know I did Money: Master the Game, and I interviewed, you know, at the time, 50 of the smartest people in the world financially, Ray Dalio, Warren Buffett, et cetera. This time I interviewed 167 Nobel laureates, scientists, and the greatest regenerative doctors on the face of the earth. So there's nothing in here that's my opinion. It is all science, and it's stuff that you would think would happen 20 or 30 years in the future that's happening either right now or the things that are coming in the next 12 to 36 months that the FDA is currently looking at for approval.

Lewis Howes 7:42 I want, I wanted to ask you a follow-up to one thing you mentioned there, which I think a lot of people don't do, which I think you do incredibly well. I've seen you do this many times. You mentioned you reach out to someone, you'll text someone, you'll send a voice note or a video message, uh, or maybe you're calling them or just saying hi to them and telling them... You're acknowledging something that they're doing well that you appreciate. I don't think that many people do this. Why is this so important for you personally, and why do you think this would help so many people get out of themselves and overcome anxiety and stress if they did this even a couple of times a week? I know you do this every day, but just a couple texts a week. Why is this so valuable for people?

Tony Robbins 8:20 I, well, number one, I love people, so I love to sincere... If you just ca- call someone to make a compliment and it's not sincere, anybody can feel that. And I don't do that [censored] , you know? It's like I, I pride myself in finding the goodness in people or the skillsets in people, and I also know that what is acknowledged tends to grow. So from standpoint of that, I, I want them to feel that feeling of being appreciated. I want them to know I see what's happening behind the camera, so to speak. You know? It's like, uh, that's what matters. It's not how everybody else sees you, it's how you really are. And then it also deepens every relationship you have when you sincerely acknowledge somebody and you notice something other people don't notice. And so it, it deepens the connection. And to me, quality of life is the quality of two things, your emotions and your relationships. And you know, if my emotions are terrible, my relationships [laughs] are gonna be terrible.

Lewis Howes 9:10 Right. [laughs]

Tony Robbins 9:11 But if I have great emotions and I can extend that out to help other people, then it just makes me feel more alive. So I, I do it for me and them. It's, it's a virtuous cycle.

Lewis Howes 9:21 Right. Yeah, and I think if someone's feeling, you know, stressed, the easiest way to overcome that is do what you said, which is focus on the things you're grateful for and get out of yourself and start acknowledging someone else, and you'll, you'll f- you'll build that deeper relationship and feel better in the process, more energy, yeah

Tony Robbins 9:33 ... and now, now you got mo- positive momentum energy. Now you attack the most difficult thing of your day. And when you make that your habit, it, it, the most difficult thing gets smaller and smaller [laughs] 'cause you're feeling stronger-

Lewis Howes 9:43 Right

Tony Robbins 9:44 ... and stronger, right? And then you have momentum, and so now you'll attack the next dif- difficult thing, and it doesn't even feel, feel difficult at that point. But the, the whole secret is most of us don't realize, depending on which research you buy into, somewhere between 45 and 55% of what we do is habitual. And the great thing about habit is you don't have to think. So I don't know about you, but the first time I tried to drive a stick shift car when I was a little kid, it's like, "I'm supposed to do this, this, this-"

Lewis Howes 10:09 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 10:09 "... watch the rear view mirror, and the ah." It's too much.

Lewis Howes 10:12 Yeah.

Tony Robbins 10:13 But once you learn it, most of driving, 99% of it's habit, so now your brain is free to do-

Lewis Howes 10:18 Yeah

Tony Robbins 10:18 ... other things. That's the value of making something habitual. The weakness of making it habitual is you don't grow, right?

Lewis Howes 10:24 Mm.

Tony Robbins 10:24 The weakness of making it habitual is you don't feel fully alive. So it's like you've-

Lewis Howes 10:28 Yeah

Tony Robbins 10:28 ... gotta find that balance in your life. But if you can create habits that make you do the right things for your mind, your body, your emotion, and for others, then l- let those take over. Then it becomes... It's like working out. You and I both are workout nuts, and it's like in the early days, it's hard to work out. At this stage of my life or yours, if you didn't work out or I don't work out, my bet is you'd be pissed off and frustrated, right?

Lewis Howes 10:50 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 10:50 You need to work out. It's a part of who you are now. In the beginning days, it's like the last thing I wanted to do. But once it's in your life, that now frees you up to use that energy for everything else that matters in your life.

Lewis Howes 11:01 Yeah, absolutely. Uh, two and a half years ago, I had, I had, uh, the privilege of being in your, your island in Fiji and spending, uh, about a week with, uh, a small group of people, uh, Dean and a, a bunch of other guys a- and gals. We got to spend some time with you, and you had a prediction. You said, "Winter is coming."

Tony Robbins 11:21 Yes, I did. [laughs]

Lewis Howes 11:22 And, uh, you, you know, Dean has told me that you have predicted many things over the last, you know, four decades in, you know, the economy and what's happening in the world and all these different crises. You're, you're kind of on the front lines of access to the most brilliant people in the world, so you, you know what's happening before it happens. And you said to us, "Winter is coming." You probably knew this two years prior to that. And you said you don't know when exactly, but it's coming soon. And then, I don't know, four or five months later it hit, and it hit hard for a lot of people, and it's still hitting hard like you're talking about over the last couple years, and I don't think it's gonna slow down anytime soon. May- it seems like there's might be some hope, and then boom, another wave, and then another wave of something, whatever it is. What did you learn from researching in the new book with all these different experts on how we can really take back control of our mind, our health in, in new ways to support us when The winter continues to hit, 'cause it doesn't, it doesn't seem like it's going away anytime soon.

Tony Robbins 12:20 Well, you're, you're hitting on a huge note. I'd, I'd love to plant the seed with everyone listening, and that is we're about halfway through winter.

Lewis Howes 12:25 Ugh.

Tony Robbins 12:26 But my hope is this is the year where that part starts to change. But we're still in winter, meaning so many people have been conditioned to be fearful. So many businesses have been shut down. Our children have been kept out of school for such a long period of time that there's after effects on that. And it's also, you wanna be a student of history. Think of it this way for a second. When did mankind really become a dominant force on Earth? When they made one distinction. I've shared this with you when we were private. I think I told you there's three skills that you wanna master if you want to have an extraordinary life, no matter what decade we're in. You know, you know, you've probably read Oxford and many other universities are doing these studies where they say half the jobs we have today will be gone by 2040, which sounds like a long time, but it's 18 years from now, and that'll go like this. And so my grandkids, my daughter, it's like what I wanna help them with. Well, the first skill you gotta master to be great, you know, you're The School of Greatness, is the ability to recognize patterns. When humanity recognized the pattern of the seasons, the whole world changed, 'cause we went from hunter-gatherers trying to survive from place to place where we're exposed to everything, to wait a second, if we plant in the springtime, we protect in the summer, we reap in the fall, and then we hang on to some of that so we can live through the winter, that created communities for the first time, and then eventually cities and states and countries. So that changed the world. What'll change a person's life is when you realize there's also a set of seasons in your own life. And so think of it this way. Zero to 21 is springtime. Things are easy to grow in springtime. You don't have to do that much. Growing as a kid happens naturally, and some people live a protected childhood, not some of us, not so much, but overall, life is supporting you. It's sending you, teaching you, sharing with you. Now, when you get from, you know, 21 to 41 or 22 to 42, whatever range you wanna talk about, some people get there at 16, some people get there at 25, you now are in the real world, and now you go test what you learned in your springtime. And it's a hot summer, and you find out, holy [censored] , a relationship's different than I thought it was when I'm in an intimate relationship, committed. It's not the thing I just envisioned so easily. Or I'm not as bulletproof as I thought I was. I'm not President of the United States already and a billionaire like I said I was gonna be when I was, you know, 19. So you start to learn, test, figure out what's real, and it's an important stage of life. 42, 43 to 62, 63 is the power of your life. It's the reaping time. If you worked hard in the spring and the summer, and you put yourself out there and you planted, it's a reaping time. It's a time when you really become a leader. Just everyone's different, some sooner or later, but it's a great stage to understand. And then if you're lucky, you go from 63 to 83 and maybe 83 to 103, or the oldest living human's 119. You have an extended final season of your life where you get to be the mentor. You get to share. You get to make a difference. And maybe towards the end of your life, people look out for you again after you looked out for everybody else. That's kind of the cycle of life. But then there's a third pattern, and that's the cycle of history. The most powerful people, by the way, have used not only pattern recognition, but the second skill, pattern utilization. They see a pattern, and they use it. So you'd say, "How did Jeff Bezos become the richest man in the world?" And the answer's simple. He studied the growth in the internet at an early stage and saw how explosive it was. It was like nothing else he could see, and he just figured any product, books, was the easy one to start with, but he got himself in, and then he started to learn the real secret, that convenience is what people value more than anything else. And when he honed in on that one distinction, he not only recognized the pattern, used the pattern. The people that are real masters create their own patterns, right? You play everybody else's music, and then eventually you get good enough, you can create your own music, right? So the similar thing happens, and so what's occurred is in humanity, is you go through there's this seasons in nature, there's seasons in my life, and then there's seasons in history. So watch this. This is what gives me great optimism for everyone watching here. First of all, winter's not forever. No pandemic lives forever. No, uh, you know, war lives forever. Nothing. Everything changes, and everything ends, and be- that means something new occurs. You may not like it, but that's how life is. And the good news about winter is it's always followed by springtime. Historically, some winters are long, some are short, but they're always followed by springtime. What follows the night? The daytime. What a cool way to set it up if you were God or the universe, right? So imagine for a second, all of your listeners or viewers, and you think about it too. What if you're born in 1910? Now you know the seasons of a person's life. So from 1910, the next 19, 20 years of your life, you're gonna be absorbing what was happening. World War I ends. The world looks like it's a great place, new technology, cars, radio, and then what happens? An explosion of abundance, the Roaring '20s, and so you're a kid. You're 14, 15 years old, and you're like, "I can't wait to get a car to go..." But what happened when that person hit the next stage of life, 19, 20, 21 years old? As they came of age, it's 1929, and suddenly people are jumping out of buildings, total depression, Dust Bowl, nobody's got jobs. It looks horrific, and it was horrific. But then did they get a break? No. When they turn 29, it's 1939. So think about it. Now World War II breaks out. You and I don't remember. We weren't there, but anybody who was alive will tell you it looked like the whole world was gonna end. Hitler was s- sweeping across Europe, bombing London. It literally looked like the world as we know it was over. And this group of people, like Millennials or Z generation, a lot of people make fun of and they go, they're, you know, whatever, wallflowers, I forget the terms they use.

