Unlimited Power: The New Science Of Personal Achievemen… (2024)

Tony Robbins is one of those guys who made it big with little education. He's no scholar, has no college degree, and learned his methods (NLP from which his motivational technique "neuroassociative conditioning" came) as a self-taught mentee. He is one of those guys who rose to the top because of character, failure / success (which is a great motivator in itself), enthusiasm, and, of course, power. His power resides in his belief, his faith that NC is valid and works. To a great degree, it does. However, what is not addressed are those millions and millions of people who are not motivated, have never been motivated, and will never be motivated to achieve. Why? These failings begin in the early years of development and are based on a great deal and subsist to a great deal to failure at an early age to receive the conditioning needed. According to Robbins, only about 10% of those who listen to his tapes / CDs all the way through. He doesn't even mention how many who listen actually learn the methods / techniques therein and apply them on a consistent, ongoing basis. A major problem with the self-help industry, a problem I will take on through my product Give and Grow Yourself Rich and its follow up courses, seminars, coaching, and, most importantly, follow ups. ie: what are you doing now? Have you applied the techniques? How successful are you? And so on. Follow up and questioning to adjust where deficiencies lie is essential to anyone's success. Nevertheless, if you are able to apply what Robbins' preaches, you will improve, for his methods are sound and applicable to the lives of most.

2.5/5 stars

(Brief review)
This is one of the most controversial books I have ever read. Robbins has for sure a few useful things here that may help you, but they are mixed with tons of pseudo-scientific "psychology" that, in the best case, is useful in the short-term, and in the worst, even harmful.

The book is also quite repetitive and could have been compressed in a half, it is even ironic that Robbins says "our time is the most valuable resource" by lengthening the book. Also, I found most of the anecdotes and examples Robbins gave doubtful and questionable, especially in the first part of the book.

If we add that most of the book lack of references to scientific research or at least reliable sources, and Robbins did not add a bibliography, it is quite difficult to believe in lots of his statements.

I would recommend reading some chapters of the book, not the whole one. Here is a little classification I will develop in more depth later in this review:

*Useful chapters: 1, 5, 10*, 11
*Fair chapters: 4, 9, 12, 13, 14
*Poor/repetitive chapters: 2, 3, 7, 8
*DANGEROUS chapters: 6, 10

From chapter 15 onwards I did a fast reading because I just wanted to finish the book, so I won´t comment much about them. Probably, with the exception of chapter 17 about "anchoring" that may be qualified as dangerous similar as chapter 6, and chapter 19 about "values" that may be useful, the chapters 15-21 would be between the categories "fair" and "poor".

Now, I´m going to go more in depth in the chapters I fully read and tell why I think what I think about them.

(Full chapter review)
I have to say first that I´m a third year psychology student, and I have some frames of knowledge to compare what Tony is saying with I already know. Although I know that a degree does not contain the full truth about that topic, I consider myself quite capable to criticize the arguments Robbins has made in his book. I understand the fact the book was written in 1986 and may be a little outdated, but that is not excuse to give information to people that may be harmful for them in the long-term.

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Also, the model about "inner representations" and "states" to produce behaviour is quite simple and lack of lots of the nuances and complexity we human beings have, but at least is not harmful.

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For instance, following Robbins instructions I would be a visual person for the way I talk and look, but an auditive one for the way a breath and I even I could fit in kinaesthetic by other criteria. Funny thing? Robbins said every person has a predominant "style" to gather information, and we should focus on that style in our communication and when we teach and learn. This is simply NOT true, we learn for instance by all our senses, and if we think we are an "auditive" person and we just start listening audiobooks for years, our important ability to read and write will be impaired. To know more about this topic, I suggest looking for Beth Rogowsky learning styles research.

But this is not the most dangerous part of the chapter. The real harm if this chapter comes when Robbins tries to teach you "how to modify your memories", giving more strength to the positive ones and removing it from the negatives. To be honest, this probably works in the short-term, but can be fatal in the long one.

