Tag Archives: Tony Robbins

To rest – move

“It was stressful, so I went to the gym.”

WHAT?!

I have seen this scene a couple of times in TV Shows or maybe movies:

Some jacked dude picks up the phone. There is a woman on the other side. She wants to meet. He says something along the lines of:

“It was a stressful day at work, so I went to a gym. I am going to take a quick shower and join you in town.”

It sounded ridiculous to me. If he was stressed – why didn’t he have a nap?! The gym is the last place I think of when I am tired!

Enter Tony Robbins

I always wanted to go to a Tony Robbins seminar. Trought his career he has coached presidents, movie stars, business tycoons and thousands (or probably millions) of regular folks. This man is a machine.

His “entry-level” seminar is called “Unleash the Power Within” and focuses on helping you raise your standards and commit to a better quality of life. If you get a chance – it may be the best investment of your life.

Apart from many takeaways, 2 things stood up for me in regards to fitness and energy:

  1. We spent a bulk of time on dialing in the health. In the western culture we view our bodies as mere vehicles for the brain (Read here how I blame Plato and Aristotle), but the physical well-being is the engine powering our mental capabilities and the source of energy. We learned that the plant-based diet is right for you, that most of us don’t hydrate enough and even that somehow, the modern folk have lost the way to breathe correctly.
  2. These four days were 16-18 hours long. There was no slowing down, almost no food or breaks, and yet, I was pumped and full of energy throughout!

The key was alternating lectures with proprietary SYA technique. The SYA technique stands for Shake Your Ass.

It was also way more joyful!

And did we shake our asses like there is no tomorrow! The movement generated energy that helped us keep focus, improved learning, and enhanced the attention.

We also had Pitbull to help us.

The stress and exhaustion we sometimes experience in the modern world are radically different than what our bodies were accustomed to. We face no real danger from our overbearing bosses, nor do we have to fight for our lives daily, even though it feels that way. Physical activity gets your blood flowing, nourishing your cells, and restocking all the supplies. It grounds you in what is real and immediate.

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwarz in the “Power of Full Engagement” agree with Tony Robbins. Cycling periods of physical activity with rest is the key to maintaining energy. Switching gears – mentally and physically – is the key to rest, not inactivity.

“The best way to manage your energy is to balance spending with replenishing.”

Sitting all day uses your mental energy, but let’s be honest – you are not moving much. Your exhaustion is mental, even though it feels the same way as physical. 

And, counter-intuitively, after a long, stressful day of work, the physical activity lets me gather my thoughts and rest.

According to Tony Robbins, there are

Eight gifts of pure energy

  1. Vital breathing and lymphasizing
    1. Breathe through your diaphragm, inhaling deeply
    2. Jump around, helping your lymph system to work
  2. Living water and live foods
    1. Drink water, for goodness sake
    2. Eat real food, ideally full of water – stuff that is green! (Except green cheese)
  3. Essential Oils
    1. No, not the magical aromatic ones. The ones like Olive Oil or Avocado. Monosaturated fats.
  4. Alkalinity
    1. Again, eat green stuff. It’s alkaline.
  5. Aerobic energy
    1. SHAKE. YOUR. ASS
  6. Maximum nourishment
    1. Just eat real food, mkay?
  7. Structural alignment and maximum strength
    1. Stretch.
    2. DO strength training.
  8. Directed Mind and heart
    1. Be a nice person. Don’t dwell on how people have wronged you. Think nice thoughts

Even though it all sounds a little woo-woo, it’s precisely what the doctors always said we should do. The more we keep dismissing all that as “basic”, the more critical it is to remind ourselves that we have bodies that need nourishment, water, and movement. We cannot keep punishing ourselves with Twinkies, Pizza, and beer and expect to be strong and healthy.

homer simpson eating GIF
Homer, following a Keto diet like a boss

We are somehow infected with the idea that good things have to be hard, inconvenient, and/or disgusting. It is all, of course, a matter of mindset, but physical activity can very well support mental performance. You have to get over your lazy self and shake your ass.

You’ll see you’ll feel better afterward and will have more energy to send these emails you’ve been putting off.

Book: Unshakeable by Tony Robbins

book-imageThis book is an excerpt and a summary of „Money: Master the game” also by Tony Robbins.

I highly recommend any Tony Robbins book and this one is no exception.

This one may be better for you than „Money”, since that is a tough one to read – but very valuable.

Seemingly a book about finances – sneaks in some Tony Robbins knowledge about centering your state.

 

Amazon link

Some takeaways:

  • Invest in ETFs
  • Diversify in everything humanly possible
    • Across markets
    • Across time
    • Classes
    • Companies
    •  
  • Dont loose money / protect the downside – similar what Branson is obsessed about
  • Search for asymmetric risk / reward. -Paul Tudor Jones calls it 5:1 rule – for every dollar he risks, he expects 5
  • Know your taxes
    • Frequent trading kills you with trading fees and taxes. That extends to funds as well – when funds trade frequently, they can generate lotsa fees
    • That also extends to reballancing portfolio – better to slower bring it to target distribution

 

My Kindle Highlights

  • investors in 403(b) and 401(k) retirement plans.
  • Freedom Fact 1: On Average, Corrections Have Occurred About Once a Year Since 1900
  • Meanwhile, a study by JPMorgan found that 6 of the 10 best days in the market over the last 20 years occurred within two weeks of the 10 worst days.
  • performed well and sell the ones that have
  • “The four most expensive words in investing are ‘This time it’s different.’
  • you pay a high price for certainty.
  • Real Estate Investment Trusts.
  • publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REITs).
  • Master Limited Partnerships.
  • Asset Allocation Drives Returns.
  • 3. Always Have a Cushion.
  • The single biggest threat to your financial well-being is your own brain.
  • Mistaking Recent Events for Ongoing Trends Why Most Investors Buy the Wrong Thing at Exactly the Wrong Moment
  • as Warren Buffett says, “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.”
  • all this suffering is really just the result of an undirected mind that’s hell-bent on looking for problems!
  • Suffering trigger is “Less.”
  • 1. Suffering trigger is “Loss.”
  • 2. Suffering trigger is “Less.”
  • 3. Suffering trigger is “Never.”
  • Notice, too, that most, if not all, of our suffering is caused by focusing or obsessing about ourselves and what we might lose, have less of, or never have.
  • So what’s the biggest decision you can make in your life right now?
  • Are you committed to being happy, no matter what happens to you?
  • “I’m done with suffering. I’m going to live every day to the fullest and find juice in every moment, including the ones I don’t like, BECAUSE LIFE IS JUST TOO SHORT TO SUFFER.”
  • Whenever I start to suffer, I give myself 90 seconds to stop it so that I can return to living in a beautiful state.
  • But here’s what I do now. As soon as I feel the tension rising in my body, I catch myself. And the way that I catch myself is really simple: I gently breathe and slow things down.
  • “What’s wrong is always available . . . but so is what’s right!”
  • I’ve recorded this meditation and made it available online at http://www.unshakeable.com and on the Unshakeable mobile app, so you can listen to the audio with your eyes closed.
  • What struck me most was that everything seemed beautiful to her.
  • you can start giving even when you have very little.