Lewis Howes 18:27 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 18:27 And then the Millennials and Z generation argue about you're old 'cause you parked in the middle versus the side. I mean, it's, it's bullshit.

Lewis Howes 18:34 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 18:34 The same bullshit was happening then. These people were called flappers, they were irresponsible. But here's the s- here's history in one thought: good times create weak people. Weak people create bad times. Bad times create strong people. Strong people create good times. That's the history-

Lewis Howes 18:59 Hm

Tony Robbins 18:59 ... of the world over and over and over again.

Lewis Howes 19:01 Yes.

Tony Robbins 19:02 And so what happened is that generation who was weak became strong 'cause the environment demanded it. They became the heroes. And think about how different the 1930s and '40s were versus after the war, '45 through '50, up until Kennedy, '63. That 20-year period was what a lot of people know as the greatest time in America. Now, certainly wasn't if you're African American. Started to become better if you were a woman. But then think about after Kennedy died and Robert Kennedy is killed and Martin Luther King is killed, think about the '60s and the '70s, how different they were than the '80s, '90s, 2000s. So we go through these seasons. I could show them to you, 1,000 years of Roman history, and you can see them. There's a book I highly recommend. Um, uh, Bill Clinton gave me this book called Generations when I was working with him 25 years ago, about a 700-page book. But the same authors, William Strauss and Neil Howe, wrote a smaller book which might be more helpful, and I call... It's called The Fourth Turning. I read it in 1997. And it shows you the seasons of history and how everybody enters that. Like, everyone's gonna have winter. Some are gonna have it in their 20s, some are gonna have it in their 40s, some are gonna have it in their 60s or 80s, some are gonna have it when they're children. And then we all move through these seasons that are pretty much historic because the older person dies, everybody loses that lesson, and then we tend to unfortunately have to relearn some lessons again.

Lewis Howes 20:24 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 20:25 So I want you-

Lewis Howes 20:25 Yeah

Tony Robbins 20:25 ... to know that if it looks really horrible right now, if you follow those cycles, we're about halfway through winter. And winter usually starts with a financial winter, which was what I was referring to. I did not predict the pandemic, but there are pandemics, as there were 80 years ago, right? But in addition to that, there's always a great war, and it could be a cyber war, could be a war with China, but there's no question we are not done with what we're gonna deal with. In fact, I'm reading right now... You know, one of the ways I stay on the cutting edge is I'm constantly studying history

Tony Robbins 20:56 because, you know, people say, you know, it, it doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes, you know? And this is a book that anybody who really wants to know where the world's going, it's Ray Dalio's newest book, The Changing World Order. I mean, it, it's, it's incredible. It's 500 years of history. So my whole thing is leaders anticipate, losers react. If you can anticipate what's coming, you can really take advantage. If you wait till it hits you, you're in trouble. So I think we're in a time where you're gonna, it's gonna be a better year if you're willing to be better, right? [laughs] You know, winter can be a beautiful time. As you've heard me say before, you can freeze to death or you can ski and snowboard and have a great time with your family and build something. And so then when spring comes, you know, you can really take advantage. But if you look at the world, the most successful businesses started in a winter. 68% of the Fortune 1000 were started in either in a recession or a depression. I don't care if you're talking about Disney or Exxon in the Depression or Pizza Hut or FedEx in a recession or Apple in a recession. So this is your time, but you have to get your head straight and you gotta get your energy strong, and that's not easy when most people have been shoved in their houses and isolated and heard nothing but fear. So you gotta take back control.

Lewis Howes 22:04 Yeah. Absolutely. One of the things in the sports arena that I learned growing up was, uh, if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.

Tony Robbins 22:13 I love that.

Lewis Howes 22:13 And you, again, you've worked with, interviewed, you're friends with the top peak performers in the world in, in all industries. You know them all. What are one or two practices besides the one you talked about with your morning routine from peak performers that you've studied or maybe you've implemented that keeps them prepared so they don't have to get ready, they stay ready?

Tony Robbins 22:35 Oh, I think, I'm s- unfortunately, the real things are simple. That's why nobody does them.

Lewis Howes 22:39 Yeah. [laughs]

Tony Robbins 22:39 So if you, if you took it, Ray Dalio, you're, or, or Warren Buffett, I mean, they're readers. I'm a, I'm a constant reader, but I don't just read anything. I read something that I think can give me an edge of understanding. 'Cause I mean, look at it, Lewis, you and I both know most people, Jim Rohn used to say, my teacher, used to say, "Most people major in minor things." You know, they know more about some actress's personal life than they know about their own physical body or their vitality or their energy or their emotion or their business or their career. And so what matters? A few subjects, your body, 'cause your energy matters. That energy is low, everything I just said is worthless to you 'cause you're just gonna go, "He's talking too fast and there's a lot going on, and yeah, well, hopefully the future will be better." 'Cause when you're low energy, you don't use your full intelligence or ability, and most of us have not moved so much because of the environment of COVID where everybody was pretty much locked down, unless you live like I did in Florida. The point of the matter is most people, that energy's been low. So you need energy. You need emotion. If you don't know how to master your emotion, emotions start wars, emotion creates peace, emotion get, emotion gets you laid, emotion gets you children. Emotion is what can make that business work or fail. And most people don't know how to direct their own emotions. What's another lesson? You gotta look at your own financial world. If you don't master it, it's gonna create enormous stress. Your relationships are everything, as we've already said. The, your business or your career, or hopefully it's your mission. And then there's the spiritual side of life. So you could take a half dozen areas and go, "Let me find who's genius in this area, and let me go learn from them. Let me go read, let me listen to podcasts, let me be conscious about feeding my brain." Things that are gonna give me not only inspiration, but insight and skill and tools. And everyone I know who is not only successful, but is able to contribute back to society, has a hunger to constantly improve at least one area of those six areas of their life, and the most happy are the ones that hit multiple areas. And that's why, like, like one of the reasons I wrote Life Force, richest man in the graveyard [laughs] is not your goal, you know? It's like there's an old phrase that says, you know, a person who's healthy has a million dreams. A person who's not healthy has one, you know? So I wanted to give people the cutting edge in that area 'cause it's such a critical area.

Lewis Howes 24:56 Of all these different areas of life, mastering emotions, financial world, relationships, [ts] what do you, what do you think is the root of, of people lacking what they really want in all those areas? Is it the confidence? Is it the skill set? Is it some- what else do they, you know, what is the root cause of holding them back from really growing in all those areas?

Tony Robbins 25:16 I think it's, um, couple things. One is the biggest problem people have is they think they're not supposed to have any, and problems are the fuel for growth.

Lewis Howes 25:26 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 25:26 Right? And so-

Lewis Howes 25:27 Yeah

Tony Robbins 25:27 ... if, like, you don't have any problems, you're either a liar, or you might call them challenges. It feels better. I understand that.

Lewis Howes 25:32 Mm-hmm.

Tony Robbins 25:33 But, you know, anybody doesn't have problems is either totally asleep at the wheel or they don't have much of any kind of a life. You know, no responsibility, nothing they're building. So I think the first thing is this misnomer that if I have a problem, there's something wrong with me or my life. And then I think the second one is this delusion we've sold people on that getting what you want is gonna make you happy. You know, s- you could call success getting what you want. I, I, I don't define it that way, but that's how most people do. But then there's fulfillment-

Lewis Howes 26:02 Mm

Tony Robbins 26:02 ... and fulfillment is living what you're made for. It's like-

Lewis Howes 26:05 Yeah

Tony Robbins 26:05 ... I think the biggest challenge people have and the reason they're not able to respond to challenges, they're just thinking about themselves, and it's not that hard to meet your own needs. And it's nobody's fault. I mean, these little p- things in our pocket, these little mini computers we used to call phones, I mean, they're-

Lewis Howes 26:21 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 26:21 ... constantly conditioning you to instantly get what you want, and that's not how human relationship works, and it's sure as-

Lewis Howes 26:28 Mm

Tony Robbins 26:28 ... hell not how you build a business, right? It's not a straight line. If you go to nature, you will not see a straight line unless, unless a human built it, 'cause everything grows a little up and down like a stock, like anything else, and, but if it really grows, it keeps growing, but it's a winding process. And so-

Lewis Howes 26:45 Yeah

Tony Robbins 26:45 ... I think the problem is that people don't have something that they're wanting to serve more than themselves. That's where my energy comes from. I don't have to work another day of my life. Why the hell do I do all this crazy stuff? I got 105 companies [laughs] now, and I got all these different industries. 'Cause it's so much more interesting to be in the game of life and keep growing-

Lewis Howes 27:03 Mm

Tony Robbins 27:03 ... and expanding and being challenged. That's what makes you feel alive. And do... Are there problems? With 105 companies, I can promise you.

Lewis Howes 27:10 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 27:10 But if I thought my life was supposed to be problem-free, I would be really stressed out. And if I was just doing it for me, I would've stopped a long time ago. It's like, I know you've asked me a lot of times about confidence. You just mentioned it again. Like-

Lewis Howes 27:23 Yes

Tony Robbins 27:23 ... is it a lack of confidence? No, it's a lack of mission, right?

Lewis Howes 27:28 Mm.

Tony Robbins 27:28 Because what, what happens is when you have something you wanna serve, if it's your child and everything's on the line, you will come up with answers you'll never come up with for yourself, right? So it's like having that sense of mission. And then I think the next problem is that people think they have to know how. I call it the tyranny of how. Like, you get all excited, "I'm gonna do this," and then your brain goes, "I've never done it before. Oh my God, what do they say? I, I don't know how to do this." And they tend to focus on how to do it, and when you start with how, you're screwed. Like, Martin Luther King had no idea how when he did his "I Have a Dream" speech. In fact, his wife was the one who pushed him [laughs] because he was uncertain, right? If you know-

Lewis Howes 28:08 Mm

Tony Robbins 28:08 ... the real history, it's pretty interesting. But the bottom line is he gets up there and he gives his vision of how it can be done. He talked about what needs to happen and why. If you can figure out what you want and why you want it-

Lewis Howes 28:21 Mm

Tony Robbins 28:21 ... and you get strong enough reasons, reasons that'll drive you late at night, it'll get you up early in the morning, and the reasons are different. Some people do it for nitty-gritty reasons. Jim Rohn used to say, 'cause, you know, some guy told him he, he borrowed money from this finance company, I forget the name of it, HFC Finance, whatever the hell it was, and, you know, he hadn't been back since he borrowed the money [laughs] , you know? And so they're calling him. In those days, they could harass you in ways they can't today, right?