I will explain this with a metaphor. Imagine that you have an injury in one foot that does not allow you to walk. It is hurting a lot and it is paralyzing. What Robbins teaches you is how to stop completely the pain so you can continue walking through life. The problem? Well, the injury is still there, because PAIN is a SIGNAL that our body emits when something goes badly, either physical or emotional. And if you just forget about the injury because there is not pain, and the injury continues bleeding, you will be in big troubles.

The same happens with depressed people. Robbins has a very simplistic model of "how to cure depression" that fails in this same problem, totally disregarding the cause. You may be depressed because of your economical situation and because you are not being able to bring money to your home to pay the food and the bills for your family (it is important for you, and you feel helpless). With Robbins approach, you won´t feel the symptoms of depression, you may even be "ok" with your situation, but the same problem is still there and if you don´t address it you will be much worst in the future.

Again, it is ironic that at the end of the chapter Robbins says that "if pain tells you that you need to change something important, you will have to or it will come back", when in the rest of the chapter he just ignores and disregards this issue.

Read the chapter if you are curious, but be aware of these dangers.

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-Power of breathing: completely right, I just tried myself and it was really helpful. Most of the times we are not aware of the power of oxygen, but after all it is another essential nutrient for us.

-Water and food with water: again right, the quality and quantity of water is vital for our body to work.

-Food combining: NO TONY, THIS IS COMPLETELY NOT LIKE THAT. There is a phrase a chapter onwards from Tony that says "every lie contains a grain of truth", and this is perfectly the case with this principle.

Of course if you combine things like legumes, with let´s say oats and beans, you are going to be full of gases afterwards and feel bad and without energy. But this is not what Tony says about food combining, just pseudo-science like "don´t combine proteins with carbs because the digest differently". With the exception of vegetables, almost every food contains a PORTION OF EVERY MACRONUTRIENT, and they are all mixed in the stomach, which release the same kind of acid and enzymes every time no matter the type of food. Just try eating 1000kcal of carbs like rice and veggies at once, and you will be amazed with the insulin peak and the incredible feeling of tiredness due to the extra work your pancreas is doing to move too much glucose at once.

-Less kcal more lifespan: this is true, there is research that support this finding. However, we don´t know exactly the mechanisms behind this, maybe is not the fact of eating more itself but the toxic particles with it, so we may counteract this encouraging our draining systems. Also, there was a while ago an interesting experiments with monkeys trying to prove this, and surprisingly they found that the monkey that ate more and freely during the years, lived more that his twin because he was more happy and more willing to live.

-Fruit alone: probably false as food combining, but just try and experiment with yourself. This is still one I have to try in my own body.

-Less proteins: ... Tony, you are a guy whose height is 2.01 meters (6.6 feet), just try to live your life eating 30-50g of proteins a day as you recommend, and let´s see what happens to you. Just don´t follow his advice, we need proteins, look at most of the official recommendations today, neither of them are below 0.8g per kg of our body. And important tip, it is not the same just having enough protein to survive than to flourish (if you want to gain muscular mass).

Also, Robbins is super against animal products in this chapter, especially against meat that is like the devil for him. You know what? I´m vegetarian and I don´t consume meat after lots of research and trials with my body, but I can tell you for sure eating some meat is not bad. We probably eat too much nowadays and from animals that are bad fed, but the arguments that Robbins made to support his view in this book are more than defective.

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As I said before, from chapter 15 onwards I did a fast reading because I just did not have more motivation to continue the book. If you are curious, read all the chapters keeping in mind the issues I addressed. If you want to save your time and just get the best of the book, read the chapter I recommended before.

Thank you for reading this long review! I really appreciate it! ;)

Unlimited power is the first book I’ve read about NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) by Anthony Robbins. If you seek to change your life, improve yourself or if you are simply curious about how you can adjust your perception of the world around you with cascading effects, this is for you.

General concept : the book focuses mostly on the principle that power lies in how you perceive your environment and how to reorient your emotions.
Idea : you can change and train your brain to react differently to its first disposition by doing associations/dissociations in your head.
Example : you can give some events more, less or a different impact on you by visualizing them and changing some aspects of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.

