book summary of “ Awaken the Giant Within ” by Anthony Robbins

9 min readJan 2, 2022

2 January 2022

Awaken the Giant Within

Anthony Robbins, author and Life Coach, defines a great task in Awaken the Giant Within ; that is, “analyzing how the mind and body function and how to take control of all parts of the process.” He explains that all human decisions and actions are rooted in the principle of “suffering for pleasure.” It also teaches us how to re-wire our nervous system, understand the connection between suffering and negative emotions and events, and replace it with a sense of satisfaction with positive things. Reading one of Anthony Robbins’s books is like attending one of his personal development seminars. Personal memoirs, stories, anecdotes and analogies are interesting and readable. But the main messages of the book is buried under the long pages. Only the most patient and enthusiastic Robbins followers will be able to extract fine treasure from this long treatise. Stay with us.

A brief look at the highlights of the “ Awaken the Giant Within ”:

The power to change everything about yourself lies within you.
Everything that happens in your life starts with a decision.
Suffering and pleasure are two factors that affect your behavior and choices.
Belief is a sense of confidence that is formed as a result of your conditioning, experiences, and imagination.
Neuro-Associative Conditioning (NAC) is the process of networking the nervous system to make a permanent change.
You can change an emotional state by correcting your physiology or focus.
The questions you ask, the words you use, and the examples you use influence your decision-making and thinking.
A “skillful evaluation system” can direct your emotions and behavior.
A person with high self-esteem has his or her own values, principles, moral choices, and ideals.
All experiences become a reference guide for how to guide yourself in the future.

Are you aware of the power of change?

You have the power to make a difference in your life, but you must be determined to do so. First, raise your expectations of yourself. Decide what you want in life and identify the things that stand in your way. Then set your standards a little harder. Change your belief system so that instead of limiting your chances of success, it will help you along the way. When you dedicate yourself to living with higher standards, you will automatically adjust your strategies and find new ways to live up to your commitment.

What does decision-making power depend on?

Everything that happens in your life starts with a decision. So you need to increase control over your decision-making processes. This means improving your focus, understanding your values, and developing a practical plan for achieving the desired results. Use these six tactics to make strong decisions:

Remember the true power of decision making
Remember that the hardest step to achieving anything is having a real commitment and a real decision.
Decide a lot
Learn from your decisions
Commit to your decisions. But be flexible in your approach
Enjoy the decision

Suffering and pleasure, two opposing powers

The two guiding forces in human nature are “suffering and pleasure.” Everything you do is rooted in a desire to experience pleasure or avoid suffering. Sometimes people’s fear of suffering from change overwhelms their desire for pleasure. Those who become immobile because of fear have not yet reached their emotional threshold — the point at which their suffering causes them to act and make change. This is where suffering comes in handy and motivates us. To change your behavior, make a connection between pleasure and constructive behavior, and associate suffering with negative and destructive behavior. Practice this over and over again with enthusiasm to reshape your answers and get results in the long run.

How does the belief system change your life?

How does the belief system change your life? | Awaken the Giant Within

Belief is a kind of “sense of confidence” about something. Individuals’ beliefs are shaped by the experiences, judgments, and information they obtain from changeable external sources. Beliefs vary in intensity. Everyone’s opinion is a belief that may change. Belief, on the other hand, is a belief that cannot be changed without enduring much suffering. An ingrained belief or absolute confidence can help you achieve almost anything.

What is meant by endless permanent upgrades?

Endless continuous improvement is an idea that makes a commitment to progress on a small scale every day and continuously. Apply this principle to every aspect of your life, such as work relationships, emotional relationships, health, financial issues, and spiritual endeavors. One way to stay energetic and motivated is to portray a “binding future.” Find a goal that constantly inspires you to expand your abilities and challenge your limits. Use the method of endless continuous improvement and achieve your goals by refining your growth process on a daily basis.

Neuroscience is a practical tool for change

Neuroscience is a combination of observations of brain activity plus computer science. When people experience pain or pleasure, the nervous system and brain record the cause or source of their emotions. This neurological memory allows you to act and make decisions. For example, the first time a child touches a gas flame, he learns that it causes pain. This experience creates a neural connection. As a result, the child will avoid it in the future. The only real security in life comes from knowing that you are improving yourself every day. The best way to make a lasting change in your behavior is to associate suffering with unconstructive behavior and pleasure with satisfying behavior.

Achieve this change using Neuro-Associative Conditioning (NAC) conditioning. Six steps to apply the principle of suffering against pleasure are:

Set clear goals for yourself and identify any obstacles.
Give yourself extra strength by creating a sense of urgency, reaching an emotional threshold, and associating the unacceptable level of suffering with failure.
Stop forming destructive patterns to change your neural associations.
Replace negative behavior with positive behavior.
Repeat the new behavior many times until it becomes a conditional response.
Try this new behavior to make sure you have replaced the old neural associations.