Lewis Howes 28:45 Right. [laughs]

Tony Robbins 28:45 They'd call him, show up, and embarrass him in front of his neighbors. And so-

Lewis Howes 28:49 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 28:49 ... Jim Rohn, his first real chunk of money, he told me he made because it's like he set this goal. It was his nitty-gritty reason. His reason to get rich was so he could go down and pay this thing off, and he said he went to the bank and got it all in cash and in small bills, and he bolted into this little HFC ca- you know, finance place, and the guy who borrowed the money was the fourth desk back, and he said, "I walked up there, I opened, I opened up this brief, and I dumped all the money all over his desk in small bills. And I said, 'Count it. It's all there. I will never be back.'" He said he was startled because I hadn't been there since I borrowed the money, right? [laughs]

Lewis Howes 29:22 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 29:22 But, but he did it for nitty-gritty reasons. Some people do it for their kid. Some people-

Lewis Howes 29:27 Mm

Tony Robbins 29:27 ... will do it, like we almost all do it for something more than ourselves. Some people do it because they like winning, right? I know that about you, right?

Lewis Howes 29:35 Yeah.

Tony Robbins 29:35 It's like I like winning. I like being the best at what I do, so I'm not gonna settle for less than that. Why would I? Right?

Lewis Howes 29:41 Mm.

Tony Robbins 29:41 So you gotta find your reasons, but if you know what you want and you get a big enough why, now you'll figure out how to do it. But if you start with how, you know, the small brain, the fear brain, goes, "Oh, [censored] , I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go." I don't know what to do 90% of the time either. I know what and why, and then I try something. Doesn't work, I try something else. And I try something else. Now I speed it up by learning from the best. So that's why.

Lewis Howes 30:04 Mm.

Tony Robbins 30:04 You know, Money Master the Game's a perfect example. My companies w- you know, at the time were $100 million companies. I had one $500 million company. Now we're doing 7 billion. I took what I learned from these guys. I applied it not only to my investing, I applied it to my own businesses. Why do I reinvent the wheel when I just learned from the best on Earth? I mean, somebody who's that good-

Lewis Howes 30:26 Mm

Tony Robbins 30:26 ... can tell you that little two-millimeter thing that changes everything. So my life is really about learn from the best, but I don't start with the how. I start with the what and the why, and I think that's the mistake-

Lewis Howes 30:37 Yeah

Tony Robbins 30:37 ... most people make.

Tony Robbins 30:38 And then how do you get confident? You do stuff. I mean, like, I'll give an example. Speaking. You know, it's supposedly outside of falling, like the second biggest fear people have, public speaking.

Lewis Howes 30:48 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 30:48 And, you know, you've trained yourself so you don't feel that challenge and... But I don't feel that challenge and I, and not, you know, I've done it a million times, but I didn't feel it early on and the reason was, I try to explain to people, I'm not getting up thinking about how I'm doing. If I did, I'd probably be a horrible critic of myself-

Lewis Howes 31:05 Mm

Tony Robbins 31:05 ... 'cause I, I can be brutal in those ways. I'm focused on how do I serve them? What do they need? What do they want? How can I serve? And when you're s- focused on others and how to serve them, there's no lack of confidence in you, 'cause if it's not working, you just change your approach, 'cause it's all about serving. People that are scared to speak are thinking constantly, "How am I doing? Am I good enough? Am I strong enough?" You'll never get confidence. Confidence comes from doing something so many... Confidence is tying your shoes, right? Confidence, uh, Michael Jordan making 1,000 shots before you take a break every single day, six days a week. So you look at Jordan or you look at, you know, LeBron, or you look at anybody who's the best in the world at what they do, and you go, "Aren't they lucky?" But if you actually study them, you'll see they're doing things, they're practicing in private things that make them certain in public, and they get rewarded-

Lewis Howes 31:56 Mm-hmm

Tony Robbins 31:56 ... for what they do in public.

Lewis Howes 31:57 Yeah.

Tony Robbins 31:58 And you gotta do the same.

Lewis Howes 31:59 It's interesting, 'cause public speaking was probably my most terrifying thing. I wasn't even able to speak in front of, like, five people without stuttering and just kind of forgetting what I wanted to say. I couldn't get my message across, so I took a year of public speaking class with Toastmasters just to get reps in a group of people that are, you know, are gonna give you positive feedback, and in a safe environment so I could just get in front of a room, practice a five-minute speech, and know that I'm gonna make mistakes. It's interesting, what you said is 100% true about thinking about serving others. Because for, I think it was probably seven years I was, I was speaking on stages, and I would still get nervous, like, a day or two before. It wasn't as bad as the first two years where it was, like, a week before. Now it was only-

Tony Robbins 32:39 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 32:40 ... like, a day or two. And I called my, my coach at the time, his name's Chris Lee, and I said, "I don't know why I'm speak- I've been doing this for a long enough now. Shouldn't I be not afraid anymore?"

Tony Robbins 32:49 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 32:50 And he said, "You're thinking about messing up, missing the joke, forgetting what you're gonna say in the first line, forgetting... You're thinking about how you're looking as opposed to serving people." And he said exa- you know, exactly what you just said. He's like, "When you just know you're gonna mess up, it's not gonna be perfect, you're gonna get forget that line that you really wanted to say, but just put all the energy on the audience, everything starts to change." And so your, your message speaks to me, 'cause I, I'm an example of that. [laughs]

Tony Robbins 33:17 Okay.

Lewis Howes 33:17 And it really shifts when you put it on other people.

Tony Robbins 33:18 Well, congratulations, 'cause obviously you kick ass in that area now. But think about that. You just gave people the truth, right? Y-

Lewis Howes 33:24 Right

Tony Robbins 33:24 ... how do you build confidence is action. The biggest mistake, people think they're supposed to walk out and be good at it. And if they're not, 'cause, you know, th- they don't want any part of it. I don't not look good, not be good, because we live in this social media world where they compare themself to people that are bull [censored] . You know, I got a friend that owns a gym, and we laugh about this all the time. He says, "Tony," at least two or three times, first time he told me this I couldn't believe it. But I, I saw it happen one time when I went to go pick him up and we were gonna have lunch, and he goes, [laughs] "Look at this." And these people would come out, a woman or a man, they both do it, and lay out all this stuff, take a million pictures of themself, and then leave. They didn't do any workout whatsoever. That's the bull [censored] social media and filters on pictures. And so people compare themselves to not other humans, they compare to people others' bull [censored] story. And that's why so many people get depressed when these, when, you know, there's, I'm sure you've seen the studies show the more time people spend on social media, usually the greater [laughs] levels of frustration and anger and certainly depression for a lot of people have. 'Cause you're comparing to a world that doesn't matter. Plus, you're being reinforced by these algorithms in ways that go beyond your conscious awareness.

Lewis Howes 34:27 What happens when we don't lean into our fears, or we just allow our fears to stay inside of us, our insecurities to stay inside of us for years or decades and we never actually learn to act on them and improve them? What happens to us if we just allow these fears to, to hold us back?

Tony Robbins 34:44 Well, what happens to a muscle if you don't use it? We say you lose it, you don't actually lose it, but it gets weaker and weaker as you well know, right? And what happens the minute you start making demands on it, es- especially if you haven't made demands in a while, it doesn't take much to see real muscle growth, right? And so it's like if you, if you constantly live in fear, your world gets smaller and smaller and it tends to get more fearful. Like, who's more fearful, someone who's broken 10 bones in their body and healed them as a kid or someone who never broke a bone? You know the answer is. The kids that are overprotected are fearful all the time. But if you've gone out in the street and, you know, you've gotten in a fight and, you know, you busted your arm or your hand or finger or whatever, you played football or whatever the hell it is or boxed or something, it's like, now it's like, "I'm not afraid of that crap," 'cause you've lived it. And there's no substitute. I always tell people a belief is a poor substitute for an experience. You think you know what China is, but I take you to China, you have a little different experience. And so almost everything I do is give someone an experience. That's the reason, you know, I did the fire walk. I still do, but did for so many years. I did, before that I used to do skydiving, but it's hard to get 15,000 people [laughs] above the sky in New York in the middle of the night. So I had to come up with other tools. But the fire walk was, again, giving you an experience of something that seemed difficult or impossible, and then you get yourself to do it and your brain goes, "Wait a second. If I can do that, what else can I get myself to do?" That psychological shift is the most important shift that people can make. It's a shift in your identity.

Lewis Howes 36:12 Why is identity so important for us to shape a positive, powerful identity?

Tony Robbins 36:17 Well, first of all, f- so everybody understands what I mean by identity, is we all have a way of identifying ourselves. We have a way of labeling ourselves. So most of us came up with our labels based on how we behaved. But really smart people can do stupid things. Really nice people can be mean. Mean people can be nice. And so if you judge yourself too soon, and most people's identity, their labels for themselves, who they think they are, has been based on their past and often many years ago. And so they don't update it. So the, the metaphor I'd give for identity is like It's your comfort zone. It's not your goals. So if you, like, if you took a temperature in the room and it said 68 degrees is my comfort zone physically, emotionally, financially, I want more in my relationship. I want more physically energy-wise. I want more financially in my career, but this is what I'm used to. And so what happens? People stay in their comfort zone for the most part, and then let's say something happens and you dip. You're a 68 degree-er, that's your mentality, and you drop down to 62, 61, 60. Somewhere around 60 or 59, the heaters kick on and go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're a 68 degree-er. What the hell are you doing?" We've all experienced that. All of a sudden you go, "I'm not gonna live like this anymore. I'm not gonna be in this relationship. I'm not gonna be fat like this. I..." Boom, and you get this drive and you start to change. But what most people don't understand is it happens on the upper end, too, meaning let's say you got momentum. You start crushing it. You start doing even better than you think. You go from 68 to 78 to 8- you're at 98 degrees financially, emotionally, spiritually, whatever the metaphor is. And then what happens? You're going, "Hey, hey, hey," your brain goes, "Who the hell do you think you are? You're not a 98 degree-er." Right? Get back to 68, and if nothing else, the heaters stop, you lose your drive, and that'll drift you back. And not enough, the air conditioner can kick on and you start to kinda sabotage yourself till you get back to your comfort zone. So unless you expand your identity, change is temporary. It's like when someone says to me, "I've stopped smoking. It's been eight days."

Lewis Howes 38:14 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 38:14 And I go, "Why are you counting?" And I say, "Why are you counting? So you can tell people how long you lasted this time?"

Lewis Howes 38:21 Mm.

Tony Robbins 38:21 Like if I went to somebody and, and I said to you, "Hey," you know, "Lewis, you want a cigarette?" You're not gonna say, "What brand is it?" [laughs] You're gonna go, "No."

Lewis Howes 38:29 Right.

Tony Robbins 38:29 "I'm not a smoker." Notice how people... I'm not one of those. That's not my identity.

