Excerpt: To say this book was empowering feels like an understatement—it was life changing. Read our list of 44 quotes from Awaken The Giant Within and find out why. Maybe they will do the same for you…
Introduction: The Price Of Not Awakening Your Giant Within
Frustration is the feeling you get when you try, try again; yet fail, fail again. And what do most people do when faced with ‘fail, fail again?‘ Quit. They stop trying to do whatever it was that they were failing at and move on to something else—something that they can succeed at again. Something that is most likely back inside of their comfort zone and well within their range of already proven skills, knowledge, and understanding. Why? Because succeeding feels good and failing feels bad. But, the price of giving in to frustration is steep.
Before we continue let’s take a step back and assume that whatever it is you’re working on is worthwhile and a priority. There is certainly something to be said about quitting when it’s appropriate. If you’re getting frustrated that you can’t beat a certain level of your video game, for example—it’s 100% okay to give in to frustration! Quit! It’s not worth it. This is NOT the time to have perseverance. Unless, for some reason this video game is a worthwhile pursuit and is a high priority in your life. In which case, by all means. But, for the intent of this discussion, let’s assume that what you’re working through is something that is important not only to you, but to some greater purpose beyond you.
The price you pay when you choose to quit doing this type of important and worthwhile work, is exactly that—the work. Your contribution never gets made. The problem never gets solved. Your gift never gets shared. And what happens when you choose to revert back to doing something that you were successful with before? Something that’s within your already established skillset and domain of knowledge? Nothing. You simply continue to regurgitate more of the same. The key component that’s missing in your life when you choose to revert in ANY area of life is growth.
Growth is one of the fundamental components of life that give us a sense of meaning, worth, and accomplishment. Growth is life. The opposite of growth is regression—or slow death. Think about your personal endeavors. What motivates you to persevere more than anything else? I’m willing to bet it’s progress. Progress outweighs pep-talks/ pump up videos/ personalized coaching/ prizes/ even conferences in paradise—nothing beats it. Why? Because progress is FELT. Everything else is witnessed or heard. Progress comes from the inside-out whereas everything else comes from the outside-in.
NEW In The Shop: Don’t Let The Tame Ones Tell You How To Live [Poster]
Why We ♥ It: Some of the best advice I (Matt here) ever got was: don’t take life advice from people who aren’t living a life you want to live and don’t take criticism from people you wouldn’t go to for advice. I created this poster to act as a reminder to listen more closely to our role models and less closely to our critics, trolls, and tamed-comfort-zone-hugger acquaintances. It’s also a perfect gift for the outdoor adventurer, travel enthusiast, or solo explorer (or soon to be). Available in print or digital download. 👇🏼
...Want to advertise your book, product, or service? Send inquiries to matt@movemequotes.com.
The List: 44 Empowering Tony Robbins Quotes from Awaken the Giant Within
So, what do you say?! Are you ready to awaken your giant within?! Because below, you will find our list of 44 empowering Tony Robbins quotes from Awaken the Giant Within that will help you do just that. This book changed my life and helped shape my perspective for the better on so many fronts and I’m confident that even this short list of quotes will help you do the same.
One of the most valuable lessons that I learned from this book was the idea that we can change how we feel at any moment in time with the right strategies/ techniques. And furthermore, understanding that our use of external influences to try to change our internal state is really nothing more than a crutch. Once we learn the right techniques and adopt the right mindsets, Tony makes an incredibly convincing case that we can literally feel ecstasy right now.
Drugs, alcohol, emotionless sex, etc., are all external strategies for an internal problem. Once we master the art of changing our state internally, we no longer need to depend on anything external. It’s truly game-changing and incredibly empowering. And it was because of this book, and this mindset in particular, that I resolved to quit drinking alcohol altogether. That was in August of 2015. And I haven’t had even a sip of alcohol since—not even champagne on New Years.