What is the relationship between physiology and concentration?

Human beings have countless physical and emotional states. Improve your most powerful and wealthy states to increase your ability to achieve your desires. That means you have to change your physiology or focus to change your emotional states. Emotions are related to your physiology or how you use your body. Breathing, gestures and movements of people are a physical form of expressing their emotions. But you can learn to change your physiology and thus your emotions. For example, if you follow the physiology associated with happiness, that is, laughing, smiling, and being energetic, then you will feel happy.

Robins says: “The ultimate goal of my life has been to remember and fulfill dreams and to help you remember the infinite silent power that lies within you. In addition, you can change your emotional state by changing your focus.”

One way to do this is to manipulate the components of consciousness or sub-qualities. Sub-qualities are visual, auditory or kinetic. For example, you can remember an image in your mind and make it brighter or even more colorful. This will intensify your feelings about a photo. Our personal rules are the final arbiter. The questions you often ask yourself and others guide your thought processes. Questions are tools you use to evaluate your experiences. When your boundaries become a question or you ask new questions, you open the door to progress in your life, relationships and career. Asking new and different questions will increase your focus on the resources you have. Practice with yourself to ask things that make you stronger.

Master your words to change your life

We use words to describe our feelings and beliefs. Change the way you think and feel by changing the descriptive words or metaphors you usually use. This concept is called “conversion words”, meaning the language you use to describe an experience ultimately defines that experience. So by changing the words you can change your emotional state. So the next time you get angry, try replacing “upset” with “angry.” Doesn’t that help you reduce the intensity of your anger?

The book’s action signals awaken the giant inside

Negative emotions are often a kind of “call to action” or warning that forces you to make a change. This means that even negative emotions can send positive messages or signals. The 10 main indicators that you should take corrective action are: “sadness, fear, annoyance, anger, frustration, despair, guilt, inadequacy, confusion, heaviness and loneliness.” Listen to the message with the negative feeling and use it as a catalyst for a positive change.

What is a comprehensive system?

Your perceptions, your views and conditioning, how you evaluate or interpret your life and experiences. Your comprehensive evaluation system should consist of the following elements:

Your mental and emotional state
Questions to ask
Your values
Your belief system
Experiences that shape your understanding

You do not need a specific reason to feel good. You can decide to feel good right now, just because you want to, just because you are alive. Any change in any of these five areas causes a “total change” in all five of them.

Do you know your own hierarchy of values?

Your life values are the principles, moral laws, and ideals that matter most to you. “Progressive” values are emotions that you want to experience more than anything else, because they help you reach enjoyable states such as love, success, comfort and freedom. “Post-killer” values are emotionally related to suffering; like anger, loneliness, failure and depression. Each person has a unique “value hierarchy.” For some, love is more important than health. For others, security is more important than adventure. Awareness of your value hierarchy allows you to make decisions that will help you reach a deeper level of success. Only by prioritizing your hierarchy of values can you transform the form of leadership in all areas of your life. The first step is to know what you want to achieve.

What personal rules do you have for yourself?

Personal rules are the criteria you set for yourself when you feel good about an experience. Unfortunately, in most people’s laws, there are many paths to pain and few paths to pleasure. For example, if you value success and at the same time your definition of success is earning several million dollars a year, you are more likely to fail. But if your rule for success is to be able to pay your bills and receipts and have some money left over, it will be much easier for you to reach that level of demand. If you make rules that prevent you from achieving your values, you will never be able to experience happiness and satisfaction.

What authorities do you use to make decisions?

Everything you experience or imagine, see or read about is stored in your brain. All your meaningful experiences become resources that you will use as a reference in the future. These “reference experiences” will have a significant impact on your decision-making processes. By developing them, you can increase your capacity to achieve your goals. Expand your reference base by reading, gathering information, using your imagination, and pursuing concepts and ideas.

Do you know yourself?

“Identity” is a central concept and belief that dominates all your choices. Your identity is an image of yourself in your mind. Identity is your belief in the things that make you a good or bad human being and unique. Most people think that changing their identity is almost impossible. They think they are adventurous, ridiculous, silent or awkward. Identity tags are usually restrictive. You have the power to take on new titles and to consciously decide how you want to be.

Seven days and seven new ways

Challenge yourself by completing this one week exercise. Commit to a task every day of the week that can make a big difference in one of the main areas of your life. You have the power to change your destiny by focusing on one area each day. Focus on your emotions on the first day. On the second day, define your physical concerns, on the third day, your relationships, on the fourth day, your finances, and on the fifth day, define a word or phrase as your guide; Focus on time management on the sixth day and rest and have fun on the seventh day! See how much change you have in your life.