Lewis Howes 38:35 Mm. Mm.

Tony Robbins 38:35 Identity is the strongest force in the human personality. If you look at Lance Armstrong who has a mixed identity now [laughs] in the culture, this is a guy that had to win and found a way to win. So when he was told he had cancer in his lungs, in his brain, and in his testicles, and he rides a bike, and he's gonna die, his answer was, "No. I'm a champion. I find the way. I will find the answer," and he did. Now unfortunately, he bent the rules [laughs] around the sport, and it kinda ruined his reputation obviously, but that mentality, his identity is why he survived. Other people told they have cancer and they're like, "It's over." They give up. They start arranging their affairs. And so that psychological difference is the number one thing I work with people on because unless you expand your identity, you're gonna basically keep where you are. You might improve a little or not. You might go up and down a bit, but you're gonna stay within a realm. If you're gonna have an explosive breakthrough to another level physically, mentally, financially, spiritually, then we gotta not only give you the tools, we gotta shift that internal sense of who you really are and have you find that you are more than anything that's ever happened to you, that you can handle whatever shows up even if it's incredibly scary or uncomfortable.

Lewis Howes 39:49 One of the biggest challenge I see a lot of people having is the identity when they start to have some success. They expand. They get to, you know, 80, 85, 90, 100 degrees and start to really grow and expand. What would you say is one of the main factors to help people to continue to break through to a higher degree as opposed to going back into the comfort zone? Is it a habit? Is it a mindset? Is it a belief? Is it environment? You know, what are this, uh... What are those things would you say or, or a couple things to help you continue and not fall back down?

Tony Robbins 40:20 It's, it's... I'm sorry to be a r- a broken record, but it's just the truth.

Lewis Howes 40:23 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 40:23 It's a purpose larger than yourself that keeps you going.

Lewis Howes 40:26 Mm-hmm. Yes.

Tony Robbins 40:26 If it's only to meet your own needs, you will drop back into your comfort zone. But like, you know, for example, you know one of the great things that came out of COVID is I've spent most of my life as a vagabond, right? [laughs] 'Cause I travel all over the earth. So most years I travel to, you know, 115 cities, and as you know, most of my seminars are multi-day seminars, and I go to 12 to 16 countries, you know, like Australia three times. And so all of a sudden COVID hits, and I had to adapt. I found this way to adapt, and now I'm reaching 10 times the am- I mean, my largest seminar is now 900,000 people versus 15,000. I was try- I did one football stadium in 2019 with 38,000 people, 40,000 people. It was incredible. But now that's a tiny seminar, [laughs] you know? 'Cause-

Lewis Howes 41:09 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 41:09 ... I couldn't put 900,000 people in any stadium, right?

Lewis Howes 41:12 Yeah.

Tony Robbins 41:12 So all this good comes from that adaptation, right? Figuring out what to do. But I think the other part of it is, you know, during that same time, one of the great gifts was I could find a way to be home and still touch people's lives so deeply, and do it in a way that was impactful. I could see it and feel it, and in their home I could see their children. I mean, it- it's been amazing. And now I do both. I do hybrid. I got 1,000 people in front of me and 197 countries all around me. But one of the other benefits was is we'd wanted to have a daughter, and I told my wife, "I'm not having a kid after 50. I don't wanna show up at a high school reunion and be 70 years old."

Lewis Howes 41:45 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 41:45 But now I got a, I got a nine- I've got a 48-year-old daughter and a nine-month-old daughter to give you an idea.

Lewis Howes 41:50 Yeah. Yeah.

Tony Robbins 41:50 I got five kids and my grandkids, but my daughter, like, all the things I've ever done for myself, biohacking and health and all that stuff, well, like, [censored] now I'll be 80 at her high school reunion. [laughs] So like-

Lewis Howes 42:02 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 42:03 ... I, I gotta use these things for a different reason, and so that doesn't let me get to a certain level and stand there. It's like, man, I, you know, I gotta be 92 to 102 range. In order to do that, I gotta know every tool in the toolbox to turn it around. So gave me even more drive. And then what comes out of that now is I can help anybody. I mean, you know, this is my new book, by the way. It's called Life Force. It's coming out, uh-

Lewis Howes 42:24 So excited about this

Tony Robbins 42:24 ... February the 8th, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon or go to tonyrobbins.com. But the point is, it's like I wanna know every single tool. Like, I got totally obsessed even more than I normally am 'cause it's like, okay, I got a higher purpose. I got all my grandkids, all my children, but now I got my daughter. It's like I gotta have these tools. So, you know, you probably know, I think you remember about four years ago, five years ago- I was being crazy and I was snowboarding, chasing somebody who was 25 years old and a professional, right? Mm-hmm. And I was not a professional, regardless of age, and I had one of the most horrific accidents. I tore my rotator cuffs and, you know, I was... I've lived with pain, like you. We both are athletes- Yes ... so you know what it's like to live in pain, but I was nine-nine nerve pain. Like, couldn't sleep- Oh ... more than 30 minutes in a night, going to see these doctors, and what do they all say? Every single one says the same thing, "Surgery. You gotta cut it." Mm-hmm. "It's the only way." And then I go- Mm-hmm ... "Okay, how long's the rehab?" "Well, you know, there's no guarantee your shoulder will work again completely." Oh. "It could break again, but you know, probably four to six months," and I'm one of the best. So it's like my brain's like, "No, there's gotta be a better way." And I remember seeing this s- study at Mayo Clinic where they said, "You gotta get a second opinion." They recommend to this day, it doesn't matter how good the doctor is, because only 12% of the time is the second opinion the same as the first, which means 88% of the time it's different. And so it's like, okay, I need more opinions. I was getting the same opinions, so I was going to the same kind of doctors. So then I went to Peter Diamandis, who's my partner and friend and you know. So he's an MD from Harvard, but he's also a rocket scientist. I was like, "What about stem cells? I know a little bit about stem cells." So he interviewed me, interviewed me to Dr. Bob Harari, and they're both my co-authors in the book now and both my partners. And Bob's the guy that took... You know, people remember, probably remember years ago, 38 years ago, somebody took old rats and gave them young rats' blood and vice versa, and magically the old rats got young muscle, strong hair, darker, and the old, young rats got old. It's kind of a vampire thing, but that's how stem cells were discovered. So I went to him and he said, "Tony, look, your shoulder is shredded, so I can't guarantee anything, but if you go get stem cells here in the US, forget it because the way they regulate and everything else, it's not gonna do it. So go to Panama," and he goes, "I want you to go down to this location and I want you to get three-day old stem cells." And he said, "They're cord stem cells. It's not fetal tissue. I'd never do that." They throw away the cords, and it's full of this life force that literally can change everything. Hmm. And so I went down and I got this IV and, yeah, it felt okay, and next day I was really sleepy. I woke up the third morning, not only was my shoulder perfect, I had the MRI, it just blow your mind. Three days. But the most- That's crazy ... important thing is I had spinal stenosis. I'd been in massive back pain for 14 years. No back pain whatsoever, no exaggeration. So I became- Wow ... nuts, first for stem cells and then for anything in regenerative medicine. So then I get invited by the Pope to be the cleanup speaker on a f- believe it or not, the Pope puts on the number one stem cell regenerative conference every two years- [laughs] ... because he sees it's not fetal tissue and he sees it- Wow ... as a gift from God, and it's healing people in ways they'd never seen before. So they asked me to be the cleanup speaker. I'm like, "I'm no idiot. I'm not gonna come clean up speak. I wanna go the whole four days and attend every class." And so I met the greatest scientists on the face of the earth, Nobel laureates, brilliant people who are doing these breakthroughs in cancer and heart disease and Alzheimer's, but also regenerative medicine. And so I-- right then I said, "I'm gonna write a book. I'm gonna do like Money: Master the Game." I'm-- and only there I wr- interviewed 50 of the most, you know, financially successful people in history. Here I interviewed 168 of the greatest Nobel laureates, scientists, MDs, the best on earth on how do you gener- generate more energy. So like for example, for years, if someone like a fireman or a person falls in a fire, you know what they look like afterwards. It's grotesque. It's so sad for their life, and the standard treatment is put cadaver skin on there to help them survive initially. Well, today there's seven hospitals in the United States where they take your stem cells and they spray it on your face, and in the book I show a picture of this f- fireman before and three weeks later, and you could never tell he was even in the fire. Um, you know, uh, Jack Nicklaus, one of the greatest golfers of all time, couldn't stand for more than 10 minutes. He gave me an endorsement for the book, and he got stem cells and this other piece we show you on how to eliminate pain in a natural scientific way. He's playing golf again for the first time. Uh, Cristiano Ronaldo, the greatest, you know, football soccer player in the world, you know, gave me an endorsement of the book 'cause it's the same thing. He's used regenerative medicine, completely turned his life around. So there are tools that'll blow your mind. There are tools for preventing things that'll blow your mind. There's a, a new test that just came out. I got a call from some of my partners about five, six months ago and he said, "Tony, you know, there's been a breakthrough in the number one killer in America," which is heart disease, right? And he said, "There's this new scan called a CCTA scan, and if you've ever had a CT scan, you know, they tell you how much calc- they give you a score on your calcium, but hardened calcium is actually healed in the body. It's the loose calcium they call the widow maker that can then block an artery and give you a stroke or give you a heart attack." And he goes, "Tony, it's so hard to read. I'm sure you've had them before." I said, "I have." He goes, "They now... this AI that literally opens digitally every single one of your, you know, it, uh, entries in your body flow, in your body, arteries, et cetera, and it goes through using AI and shows what's actually hardened and good and what's loose and gives you a score and then shows you what to do." He said they can predict a heart attack between seven and 10 years in advance and show you what to do so it never happens. So my father-in-law was with me at the time, he's 80, or about to be 80 years old, and he's a strong and beautiful man. But you know people around you start telling you you're getting older, 80, arrange your affairs, and I could just see the decline in his psychology, and then your physiology usually matches that. So I said, "Dad," I said, "I'm gonna go to our center here in Florida." I said, "I'm gonna take a couple hours and do this new test and meet some guys and talk. Why don't you come with me? Let's do it together." I said, "We're both at the stage of life where we're gonna obviously have some of this calcium, but then it'll show us what to do." I said, "Why don't we go do it?" My father-in-law, who, you know, worked his whole life lifting lumber in his own business, he is clean as a whistle. And then we have these tools now I write about in the book too, like I had this ankle of mine that if I ever had a massage the last 18 years, like, "Don't touch it," 'cause if you did, the nerves go crazy and it literally up my spine like an electrical shock. And I went in for a five-minute procedure. They scan what's going on in the tissue in your body, right? And then they put in this fluid that opens up the channel, and then it heals it. It's emu fluid, for example. And it was like, it was a 10-minute procedure, and I've never had a problem with my ankle since. That was, like, three years ago. So my dad had a hip issue, so while we're there, they do his hip, and he walks perfectly out with no pain-

Lewis Howes 49:16 Wow

Tony Robbins 49:16 ... for the first time in 12 years. So we're getting on the plane, and this is what I want for the book for people. It's one of the reasons I wrote it. My dad says to me, "By the way," he goes, "You know, Tony, those people talk about 120 and that. I, I don't know about that stuff." But he goes, "You know, I'm 80, and my heart is solid." And he goes, "And I'm... My hips are working, and my muscles are strong." He goes, "I could live another 20 years." He goes, "You've only known my daughter for 22 years, been married to her." He goes, "That's like a lifetime," [laughs] you know?