Obviously this is only one of the many principles that makes the foundation of this very complete book. Unlimited power is mostly practical and give a lot of exercises to do, most of them, if done correctly, providing immediate results and can be fun to try. The examples may seem a bit dated (you have to keep in mind that the book was first published in 1986) but the theory is timeless.

If you have not seen Tony Robbins documentary “I am not your guru” on Netflix, I really recommend you do it. It really gives an idea of the incredible powerful charismatic energy he radiates. I must have seen it 5 times already, each time I am as moved (to tears), impressed and inspired.

TEIGIAMA:

* Asmeninio augimo gidas pradinukams - parašyta paprastai, lengvai;
* Platu - aprėpiama daug temų;
* Didelis teksto šriftas - lengva skaityti.

NEIGIAMA:

* Visoje knygoje teigiama daug tiesų apie protą, psichologiją, įpročius, bendravimą ir aibę kitų temų. Bet...

a) 90% knygos nėra JOKIŲ tyrimų, literatūros nuorodų ar BENT KAŽKO, kas parodytų, kad Tonis tai ištraukė ne iš šiknos;
b) 9% knygos tyrimai yra abejotinos vertės, galimai pritempti prie to, ką autorius nori priburti. Bet visai čia jau gerai - bent jau galima pasidomėti plačiau, naudinga!
c) 1% knygos tyrimai yra nurodyti, naudingi. Ir tai buvo tik viename skyriuje iš berods apie 30.

* Tonis rašo daug ir rašo veltui. Nustok malęs tą patį per tą patį, po velnių!
* Vertimas vietomis kiek keistokas, bet tai nėra žymi bėda
* Idėjos knygoje kartojasi su Tonio seminarais, kurie už šie knygą yra geresni beveik dešimtgubai.

APIBENDRINTAI:

Geriau klausyk Tonio seminaro gyvai arba video formatu. Jis kalba išraiškiai ir įkvepiančiai. Bet rašo kaip paskutinis liurbis, žemiausio lygio "saviugdos guru". Tai knyga pradinukui, jei niekada neskaitei šių temų knygų. Ir ji NĖRA labai kokybiškai ar taikliai parašyta.

Ar skaityčiau dar kartą?
Ne.

Ar skaityti buvo verta?
Eh. Jei neturi ką geriau taiklesnio ir labiau suspausto paskaityti - pirmyn.

Absolutely amazing! A must, must read!

I took out these notes from my listening and I read them every morning, as soon as I wake up.

~The quality of my life is the quality of how I talk to myself.

~The quality of your life is the quality of how you communicate with yourself and with others.

~Communication:
7% is words
55% is physiology (Facial expressions, body postures, breathing patterns, etc.)
38% is tonality (the tone of voice that a person uses)

~Lessons from Jim Rohn:
No matter what happens to you in your life, it's not what happens that makes the difference in the quality of your life, but rather what you do with what happens.
For things to get better for me, I'd have to get better.
For things to change in my life, I'd have to change.

~Personal power means the ability to act, the ability to take action.

~Key to power points:
Energy
Skills (a. The skill/ability to specifically define exactly what it is that you want | b. The skill/ability to specifically define exactly what others want and then fill other's needs quickly and elegantly.)

~Keys to duplicate success of someone else, model their:
Beliefs
Mental syntax (In what order/sequence they use their five senses)
Physiology (Facial expressions, body postures, breathing patterns, etc.)