So, to say this book is empowering feels like an understatement for me. It’s life-changing. Start by digging in to some of our favorite quotes from Awaken the Giant Within below and definitely pick up a copy of Tony Robbin’s book if you haven’t read it yet. It comes highly recommended. And of course, as always, don’t forget to let us know what you thought in the comment section below. We’d love to chat with you more about the insight that’s shared. Enjoy!
Quotes from Awaken The Giant Within On Goal Setting:
“We’ve got to remember that we get whatever we focus on in life. If we keep focusing on what we don’t want, we’ll have more of it. The first step to creating any change is deciding what you do want so that you have something to move toward.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 124)
“Our goal is not to ignore the problems of life, but to put ourselves in better mental and emotional states where we can not only come up with solutions, but act upon them.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 313)
“All goal setting must be immediately followed by both the development of a plan, and massive and consistent action toward its fulfillment.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 275)
“The most important rules that I ever adopted to help me in achieving my goals were those I learned from a very successful man who taught me to first write down the goal, and then to never leave the site of setting a goal without first taking some form of positive action toward its attainment.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 304)
“Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long term; it’s who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of fulfillment.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 303)
“The direction we’re heading is more important than individual results.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 284)
“No one ever achieved a goal by being interested in its achievement. One must be committed. In fact, in studying the source of people’s success, I’ve found that persistence overshadows even talent as the most valued and effective resource in creating and shaping the quality of life. Most people give up a maddening five feet from their goal!”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 285)
Quotes from Awaken The Giant Within on Overcoming Obstacles:
“‘Why me?’ rarely produces a positive result, while ‘How can I use this?’ usually leads us in the direction of turning our difficulties into a driving force to make ourselves and the world better.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 182)
“To this day, even when I hear about problems, as you’ve probably noticed, I tend to call them challenges. I don’t dwell on them, and I immediately focus on how I can convert the challenge into an opportunity.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 315)
One of the finest beliefs I developed years ago that helped me to enjoy all of my life experience was the idea that there are no bad experiences, that no matter what I go through in life – whether it’s a challenging experience or a pleasurable one – every experience provides me something of value if I look for it.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 402)
“We don’t have to feel negative about weeds. They’re a part of life. We need to see them, acknowledge them, focus on the solution, and immediately do whatever it takes to eliminate their influence from our lives.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 310)
“In life, never spend more than 10 percent of your time on the problem, and spend at least 90 percent of your time on the solution. Most important, don’t sweat the small stuff… and remember, it’s all small stuff!”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 313)
“Often people talk about how they feel ‘stuck’ in a situation. You’re never stuck! You may be a little frustrated, you may not have clear answers, but you’re not stuck. The minute you represent the situation to yourself as being stuck, though, that’s exactly how you’ll feel. We must be very careful about the metaphors we allow ourselves to use.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 231)
“Frustration is a very positive sign. It means that the solution to your problem is within range, but what you’re currently doing isn’t working, and you need to change your approach in order to achieve your goal.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 258)
“When you know what’s most important to you, making a decision is quite simple. Most people, though, are unclear about what’s most important in their lives, and thus decision making becomes a form of internal torture.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 343)
“Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 489)
“Probably the most pervasive false belief most of us harbor is the fallacy that only some superhuman act would have the power to turn our problems around. Nothing could be further from the truth. Life is cumulative. Whatever results we’re experiencing in our lives are the accumulation of a host of small decisions we’ve made as individuals, as a family, as a community, as a society, and as a species.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 487)
To paraphrase the philosopher Nietzsche, he who has a strong enough why can bear almost any how. I’ve found that 20 percent of any change is knowing how; but 80 percent is knowing why. If we gather a set of strong enough reasons to change, we can change in a minute something we’ve failed to change for years.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 127)
Quotes from Awaken The Giant Within on Mastering Your Emotional State:
“It’s not the events that shape my life that determine how I feel and act, but, rather, it’s the way I interpret and evaluate my life experiences. The meaning I attach to an event will determine the decisions I make, the actions I take, and therefore my ultimate destiny.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 179)
“All that you really want in life is to change how you feel. Again, all your emotions are nothing but biochemical storms in your brain, and you are in control of them at any moment in time. You can feel ecstasy right now, or you can feel pain or depression or overwhelmed – it’s all up to you. You don’t need drugs or anything else to do it.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 173)
“So many people feel that they have to wait for certain experiences in order to feel the emotions they desire. For instance, they don’t give themselves permission to feel loved or happy or confident unless a particular set of expectations is met. I’m here to tell you that you can feel any way you choose at any moment in time.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 249)
“The quickest, simplest, and most powerful way I know to handle any emotion is to remember a time when you felt a similar emotion and realize that you’ve successfully handled this emotion before.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 253)
“If you’re feeling really sad, there is only one reason: it’s because you’re deleting all the reasons you could be feeling good. And if you’re feeling good, it’s because you’re deleting all the bad things you could be focusing on.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 189)
“Think of your mind, your emotions, and your spirit as the ultimate garden. The way to ensure a bountiful, nourishing harvest is to plant seeds like love, warmth, and appreciation, instead of seeds like disappointment, anger, and fear.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 264)
“There’s a big difference between an affirmation and a question. When you say to yourself, “I’m happy; I’m happy; I’m happy,” this might cause you to feel happy if you produce enough emotional intensity, change your physiology and therefore your state. But in reality, you can make affirmations all day long and not really change how you feel. What will really change the way you feel is asking, “What am I happy about now? What could I be happy about if I wanted to be? How would that make me feel?” If you keep asking questions like this, you’ll come up with real references that will make you begin to focus on reasons that do in fact exist for you to feel happy. You’ll feel certain that you’re happy.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 186)
“You’ve achieved cheerfulness the day you realize that no matter what’s happening around you, being anything other than cheerful will not make it better.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 267)
“Each day that we live, we’re taking in new information, ideas, concepts, experiences, and sensations. We need to consciously stand guard at the doors of our minds to make sure that whatever we’re allowing to enter will cause our lives to be enriched, that the experiences we pursue will add to our stockpile of possibility.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 407)
Quotes from Awaken The Giant Within On Learning for Life:
“If you want to cure boredom, be curious. If you’re curious, nothing is a chore; it’s automatic – you want to study. Cultivate curiosity, and life becomes an unending study of joy.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 265)
“Many people try to avoid pressure, yet the absence of any tension or pressure usually creates a sense of boredom and the lackluster experience of life that so many people complain about.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 280)
“Throughout human history, our greatest leaders and thinkers have used the power of words to transform our emotions, to enlist us in their causes, and to shape the course of destiny. Words can not only create emotions, they create actions. And from our actions flow the results of our lives.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 200)
“The power of reading a great book is that you start thinking like the author. For those magical moments while you are immersed in the forests of Arden, you are William Shakespeare; while you are shipwrecked on Treasure Island, you are Robert Louis Stevenson; while you are communing with nature at Walden, you are Henry David Thoreau. You start to think like they think, feel like they feel, and use imagination as they would. Their references become your own, and you carry these with you long after you’ve turned the last page. That is the power of literature, of a good play, of music; this is why we constantly want to expand our references.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 402)
“People with an impoverished vocabulary live an impoverished emotional life; people with rich vocabularies have a multihued palette of colors with which to paint their experience, not only for others, but for themselves as well.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 201)
“You and I must realize that the English language is filled with words that, in addition to their literal meanings, convey distinct emotional intensity. For example, if you develop a habit of saying you ‘hate’ things – you ‘hate’ your hair; you ‘hate’ your job; you ‘hate’ having to do something – do you think this raises the intensity of your negative emotional states more than if you use a phrase like ‘I prefer something else’?”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 202)
“If you want access to the files of valuable information in a computer, you must understand how to retrieve the data by asking for it with the proper commands. Likewise, what enables you to get anything you want from your own personal databanks is the commanding power of asking questions.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 181)