Lewis Howes 49:43 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 49:44 He's got this whole new lease on life. So there are so many things you can do that can take away your fears about cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, et cetera. Or if you're there, things you can do so that you can have an alternative set of treatments that maybe are less toxic or have greater opportunity. And again, none of it's my opinion. Everything, just like Money Master the Game, is coming from the greatest medical doctors and scientists in the world, and it's everything from how to get stronger, how to be able to eliminate challenges in your body, how to produce more energy and strength in the shortest period of time, or how to heal the body if you're going through some real challenges.

Lewis Howes 50:17 I'm so excited about Life Force, and I read the first, the first interview I did with you, I think it was six years ago, and it was for Money the Master the Game.

Tony Robbins 50:26 Oh, yeah.

Lewis Howes 50:26 And, uh, and I... Is the book, like, 600 pages? It's probably the biggest book I've ever read.

Tony Robbins 50:31 Well [laughs] .

Lewis Howes 50:31 I mean, it's, like, chock-full of-

Tony Robbins 50:33 It's almost identical. S- this... I use Bible paper.

Lewis Howes 50:36 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 50:36 It's 674 pages [laughs] , so.

Lewis Howes 50:39 Right. I, I read the book, and I remember being so... I was in my early 30s at the time, so I w- I had gotten decent, I would say, at earning, but I didn't know how to invest. And I literally just did whatever you said in the book, and I set it and forget it with index funds. I didn't really know what an ind- index fund or a fiduciary was, all these things you talk about in there. And I just looked the last week. I've doubled my investment.

Tony Robbins 51:06 That's awesome.

Lewis Howes 51:07 And I had a, I had a, I had a big investment in there, and it's doubled in the last six years.

Tony Robbins 51:11 Congratulations.

Lewis Howes 51:11 Um, more than doubled, actually, and, um, it's, it's steady, it's stable, and I can see kinda where it's gonna go in the next five, 10 years, so-

Tony Robbins 51:19 And you're not worried about it day to day, every day-

Lewis Howes 51:21 I can only-

Tony Robbins 51:21 ... worried about checking it-

Lewis Howes 51:22 No

Tony Robbins 51:22 ... and all that [censored] .

Lewis Howes 51:22 Not about crypto going up and down and all the stocks going up and down and all these things. It's just like, it keeps growing as everything else in the world is uncertain. I, I have been really good at being an athlete, working out, you know, being pretty healthy overall throughout most of my life, but I can only imagine the things I'm gonna learn when I read all of Life Force. I, I, I don't have a copy yet, but when I get it soon-

Tony Robbins 51:46 Well, I literally just got this physical copy, so I'll, I'll send you one right away

Lewis Howes 51:49 [laughs] Exactly. When I get it, I'm gonna go through this and, uh, start implementing it because if this does exactly what Money Master the Game did for money for me for my health, then I'm, I'm pumped about this, so I'm very excited about that.

Tony Robbins 52:01 I'll, I'll tell you what. I wrote this book... Every book I write, I write with the intention of helping people change and improve their lives on a massive scale, but I wrote this book 'cause it actually can save lives without exaggeration or hyperbole.

Lewis Howes 52:11 Mm-hmm.

Tony Robbins 52:11 And I wrote it not only for you but for those you love 'cause as you get older, you'll discover more people call you and say, "I..." You know, it happens to me every week. Somebody's got cancer. Somebody's got a family member with Alzheimer's. Somebody's had a stroke. And so now I can go, "Here is the cutting edge right now. Here are the doctors, people that you go to right now. Here's how to educate yourself literally in minutes on virtually every subject." That's why it's so robust. You can take as little of it or as much as you want, but the... You'll appreciate as an athlete some of the stuff in there that will blow your mind, I'm s- I'm saying-

Lewis Howes 52:41 So excited

Tony Robbins 52:42 ... blow your mind about how to increase your body's natural ability to produce energy and also how to keep you young longer because, you know, most people think of genes as their destiny, and I know you know better. Genes are not your destiny. Genes, think about as like the piano. What you care about is the piano player, right? And a piano player is the process that your body uses to direct those genes, and so there's a process that makes that possible, that keeps your system running ideally. Think about it. When you're young, you have a mansion. Everybody works for you. You're young. There's plenty of resources. As you get older, the mansion's older. It breaks down a bit more. The personnel's older 'cause your stem cells are older. Like, all these things start to break down. But what if you could rejuvenate the house and the people in it and the systems going on in it? Well, it's, it's like, you know, I'm fortunate enough to have a, a really wonderful plane. I... But my plane's not brand new. I made it brand new. I repainted it. I put new engines in it. But instead of spending $100 million, I spent le- a third of that to have my own BBJ. I can fly anywhere on earth, and I got... I'm basically in a flying house of 5,000 square feet.

Lewis Howes 53:51 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 53:51 But I refurbished it all. Well-

Lewis Howes 53:53 Wow

Tony Robbins 53:53 ... that's what's happening right now. I don't know if you saw today, they... I wrote about this in the book. There's regeneration of body parts-

Lewis Howes 54:00 That's amazing

Tony Robbins 54:00 ... that has already been happening for some time. Dr. Tony Atala has been doing this at Wake Forest University for, like, 15 years. He's replaced parts of people's bodies where he's grown them-

Lewis Howes 54:11 Amazing

Tony Robbins 54:11 ... literally with stem cells with- so it doesn't get rejected and it goes in your body. Well, now they're doing it not only that way, but they're doing it with pig implants, and today was the first day. I wrote about it coming. I said it would happen by the time you're reading this book, and it's happening right on schedule. They just did the first implants for a heart for a gentleman who couldn't get a heart transplant 'cause, you know, 100,000 people are on the list and 6,000 people are dying every year 'cause they can't get it. But they're able to actually change the genome of the pig 'cause they have the right structure-

Lewis Howes 54:40 Come on, really?

Tony Robbins 54:40 ... so your body doesn't reject it. And so, and we're at the beginning, the beginning of that. Over the next two or three years, over the next five years, you're gonna be able to, to actually grow from your own stem cells. This is not science fiction. They're doing it right now, but they'll do it en masse. You'll be able to grow those pieces, and if there's a breakdown, boom, you replace it with a new part, and it's brand new Just like you would like, you know, forget the plane, think of a car. Most people have had a car that maybe they refurbished, and now you may make it all new. That's where we're heading, to give you an idea. Not to mention the fact that everything is code. So think of it this way. You know, it took, uh, 25 years ago, it took 13 years to do something that no one thought was possible. Ray Kurzweil is one of the people that drove it forward, a good friend of mine. It was like mapping the genome. They thought it would take 100 years and $100 billion. And guess what? They did the thing in 13 years. After seven years, they'd only figured out 1% of it, and they all said it'll never work. And he explained 1% doubled over seven years will get us to 100%. We'll get to where we wanna be. So they spent $2.7 billion in 13 years. Do you know what it costs to do your human genome right now? 600 bucks and you can have it done overnight.

Lewis Howes 55:51 Wow.

Tony Robbins 55:52 I mean, transistors. You remember, you're o- hell, you're probably not, not as old as I am, so you don't remember. But original-

Lewis Howes 55:57 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 55:57 ... transistors, you get 4,000 transistors, you know, put together to have this microchip, and it was a buck a transistor. Well, now you get six trillion for a fraction of a penny each. So our bodies are code, and so I'm sure you've heard about CRISPR and some of the things happening there where they're literally changing the code of what's going on in your body and eliminating the disease completely. Uh, Dr. Sinclair from Harvard just did a piece where they turned on these Yamanaka factors. I won't try to explain it to you in two seconds, but it reverses the aging process. And they took mice that are blind, where their retinas, you know, they've had glaucoma, so the nerves are gone, and regrew the nerves, like reversed aging, and their first time in history, and these animals can see. They're doing gene therapy. There's a young boy who can see again by gene therapy, by changing what's going on in the eyes. We are living in the greatest time in human history, and the changes that are gonna happen over the next three to 12 years are beyond any you can imagine.

Lewis Howes 56:57 It's amazing. I'm so excited for this book, and I wanna be respectful of your time, Tony, and, and, uh, ask you about this challenge. But before I ask you this la- this, before I ask the last question about this and have you speak on it, again, I just wanna acknowledge you for constantly pushing the thermometer to the next level in your own life and, uh, just being, uh, on a mission to be in service to so many people to help us in all these different areas of our life. It's really inspiring, and I'm, I'm just grateful for all the work that you do and, and again, the model you're creating for so many of us.

Tony Robbins 57:27 Thank you, buddy.

Lewis Howes 57:28 Uh, I, I, I'm very excited about this, I believe it's a five-day challenge-

Tony Robbins 57:32 Yes, it is

Lewis Howes 57:32 ... the Breakthrough Challenge.

Tony Robbins 57:33 Yeah.

Lewis Howes 57:34 Which, uh, you know, anytime you do anything for free, it's like-

Tony Robbins 57:38 [laughs]

Lewis Howes 57:38 ... people should be paying tens of thousands of dollars for this because they get so much value from you. You're there consistently showing up, giving your passion, giving your energy and wisdom, uh, you know, over four decades of wisdom from learning and applying this and getting amazing results and, you know, learning from all your mistakes that you've made as well, uh, that you've, that you've overcome. And, uh, this Breakthrough Challenge is really gonna help people take control back of their lives and develop a stronger mindset to get through the second half of winter, because I'm sure it's gonna be some, maybe some moments of ups and then some deeper downs and ups and downs throughout the way. So what can we expect with this challenge? How can we get signed up for it right now to make sure we don't miss out at all?