~Disciplines of success:
I always act from personal power --» I realise that there are no failures, there are only results/outcomes. You always succeed in producing a result/outcome. Now, it may not be the one that you intended but that is okay because now you know how you produced that result and then, you can make a subtle change and produce a new result
I am totally responsible for my life and my world + I am in charge of my life and my world + I create my life and my world --» Because if you're not, then who is?
I am always stretching --» If you can't, you must! If you want to develop a skill, you don't need talent or tremendous amounts of study, you just need the willingness to stretch yourself on a consistent basis
Model someone who is already producing the result that you want --» Follow this model and when you don't know what to do, act as if you do (that is, if I did know, what would I do?)
I am committed to unconscious competence rather than cognitive understanding --» You do not have to understand everything! Unconscious competence is when you don't have to think about things, they just flow and you just produce the results. Cognitive understanding is when you understand all the details and you understand why things work and so forth
I always act from personal integrity --» Integrity means wholeness/being true to yourself. Integrity is a set of specific beliefs about how you operate in your world. You can not go out in the world and impose your beliefs on someone who has different set of beliefs and then say, you're out of integrity. However, what you can say is that your integrity is different than mine. Always remind yourself this in a human conflict, "No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides." ― Baruch Spinoza
I always lie with integrity --» My beliefs are only just my own and that they maybe inaccurate (a lie) even though I believe them to be true and by saying them to be a lie, I'm reminding myself that these beliefs are just beliefs, they're not written in stone and someday I might change them if I found something bigger or better or something that empowers me and others in a better way. As long as my beliefs are true, I need to make sure that my daily actions match my beliefs.
The meaning of communication is the response that you get --» A lot of people have been taught that if you communicate with somebody and they don't get your communication, then that's their stuff! This is not true as it doesn't enhance your relationship with them at all. What you need to understand and remember is that the result that you've produced is because of how you used your physiology, tonality and words. So, what you want to be, is committed to producing results in your communications that work and not about making somebody wrong because they have different associations to those physiology, tonality and words. So, if you want to produce a different result, then all you need to do is just change your approach of communication. You keep changing your approach of communication until you get communication that works. A lot of people say that intention means everything, that is also not true! Intention means nothing, all intention does is provide a direction, results means everything.
I'm committed to do WEIT (whatever it takes) to succeed without harming another person --» Commitment to this is like a glue that holds the rest of the commitments together. Commitment is the most powerful tool that you have as a human being. Once you become committed to something, you will produce that result and that's the bottom line!

~The key to success in life is to go from interest to commitment.

~Seven traits that are required to be successful and that all successful people have:
Passion --» An obsessive reason/purpose that drives you, gets you out of the bed in the morning and makes you want to not go to the bed at night
Belief --» Have supportive belief systems and believe in your ability to achieve
Strategies --» Organise the way you do things and the way you communicate. Develop a way of approaching the use of your skills that consistently produces the results that you desire
Values --» Be really clear about what's most important in your life. Part of you wants to be work selfishly and part of you wants to be of a really huge help to your family. Discover a way to balance your values, so that all of the values are being developed, so that all of the values are working together, so that no internal battle is going on. So, look at your values and look at the ways in which you can have your values working together rather than fighting each other.
Energy --» Learn how to eat and exercise in a way that will maximise your day-to-day energy levels.
Bonding Power --» In order to really be happy in our lives, we need to feel connected to others. If you get to the top of the mountain of success by yourself alone, you'll probably jump off.
Communication Skills --» Develop your communication skills of how to communicate with yourself and with others. Remember, it's not what happens that makes the difference, but rather how we communicate to ourselves about what's happened that makes the difference.

"Nuestra capacidad para hacer cualquier cosa en la vida está basada en nuestra aptitud para dirigir nuestro propio sistema nervioso.

La PNL estudia cómo los individuos se comunican consigo mismos de tal manera que originan estados de óptima disponibilidad de recursos, y por tanto crean el mayor número de posibles opciones de comportamiento.

La PNL nos proporciona un marco de referencia sistemático para dirigir nuestro propio cerebro. Nos enseña cómo dirigir, no sólo nuestros propios estados y comportamientos, sino incluso los estados y comportamientos de los demás. En una frase, es la ciencia de cómo dirigir el propio cerebro de manera óptima para lograr los resultados que uno desea".

Tras leer Poder Sin Límites, queda claro que cada ser humano es una computadora que tiene la capacidad de cambiar su hardware y software en cualquier momento.

El gran mensaje que busca transmitir Robbins es que uno puede cambiar su estado neurofisiológico para enfrentar problemas que antes parecían imposibles de resolver, para llegar más allá de los límites autoimpuestos y para convertir acontecimientos incómodos en situaciones placenteras.