Quotes from Awaken The Giant Within On Success and Long-Term Happiness:
“I believe that life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life’s greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 285)
“The only way for us to have long-term happiness is to live by our highest ideals, to consistently act in accordance with what we believe our life is truly about.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 345)
“Many people know what they want to have, but have no idea of who they want to be. Getting ‘things’ simply will not fulfill you. Only living and doing what you believe is ‘the right thing’ will give you that sense of inner strength that we all deserve.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 345)
“Having an identity that is specifically linked to your age or how you look would definitely set you up for pain because these things will change. If we have a broader sense of who we are, our identity never becomes threatened.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 420)
“Success is processional. It’s the result of a series of small disciplines that lead us into habitual patterns of success that no longer require consistent will or effort.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 317)
“If you want to play the game and win, you’ve got to play ‘full out.’ You’ve got to be willing to feel stupid, and you’ve got to be willing to try things that might not work – and if they don’t work, be willing to change your approach. Otherwise, how could you innovate, how could you grow, how could you discover who you really are?”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 504)
“I remember reading about the astounding number of people in this country who die within three years of retiring, which proves to me that if you lose the sense that you are producing or contributing in some way, you literally lose the will to live, and that if you do have a reason to hang on, you will.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 307)
“If you see children walking along the sidewalk after a rain, and there’s a puddle in front of them, what are they going to do when they get to that puddle? They’re going to jump in! They’re going to laugh, splash around, and have a good time. What does an older person do? Walk around it? No, they won’t just walk around it – they’ll complain the whole time! You want to live differently. You want to live with a spring in your step, a smile on your face. Why not make cheerfulness, outrageousness, playfulness a new priority for yourself? Make feeling good your expectation. You don’t have to have a reason to feel good – you’re alive; you can feel good for no reason at all!“
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 159)
“I believe that you and I – and everyone we’ll ever meet – has the inborn capacity to be heroic, to take daring, courageous, and noble steps to make life better for others, even when in the short term it seems to be at our own expense. The capacity to do the right thing, to dare to take a stand and make a difference, is within you now.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 489)
“How do I define a hero? A hero is a person who courageously contributes under even the most trying circumstances; a hero is an individual who acts unselfishly and who demands more from himself or herself than others would expect; a hero is a man or woman who defies adversity by doing what he or she believes is right in spite of fear. A hero moves beyond the ‘common sense’ of the promoters of the status quo. A hero is anyone who aims to contribute, anyone who is willing to set an example, anyone who lives by the truth of his or her convictions. A hero develops strategies to assure his outcome, and persists until it becomes a reality, changing his approach as necessary and understanding the importance of small actions consistently taken. A hero is not someone who is ‘perfect,’ because none of us are perfect. We all make mistakes, but that doesn’t invalidate the contributions we make in the course of our lives. Perfection is not heroism; humanity is.”
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 491)
Picture Quotes from Awaken The Giant Within To Share:
If you enjoyed these quotes from Awaken the Giant Within then you should check out Tony Robbins’ book in full. It comes highly recommended:
Book Overview: Wake up and take control of your life! Anthony Robbins provides a step-by-step program teaching the fundamental lessons of self-mastery that will enable you to discover your true purpose, take control of your life, and harness the forces that shape your destiny.
Buy from Amazon! Listen on Audible!
Read Next:
NEW In The Shop: Don’t Let The Tame Ones Tell You How To Live [Poster]
Why We ♥ It: Some of the best advice I (Matt here) ever got was: don’t take life advice from people who aren’t living a life you want to live and don’t take criticism from people you wouldn’t go to for advice. I created this poster to act as a reminder to listen more closely to our role models and less closely to our critics, trolls, and tamed-comfort-zone-hugger acquaintances. It’s also a perfect gift for the outdoor adventurer, travel enthusiast, or solo explorer (or soon to be). Available in print or digital download. 👇🏼
...Want to advertise your book, product, or service? Send inquiries to matt@movemequotes.com.
Written by Matt Hogan
Founder of MoveMe Quotes. On a mission to help busy people do inner work—for better mental health; for healing; for personal growth. Find me on Twitter / IG / Medium. I also share daily insights here. 🌱
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