Tony Robbins 58:19 Well, let me tell you why I created it, and I'll tell you real quick how you can do it. It's free. There's no cost to it whatsoever. But what I wanna mention, you just said something really important I wanna make sure people don't leave without. Winter doesn't mean every mon- m- night is, every day is dark and rainy or snowy and horrible. There's days that look like summer in the middle of winter. If you live in Florida, winter's a nice place, right? [laughs]

Lewis Howes 58:38 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 58:38 So winter, I don't wanna make people feel like it's all gonna be horrible. It just means that the overall theme is more challenging than not, and that-

Lewis Howes 58:45 Mm

Tony Robbins 58:45 ... that's where we're gonna probably be, and we're gonna face some bigger challenges going forward, and it's gonna make us grow, and then that'll set us up for a beautiful springtime where things are much easier and more fun for a while, till you get the hot summer, and then you go to fall. It's the cycle of life. But, uh, this all started in 2020 because before I figured out how to build these, you know, events where they could be done in people's homes and have a real transformational experience, like, people were home, and I was hearing about all the suicides and the kids stuck at home and what was happening to the parents and, you know, drug abuse going through the roof, all the things that we now know. They were happening then already, but I'm connected to it 'cause I know so many people, and so I was like, "I gotta do something." So I said, "You know what? I'm just gonna do a one-day free seminar, like three, four hours total immersion, and help people, like, get a new perspective," 'cause when you're in your house day after day, you lose perspective, you lose momentum, you lose energy. And I was like, "That's bull [censored] ." Everything I do is, you know, by total immersion. So like, if you learn a language a little bit at a time, high school and college, few years later, you can't even speak the language.

Lewis Howes 59:46 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 59:46 But if I said to you, "I'm gonna drop you in Rome for the next 12 weeks, and I'm gonna pick you up, and you have no s- teacher," 12 weeks later, you're gonna s- be speaking Italian really well, because that's how the brain works with immersion. That's why I do seminars in immersion. So I said, "You know what? I'm gonna do five days, just 90 minutes a day." Usually goes two, two, two and a half hours, I gotta be honest, [laughs] 'cause I, I get into it and I really wanna help people. I'm gonna charge them nothing, and I'm gonna deliver it to them in their homes so that there's no cost, there's no travel, and I can reach them when they need it right now. And we had 430,000 people show up for the first one.

Lewis Howes 1:00:20 That's crazy.

Tony Robbins 1:00:20 The biggest event I'd ever done. And then last year, it looked like things were gonna turn and, you know, people were getting excited, vaccine's gonna go, and I was like, "Okay, I'll do one more, and let's do it for people so they get momentum to take on this new experience." And we had 800 and something, 35,000 peop- 40,000 people attend. So this year looks like we'll have about a million people, and I'm gonna do it one final time 'cause I really believe we're turning the corner on COVID, like we've talked about. But what it is is five days, and we're gonna start with your energy, because without that, like this whole conversation we had is worthless, 'cause if you're tired or you're exhausted or you're just burnt out, you've been through it all, your brain just doesn't function the right way. So the first day is really about how we shift that energy in you, and then the next day is about your emotions, the next day is relationship, and the next day is gonna be your finance, the next day is gonna be your career. And in five days, you get this massive burst of momentum and a whole new perspective, and you create a plan for the, your year, not some New Year's resolution that six weeks later you're doing nothing towards. And then you're part of our community. And I, I'll give you a fun story. I could give you 100 stories, but this one's really fresh for me 'cause I just saw this man. His name's Matt Intinzi. Matt was in a car accident, I believe it was a car accident, and he had an injury, a brain injury. He was put in bed. He was told he couldn't get off oxygen ever. He gained 700 pounds in that bed. He couldn't even get up to go to the bathroom.

Lewis Howes 1:01:42 Oh my gosh.

Tony Robbins 1:01:42 And this is over seven years. He was completely isolated, naked in bed for three of those years.

Lewis Howes 1:01:47 Ugh.

Tony Robbins 1:01:48 And here's the beauty of this challenge. A buddy of his tells him, "You gotta do this challenge. You got no excuse. You got nowhere to go. [laughs] You're in your bed. I'll put this on a, on a big screen in front of you here, or we'll put it on a laptop. You gotta attend this thing." And he thought it was all BS, but his buddy got him... His buddy sat beside him, set it up, made him watch. [laughs] And the first day he got so excited, I mean, he was so moved, that he took this little, um, like, a, I don't know, like a ra- like a railing you'd use to, to hang curtains, like curtain railing, and he just started doing these little pushup-type things in the bed. Anyway, long story short, in six weeks he got off the oxygen, which they said he could never do. He stood for the first time. He made it to the bathroom on his own for the first time after eight weeks.

Lewis Howes 1:02:33 Wow.

Tony Robbins 1:02:33 Then he started losing weight and feeling stronger, and so finally, I don't remember what number he's at, but he lost 258 pounds so far, but I called him up because, you know, you're part of our community after you do this. It doesn't end in the five days, and all these people around the world become your friends, and he's getting all this support from people, and he's showing videos of his improvement. So that's how I knew what was going on with him, 'cause I'm, I'm tuning in, too. So I reached out to him and I said, "Listen, you lose this much more weight and I will fly you to Palm Beach, Florida, and you come to my live Unleash the Power Within event, the first one we're doing live in two years, and you be my guest, and you walk on the fire."

Lewis Howes 1:03:07 Wow. [laughs]

Tony Robbins 1:03:07 And he, he got so excited, and he went for it. Lost 258 pounds, but then he calls me up and goes, "Okay, I did what you said. I'm ready to come. I, I drove a car for the first time. I'm ready to travel for the first time." But he goes, "I fell in love and I'm engaged."

Lewis Howes 1:03:23 Oh.

Tony Robbins 1:03:23 "Can I, can I bring my girl?" [laughs] And I said, "Of course you can." So they just recently came here to Palm Beach. They walked the fire together.

Lewis Howes 1:03:30 Wow.

Tony Robbins 1:03:30 And now he's inspiring other people. All this came 'cause of a free challenge, 'cause, you know, somebody got him in there, 'cause there's no reason not to do it. So if you've ever wanted to experience my work, here's your chance. Costs nothing. It's not partially free, it's totally free. And you don't have to go anywhere. And if you want, you can do it with your family or a friend, so you got, like, a partner, and they don't have to be in the same room with you, or you could be doing it with a group of people in your office. So I'm doing it January 25th through the 29th. It's coming up quick. January 25th, 2:00 PM Eastern, 11:00 Pacific, but we have people from 195 countries, so whatever time zone 2:00 PM Eastern is for you. And I promise you, you do this each day for these five days, you're gonna have a massive momentum, and you're gonna be set up to win no matter what happens in 2022.

Lewis Howes 1:04:13 Mm. And it's, it's breakthrough2022.com. Is that where they go to sign up for it?

Tony Robbins 1:04:16 Breakthrough2022.com to register. Again, there's no cost, you just gotta register. Breakthrough2022.com.

Lewis Howes 1:04:22 I'm telling you, I've done, I've, I've been a part of these events the last couple years. Uh, I've seen the energy, I've seen the consistency people take on actions on overcoming their fears and insecurities. I've seen the results they get. I've met some of these people as well, 'cause I've been down to Florida with you and seen some people as well. It's incredible what people are creating after just five days of getting the tools, the wisdom, uh, and really the clarity on how to take action moving forward on all these different areas of their life. So Breakthrough 2022, I'm telling you, sign up right now. It's free. Send it to a few of your friends. Get them to sign up with you. Have an accountability buddy, and it'll really support you, uh, to commit and really take on this year in a big way. So if you've got any insecurities, any fears, or any big goals and dreams that you wanna go tackle, I'm telling you, this is the place to be January 25th through the 29th. Do not miss this. Breakthrough2022.com.

Tony Robbins 1:05:14 And remember something. You know, Breakthrough 2022, it's really about the greatest story of humanity. What is the greatest story? What's the story we all love? It's the comeback story.

Lewis Howes 1:05:22 Yes.

Tony Robbins 1:05:22 It's, you know, it's the hero gets knocked to their knees. And listen, COVID's knocked everybody to their knees in some way, right?

Lewis Howes 1:05:27 Mm-hmm.

Tony Robbins 1:05:27 Business, their life. It's nothing to be embarrassed by. I don't give a damn how good you are. But they get knocked to their knees, and what is it? It's the comeback. It's the Rocky. It's that music where all of a sudden you step back up and you take control and rock.

Lewis Howes 1:05:40 Mm-hmm.

Tony Robbins 1:05:40 That's what 2022 needs to be for you. But you're not gonna get there sitting home having the same perspective you have. You gotta exit that world and enter another world filled with people that are ready to go to the next level, and that's what breakthrough2022.com's about.

Lewis Howes 1:05:51 "Eye of the Tiger," I got that music in my head right now.

Tony Robbins 1:05:54 [laughs] Me too.

Lewis Howes 1:05:55 Um, final, final thought for you before we go real quick, what was the biggest lesson of 2021 for you, and what are you most excited about for 2022? And then we'll wrap it up.

Tony Robbins 1:06:04 I think the biggest lesson was, uh, that I could have even more impact without treating my body like, [laughs] like it's a vagabond around the world. And I think the other one that was the greatest gift that God gave was, uh, my daughter, right? Like, I-

Lewis Howes 1:06:19 Mm

Tony Robbins 1:06:19 ... we'd almost given up on it, but I said, "If I can really be home, I don't wanna have a child where I'm never there and I have to drag them around the earth. But if I can be home a lot more here, let's give it one more try." And so, you know, my daughter's, you know, the gift that's come out of that. So those are-

Lewis Howes 1:06:32 Mm

Tony Robbins 1:06:32 ... those are my breakthroughs for 2021.

Lewis Howes 1:06:34 I love it. Tony, thank you again so much for taking the time, for, uh, being such an incredible teacher to so many of us, and I appreciate you being here. And again, breakthrough2022.com. Make sure you guys go sign up right now. Tony, again, thank you so much. If you enjoyed that interview, then I know you'll love what we have coming up right now.

Lewis Howes 1:06:53 Was there ever a moment where you didn't, uh, unconditionally love yourself? And, and if so, and if so, when did that shift where you stopped that and you started saying, "Okay, I appreciate myself because of my contribution and my service and who I am"? When, when was that shift?