Todo es mente, y nosotros tenemos la capacidad de controlarla.

Nacimos con una programación de fábrica (todos tenemos nuestras fortalezas y debilidades, nuestros miedos y certezas), pero podemos modificarla. Y lo mejor de todo: esa transformación puede darse en instantes. Ese es el poder de la PNL, de nuestro cerebro y nuestra fisiología. Ese es el poder sin límites.

La próxima vez que se sienta cansado, deprimido, exhausto, adopte la postura que tendría si se sintiera con más energía que nunca, motivado y con la convicción de que puede enfrentar todo aquello que la vida le ponga enfrente. Como resultado, usted se dará cuenta que ya se siente mejor. Mucho mejor.

"Es importante recordar que los estados emocionales, como la depresión, no son cosas que le ocurran a uno porque sí. Uno no 'cae' en depresión, sino que la crea.

El que se siente deprimido está contemplando su vida de manera particular, y se dice ciertas cosas a sí mismo con una cierta entonación precisa, y adopta una postura específica y un ritmo de respiración típico. Cuando uno quiere sentirse deprimido, por ejemplo, duele ser útil dejar caer los hombros y mirar con frecuencia al suelo. Hablar con un tono de voz tristón e imaginar que le ocurren a uno las peores situaciones posibles también contribuye mucho. Y si estropea usted la bioquímica de su organismo por medio de una dieta incorrecta, abusando del alcohol u otras drogas, ayuda a su cuerpo a reducir el nivel de azúcar en la sangre y la depresión está prácticamente garantizada".

Un manual que vale la pena leer y releer.

Robbins introduce al lector la herramienta de la PNL, Programación Neurolingüística, para mejorar la calidad de la vida, tanto a nivel personal como profesional.

Desde superar fobias a mejorar hábitos... la PNL ayuda a pasar a la acción, y qué mejor herramienta para explotar en la era de la información en la que nos encontramos abrumados por tanta información que no logramos salir de la esfera mental y materializar la vida que deseamos tener.

Robbins explica la importancia de mejorar la calidad de la comunicación para mejorar la calidad de nuestra vida. Pero el matiz es importante, la comunicación se entiende en dos niveles. Por una parte, cómo nos hablamos a nosotros mismos, lo que podríamos llamar la comunicación interna. Por otra parte, cómo hablamos a los demás, la comunicación externa.

El autor también lleva la PNL al campo de la psicología clínica y explica que trastornos como la depresión, definida como un estado físico y mental creado por el propio sujeto, puede superarse cambiando las emociones y el comportamiento.

Tratadas las cuestiones de salud mental, Robbins profundiza en la idea de éxito y de liderazgo y lo hace elaborando una interesante lista de siete mecanismos activadores del éxito.
1. La pasión.
2. La fe.
3. La estrategia.
4. La claridad de valores.
5. La energía.
6. Poder de adhesión.
7. Maestría en las comunicaciones.

Para alcanzar el éxito una herramienta útil es el modelado que consiste en reproducir la excelencia de otros. Robbins explica la técnica del modelado que consiste en calibrar y describir la sintaxis o secuencia en que se vinculan los acontecimientos internos y externos. La sintaxis viene regida por un patrón que varía en cada sujeto e incluso en cada situación (visual, auditivo o cinestético) y subpatrones. Además conviene identificar las submodalidades. Determinar el orden puede ayudarnos a cambiar conductas que deseamos mejorar y a modelar a las persona que logran los objetivos que ansiamos.

Considero que la mayor aportación del libro consiste en entender cómo creamos nuestros estados y nuestros comportamientos, entendiendo que dos son los factores que contribuyen (las representaciones internas que nos creamos y la fisiologías que generan). Ser capaz de entender ese proceso puede dotarnos de poder sin límites.

Emplear técnicas como el patrón de tris tras para sustituir una conducta por otra parece casi ciencia ficción. Pero funciona. Lo mismo ocurre con la creación de anclajes...

Un libro que releeré sin duda.