Tony Robbins 1:07:09 I don't think it was ever I just didn't love myself. There are times, obviously, be angry with yourself or frustrated with yourself or thinking, you know, "I'm not doing enough." I mean, I can remember on my birthdays, to be honest with you, probably up till my 40th birthday In- including my 40th birthday. Uh, you know, you have a birthday with a zero on it once you're over past 30, you know, 35, sometimes five years on it as well, people look at their life differently culturally. And I'm sh- and I used to think it was bullshit, but sure enough, I would do it. And I remember turning 40, and I was really, really unhappy. I was like, "Jesus, I've not done enough. I've not helped enough people." I'd helped tens of millions of people at that point [laughs] already done all over the earth in 100-plus countries at that point, but it was still kind of stuck in my head. So, I would earn the love by over-delivering, change somebody's life. Like, I don't get it 'cause somebody says, "Oh, I love you, Tony." I mean, I appreciate that. Or, "Oh, you're the greatest." It's gotta be my standard. My standard's higher than their standard for me, right? So, when I get up and someone's gonna kill themself, and it's they're suicidal, and boom, turn around and they're no longer not gonna kill themself, but they're transformed, their life is there, you know, that's when I go, "Okay, you know, now we- we've hit the center of what I'm made for. Now, you know, I deserve to feel this euphoric feeling within myself and appreciation." And even then, I still know it's God coming through me. I don't have the delusion it's just me. But I think sometime after 40, I finally saw the stupidity of it and I accumulated enough that I looked at life with fresh eyes. And I can say by the time I turned 60 a year ago, I noticed it was interesting, 'cause my birthday, I didn't have an ounce of it. I was just like, "You know, how could I at this stage of my life, when I've had the privilege of serving so many humans in so many contexts," you know, from turning around, you know, guys gonna kill themself with PTSD, to helping kids turn around, to getting kids off cocaine, or adults, to, you know, helping people build multi-billion dollar businesses from nothing. And when I've lived this long, I can't go by without hearing half a dozen stories a day or dozen stories a day from people telling me how something I did changed their life. So, it's not that I'm so smart now, it's just I've stacked it. By the way, though, stacking is the way you can do things. Most of us stack the negative. If you-

Lewis Howes 1:09:13 Mm

Tony Robbins 1:09:13 ... are really angry, it's not usually 'cause of just the moment, it's that it happened again, you know? It's like if you've ever lost it or overreacted to your kid or to a friend or a business or even within yourself, it's because it happened again. We hit this one, two, three, many point, and then our nervous system overreacts. But what I've learned is you can stack the good and... But for example, if you're, if you go into a s- a state of really strong anger for more than five minutes, your immune system is suppressed between an hour and a half to two hours. That's a physiological fact. But no one had done any study. I started stacking good, like, okay, let me stack a dozen great memories, feel them, see them, experience them. And I felt this biochemical change that didn't just last a half hour, an hour, or 10 minutes. It went on for a day or two. And so, I think, um, I've learned to stack the good. So, just having the experience is not enough. You gotta stack the good to be able to appreciate it. But I, I think, just come back to the main point here from my perspective, which could be completely full of shit, just my perspective, so I wanna point that out. I think the more you find unconditional love for others, the easier it is to find in yourself. And I think the focus is serving and loving, and that's what will get to the point where you start doing it. But if you wanna speed it up, stack all the good you've done, you'll feel great about yourself.

Lewis Howes 1:10:28 I, I already know all the comments that are coming through, thousands of comments telling me, "But what about my family that's toxic? What about my partner who is toxic? And how do I love someone unconditionally when they don't respect me, I can't trust them?" Wh- what about situations like that?

Tony Robbins 1:10:43 All those reactions are natural human reactions from ego.

Lewis Howes 1:10:47 Mm.

Tony Robbins 1:10:48 'Cause it's all about you, me, me, me, what I'm not getting, what I'm not doing, and that's why you're in pain. And so, don... I, I'm not telling you like I haven't done this shit. I've done it, too, in the past, but it's an old pattern I don't really do anymore, and I, it used to affect me. Now, not d- a dominant one, or I wouldn't have become who I've become. Early in my life, I developed this belief that life is calling not to give me something, life is calling for me to deliver things, for me to bring something to life. And I felt the, the joy that came from not getting but giving, and I got hooked on that core pattern, and then the pattern of learning so I'd have something to give. Which I know one of the things I respect about you, Lewis, is that you have that same pattern in you. You're, you're always trying to learn more because underneath it all, you also wanna give it. You want it, you want it for you-

Lewis Howes 1:11:33 Absolutely

Tony Robbins 1:11:33 ... but you wanna share it, right?

Lewis Howes 1:11:34 Yeah.

Tony Robbins 1:11:34 And so, those patterns help me not be, and what they're not giving me. And, and all this language. Language, today people don't understand the power of their language, like toxic. What the hell are you talking about?

Lewis Howes 1:11:47 [laughs]

Tony Robbins 1:11:47 You, you've been wa- reading too much social media and thinking about yourself, or somebody raised you to constantly judge everybody else. We live in a culture now where people, you know, you're evil or you're like me. [laughs] That's basically how it is, right?

Lewis Howes 1:12:00 Right, right, right.

Tony Robbins 1:12:00 The whole world and everybody else is immoral unless they do what you do, think what you think, experience what you think. I mean, being a liberal, I was a liberal, right? Being a liberal growing up meant you, I would, I would fight for your ability to say and believe whatever you want different than me. Today, now everybody wants everybody to think the same thing, otherwise they're evil or otherwise they could hurt me. Whatever happened to sticks and stones will break your bones [laughs] and words will never hurt me? We have this whole thing that words are evil. Words are action. Word, it's bullshit, and all it does is make you incredibly weak as a human being, and you're more than that. We all are more than that. But you know what? Like a kid that's never broken their bones, deathly afraid of breaking a bone. But if you're a kid and you're rough and tumble, you broke multiple bones and they healed, you don't have any fear of it. There's so many kids that have been raised to be safe and secure every moment. Anything that's insecure or unsafe, they don't wanna be a part of, including language. And what it does is make you incredibly weak and fearful. And that's why there's so many people that are abundant that are angry all the time, 'cause they're angry 'cause they're not growing.

Lewis Howes 1:13:02 Mm.

Tony Robbins 1:13:02 So, don't get me wrong. I know some people are not a good influence. I'm not denying that. I'm just saying you're more than somebody's influence, unless you obsess about it every moment and make them wrong so you can make yourself feel superior morally, psychologically, or spiritually. That's bullshit. Stop the pattern. We've all done it. Catch yourself. 'Cause if you want joy, happiness, and freedom, an extraordinary life, it will not come from blame Never.

Lewis Howes 1:13:25 Mm.

Tony Robbins 1:13:26 There's no pride that comes from blame. I don't mean fake pride where you make [censored] up to feel good. I'm talking about real pride. Pride is something you earn. Like, people tell me, "Oh, I have no self-esteem because my parents used to say this or they'd say that." I'd say, "That's such bullshit." I'm not saying it's bullshit they didn't say that. I said, "It's bullshit that's why you don't have self-esteem." Self-esteem does not come from what people say about you.

Lewis Howes 1:13:47 Mm.

Tony Robbins 1:13:47 Self-esteem comes from what you experience about yourself. See, someone could tell you your whole life you're a piece of crap, and then part of you can go, "You're full of it. I'm gonna show you." Lots of people have done that, and they never bought it. Or someone tell you you're beautiful your whole life, you go, "I'm not really beautiful." So what people tell you doesn't matter at all. It's what you stack. It's what you assemble.

Lewis Howes 1:14:07 Mm.

Tony Robbins 1:14:07 It's what you create. It's the habit of what you put in your head. And today I don't blame you because we got a whole culture that's always blaming somebody else for something in their life, but blame is not a strategy for pride. That's why you listen to these blaming people, they're all angry all the time. Listen, if I wanted to blame, I grew up in an environment I didn't even share it till my mom passed, and even then I didn't share. I grew up in a pretty rough environment. My mom was a beautiful soul, but when she drank alcohol and she mixed it with prescription drugs, it was a different creature, and it was a violent creature. And I have a younger brother five years younger and a younger sister seven years younger, and my mom would get nuts, and I didn't want them to get hurt. So I was 5'1" in high school, she'd grab me by the hair and smash me against the wall till I bled. Now, I never shared this, and I'm not, uh, denigrating her in any way. I only shared it, uh, like four or five years after she died-

Lewis Howes 1:15:00 Mm

Tony Robbins 1:15:00 ... um, because I was talking to a group of kids in New York City, um, all without fathers, um, 80% African American, about, uh, 20% Hispanic out of their group, roughly. No white kids, and I'm talking about your biography is not your destiny, and it doesn't matter what you've been through. What you decide now is what's gonna control your life. What you decide each day going forward is gonna decide your life. And I look at them seeing me, and I can read their minds. "This big, tall, white, rich guy is gonna tell me biography doesn't matter." So I said, "You know, let me tell you my story," and I told them the whole story, way more than I'm telling you, and every one of them was crying their eyes out when I was done. I said, "Look where I am right now," because I wouldn't assemble the story that my past equals my future. The past only equals your future if you live there. If you're using a rear view mirror to guide yourself, you're gonna crash. So what you've been through is horrific. What you've been through is unjust. I'm on your side. But if you hang on to it, you have no future, and you have no one to blame but yourself. And these kids, to their credit, man, they just responded to the challenge, 'cause they first cried their eyes out hearing all the stories. My mom would think I was lying, and I wasn't lying. She poured liquid soap down my throat till I threw up, and I wasn't lying. So it's not the physical abuse, it's the fact that this is the person you love most that's trying to hurt you that messes with your head.

Lewis Howes 1:16:16 Mm.

Tony Robbins 1:16:16 So I could have been messed up for life, but I didn't, 'cause something inside me says, "I'm responsible for this life." And part of that is 'cause I started reading when I was 13, 14, biographies of people, the greatest people in history, and reading their lives and finding out, guess what? Their lives were far from perfect. [laughs] Some of them had worse lives than I had. But when you have no reference and all you do is go online, you talk to other people, making everybody else toxic, and I'm like this, and they didn't do that, then you get to have the [censored] life just like those other people. Why are they online so much? 'Cause they don't have a life.

Lewis Howes 1:16:47 Mm.

Tony Robbins 1:16:48 Right? Don't be one of those. Free yourself from the chains of your past. I'm not saying your past doesn't matter, but listen, my mother, I tell people this all the time and it's the truth, if my mother had been the mother I wanted her to be, the mother she should have been, I would not be the man I'm proud to be today.

Lewis Howes 1:17:11 Mm.

Tony Robbins 1:17:11 Because I had to become a practical psychologist way before any schooling. Figure out when's she gonna go in a mood, how do I change her state, how do I protect her from the kids, what do I... I mean, it was about life and death, and it was to some extent. [laughs] So I developed skills at such a young age. Then when I learned things, I just added to my skills, but I had a core sense of certainty that I could turn anybody around, 'cause it started with my mother. And thank God for her. And she encouraged me in so many ways. She did so many great things. And she loved me, even though it didn't look like it at times.

Lewis Howes 1:17:41 [laughs] Right.

Tony Robbins 1:17:42 So, but if your parents, if the people around you said all the things you thought they should have, if they had just not been toxic, if they'd encouraged you, you wouldn't have any muscle. And right now you don't have any muscle 'cause you're using that as an excuse if you're thinking that. And I'm not attacking you, brothers and sisters. I'm calling to you, 'cause I know you're more, otherwise I'd just keep my mouth shut. We're just... You've been hypnotized by a culture of weakness. Now, having said that, I'll say one last thing. I know you have got other questions, but it's so important what you asked. Yes, there are people that you don't want to hang out with that will not serve you, but then move on. Don't sit there and talk about it constantly. Don't waste your time. And you say, "But what if it's family, Tony?" Mine was family, too, and you learn to grow. You go, they're in my life. If someone can get your goat, if someone can piss you off, if someone can make you feel less than, that's God coming to you saying, "Grow. You need some spiritual growth." There's gotta be some change in your perception, your belief, your emotions, your spiritual look of life so that can't happen anymore. And when it happens, like at 61, I've been through so many of those things, and I like to do things en masse. So I took on big challenges so I'd have to grow more. But then life throws them at you, too. When they come, you just go, "Okay, it's gonna have me until I grow. What needs a shift in me so that it no longer has an impact?"

Lewis Howes 1:19:03 Mm.

Tony Robbins 1:19:03 But, you know, Jim Rohn used to say, my original teacher, he used to say, "Tony, what happens if I've got a cup of coffee here?" And he'd say, "What if your worst enemy drops sugar in your coffee? What's gonna happen?" And I'd go, "Well, you'd have sweet coffee." And he goes, "What if your best friend, your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your loved one drops one drop of strychnine?" I said, "You'd, you'd be dead." He goes, "That's right. Life is both sugar and strychnine, so watch your coffee." His whole thing was stand guard at the door of your brain. But some people take that and go, "Oh my God, you can kill me." It was a metaphor. [laughs] These people are not so toxic. They're toxic 'cause you give them energy. So if your mom's crazy and constantly criticizing you and it drives you nuts, just go, "That's my mom. That's her way of showing love," and I'm find a new perspective, and no matter what she does, just stay in a beautiful state and love on her and think, boy, think of all that she cares and feels for, all that she's frustrated in life, or all that she's going through that's made her this way, and thank God I don't have to go through this. I can love her. It's like your growth is the only limit to your happiness. If you're not happy, you're not growing in some area, and usually it's a place where you're blaming, you're pointing the finger. I don't care if it's government. Don't get me wrong. People can be unfair, unjust. That for sure happens, but you can't control that. [laughs] You can't make it not happen. What you have to do is become stronger than any of it so you're free. Freedom comes from growth. Freedom does not come from control, 'cause control-

Lewis Howes 1:20:28 Mm-hmm

Tony Robbins 1:20:28 ... is an illusion. You can't control everybody, no matter how hard you try. You can't control what they think or feel, and not everybody's gonna be fair and just, and you, my dear friends, and I have not always been fair and just, whether we admit it or not. It's just the nature of being a being, a human being.

Lewis Howes 1:20:42 Mm-hmm.

Tony Robbins 1:20:43 But we can't make the largest pattern fair and just and loving and powerful and serving and growing until it becomes the dominant thing inside you, and then you experience life as being great, not you're great. Life's great because you're living a great path.

Lewis Howes 1:20:57 It seems like what I'm seeing and hearing from a lot of people, that this past year, everything has fallen apart for them, their health, their relationships, their finances, their mission or purpose, and these, y- their spiritual awareness, like, every area of life has been in breakdown mode for, for some people. Well, not everyone. Some people have had incredible lives and have stepped up to the occasion and broken through on all these things, but I'm seeing a pattern of a lot of people breaking down in many areas. Hypothetical scenario, let's say you, you could only focus on one thing to get you started. You only had the time and energy to focus on one of these areas, your health, your relationships are all breaking down, your finances are in, failing, failing everywhere. Where should people lean into first to kinda create that foundation so that everything else can start to rise as well?

Tony Robbins 1:21:44 I think before you answer what to do, you gotta answer why you're there.

Lewis Howes 1:21:47 Mm.

Tony Robbins 1:21:49 It is not because of the pandemic. I remember when 9/11 happened and people telling, "Oh, my God. My life was destroyed 'cause of 9/11," da, da, da. And there were people in the same building who turned their life around, became, grew spiritually, grew closer to their family, made their businesses larger, and the same building burned down, right? Um, I know in my case, you know, 9/11 comes. If you can imagine, you know, I'm fortunate enough to have now more than 80 companies in all these different industries, and obviously, you know, I've done pretty darn well b- by most people's [laughs] standards of business and life. But my core mission is what I do for a living. It's why I'm here talking to you right now. It's getting people to be free and alive and have the level of fulfillment th- that they deserve to have. I know they desire, but I also believe they deserve to have, but to deserve to have it, you gotta do certain things, right? And so you're not in a place of being overweight 'cause you lost your job. So stop the bull- [beep] blame. Blame is not a strategy for a meaningful life. Blame is not a strategy for greatness. So you gotta resolve that, number one, and then you-

Lewis Howes 1:22:47 Yeah

Tony Robbins 1:22:47 ... your question was what's the one thing to focus on if you only focus on one? I think it's smart to focus on one thing primarily. Focusing on too many can be overwhelming. Other people, it's fo- it's good to focus on multiple things. It depends on your personality. So I wouldn't presuppose. But then the answer would be whichever thing you're most desirous of changing, whatever thing is giving you the most pain. So if it's your relationship, I'd go full force on that. Now, in the world we're in today, you know, you don't usually have the, the privilege of going, [laughs] "Okay, I wanna work on just being happy." Well, I can train you to be happy while hell's breaking loose. You can sit in this chair and be totally euphoric. But if you do that in a Western culture, people come and take your furniture, [laughs] right? So you probably have to work on both your business or financial side and some personal side. I would be working on both. And to me, the way to attack that, if you're not sure which area, is to start with the body. And I know you can relate to this, Lewis, 'cause you and I both share this in common. It's like I always teach physiology first, as you well know. If you change the body, you'll change the emotions. If you change the emotions, you'll change your decisions. You'll change the quality of your life, 'cause the quality of your life is your emotions.

Lewis Howes 1:23:52 Mm.

Tony Robbins 1:23:53 It's not what you get. You can have a billion dollars and commit suicide. People have done it, right? You can have beautiful relationships and commit suicide. You can have people loving you and be sad all the time. Our pattern of emotion is our home, and you have to upgrade your home. You have to train it, and one way to train it is the emotion comes from the way you move, the way you breathe, the way you speak. So if I said to your listeners, uh, there's a depressed person behind the curtain over here, and I'll give $100,000 to their favorite charity if they had to describe their body, their posture, and they're depressed, you tell me. I'll just use you as the example. What does that person look like?

Lewis Howes 1:24:30 They're, they're slouched down. They're looking down at their feet. They're not looking upward. Their, their shoulders are over. They're-

Tony Robbins 1:24:37 Are they, are they breathing full or shallow, do you think?

Lewis Howes 1:24:39 They're shallow.

Tony Robbins 1:24:40 Are they talking fast or slow?

Lewis Howes 1:24:42 They're talking pr- if they're depressed, they're probably talking fast 'cause they're not calm.

Tony Robbins 1:24:48 Well, no, that's usually stressed. Depressed-

Lewis Howes 1:24:50 Oh, God

Tony Robbins 1:24:50 ... is different than stressed.

Lewis Howes 1:24:51 They're slow. They're probably talking low volume, slower than.

Tony Robbins 1:24:55 And all those physical characteristics change your biochemistry towards this feeling of being depressed, and in a depressed state, you won't do anything. When I used to be depressed, and I don't get it anymore, I just took it out of my life. I even took the language of it out of my life, because the words you create, create a biochemical response. But when I did that decades ago, 'cause I was, like, having those thoughts like, "Is there a reason to still be here?" That kind of crazy [beep] in your head. I got out of it by using anger originally. I'd much like, sometimes if somebody's really sad or depressed, I'll make them angry, and people are like, "What's he doing? He's making him angry." 'Cause angry is much more resourceful than depressed. From anger, I can get you to laughter. I can get you to taking action. I... So, and then gradually I got where I didn't need anger. It was about growth. It was about contribution. It was about meaning So there's like stages to go through. But to answer your question-

Lewis Howes 1:25:39 Mm-hmm

Tony Robbins 1:25:39 ... they should work on both their business side of their life and personal, one of each.

Lewis Howes 1:25:43 Mm-hmm.

Tony Robbins 1:25:43 And in order for either one of those to work, you need to be in a strong emotional state. And if you start with your body, like you know I start every morning in my cold water, start every morning with my workout. I start every morning by feeding my mind, right? So there's certain things you gotta do physically so you're strong enough to remember the truth. 'Cause remember, fear is physical. You feel it in your throat or your gut. So is courage. Courage doesn't mean you're not afraid, it just means you're strong enough, you push through in spite of the fear, right? And courage feels different in the body. So when you go lift or you go for a sprint or a strong run, or you jump in that freezing water, when you push your mind to go beyond what's comfortable, you feel a strength inside you, and that strength will help you to change your body, your emotions, your relationships, whatever. But then the other thing I'll say is model someone who's successful. Don't just do this [censored] by trial and error. Like find somebody who has what you want, ideally maybe more than one person, two or three, and seek out what are they doing different than you in their relationship. What do they believe different than you about relationship? If it's their body, what are they doing different? They're not lucky. They're doing things differently. You might be slightly biochemically different, but there's patterns there that you can see. And so instead of learning by trial and error, which can take decades you might ever learn, Jim Rohn taught me success leaves clues, man. Find someone who's got what you want, study what they do, every aspect of it, and then add yourself to it. And that's the pathway to speed of transformation. So now, like, you know, I've done it. I'm not the only person. There's so many companies that went from worse off than they'd ever been in their history to the best off because they found a way to pivot. But that required a psychological piece of not blame. So maybe it's time for you to think for yourself and model what works instead of just what you're told. That's something to consider for yourself.

1:27:23 Well, there are a lot of sources of brain fog. The most obvious one would be a poor night's sleep.

Speaker 1:27:28 Okay.

Tony Robbins 1:27:29 And sleep, of course, being the most fundamental layer of mental and physical health. You don't sleep well for one night, you're probably okay. For two nights, you start to fall apart. Three, four nights-

Speaker 1:27:41 Mm

Tony Robbins 1:27:41 ... you're, you're really a degraded version of yourself