Tony Robbins Conference - Unleash the Power Within

[Julia]

It was a great experience.

Tony Robbins is on the money with a number of things such as:

- The 6 universal human needs

What are these?

- How a few simple shifts in diet can take us away from an acidic body and create lasting energy

Um, what is an 'acidic body'?
How is this remedied?
Is Mr Robbins a nutritionist also?

You basically get out of it what you are looking for.

True enough. Most of us go through life seeking others who are more influential than ourselves who will offer us confirmation of what we already believe. This is immensely reassuring to us.

People can put him and his teachings down until they are black and blue in the face but the reality is he is an enormous success and changing the lives of many many people.

I'm really fascinated by this. Not at all suggesting it's not so. Rather just wondering why so many people need a guru to inspire them into what should be pretty obvious.
Are we collectively so lacking in drive and imagination that we need to pay someone to fire us up to appreciate what we should readily see?

And I'm not - as it would seem - knocking people who want to attend this sort of thing if they really feel they get their money's worth. Just really curious as to why they need to.
Is it an age thing? i.e. are the attendees mostly young people who simply haven't had enough life experience to work things out for themselves?

 

[Gringotts Bank]

Maslow's heirachy of needs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

Freud's Pleasure Principle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasure_principle_(psychology)

Alkaline Diet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_diet


It's all on Wikipedia. However, my feeling is that people go for the entertainment and pump-up value, which is fine. To be around exciting people is actually quite fun, and we all do a bit of that in our own way. Going to a sporting event would be the same sort of deal. Bit cheaper tho!

 

[motorway]

Maslow's heirachy of needs:

[B]Alkaline Diet:[/B] [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_diet


It's all on Wikipedia. However, my feeling is that people go for the entertainment and pump-up value, which is fine. To be around exciting people is actually quite fun, and we all do a bit of that in our own way. Going to a sporting event would be the same sort of deal. Bit cheaper tho!

Very poor overview of "Alkaline Diet"

here is a defining Study


"Bone health is substantially dependent on dietary acid/base balance. All foods upon digestion ultimately must report to the kidney as either acid or base. When the diet yields a net acid load (such as low-carb fad diets that restrict consumption of fruits and vegetables), the acid must be buffered by the alkaline stores of base in the body. Calcium salts in the bones represent the largest store of alkaline base in the body and are depleted and eliminated in the urine when the diet produces a net acid load."

Remer T, Manz F. Potential renal acid load of foods and its influence on urine pH. J Am Diet Assoc 1995;95:791-797.

And hence Health esp Bone Health

eg

http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v65/n3/abs/ejcn2010264a.html?WT.ec_id=EJCN-201103


Motorway

 

[aarbee]

I'm really fascinated by this. Not at all suggesting it's not so. Rather just wondering why so many people need a guru to inspire them into what should be pretty obvious.
Are we collectively so lacking in drive and imagination that we need to pay someone to fire us up to appreciate what we should readily see?

And I'm not - as it would seem - knocking people who want to attend this sort of thing if they really feel they get their money's worth. Just really curious as to why they need to.
Is it an age thing? i.e. are the attendees mostly young people who simply haven't had enough life experience to work things out for themselves?

No matter how motivated we are towards whatever we love doing, there is always room to improve. That is the reason that the best of best sportsmen still have coaches. It is the coach's job to point out the things that the athlete, despite his drive, passion and knowledge of techniques, fails to see. I look at Tony and his ilk as life coaches. I am generally a very positive and driven person, but would credit Tony and quite a few others to have shown things to me that I find of immense value in understanding a bit about myself. It helps me find the things I don't know that I don't know.

As I pointed out in my earlier posting, for those who've got an aversion to attending seminars conducted by larger than life, ra-ra seminar presenters with big teeth, reading books written by them or listening to audio programs would be a good way of atleast trying to find out what is on offer. For the cost of a paperback one can buy a whole CD set on Ebay. Surely, it is not a very expensive way to learn something about the man and his views and what he has to offer before making sweeping generalisations about it being BS etc as some of the posters have done. I would have no problems accepting their view if they've exposed themselves to his work and arrived at whatever opinion they are spouting.

Cheers

 

[Gringotts Bank]

aarbee, no aversion here, just avoidance! I have seen him on late night TV (full lectures were aired a while back) and I have also been dragged along to a Chris Howard seminar, which looked very similar. The person who insisted I go with ended up enrolling in some multi-millionaire series that he runs in Hawaii and it got her nowhere. The sum total was a loss of about $5000 for her. She put in massive amounts of work and participated fully.

I'm not against psychological methods. In fact that's all I use myself in my trading. I just don't buy what he says. If his stuff worked, don't you think we'd all know about it by now?

the other thing is, the people that attended the Chris Howard thing all looked unusual to me. Sort of like Amway dudes. You know the look? Yeh that!

 

[aarbee]

Hi Gringotts,

I have attended Chris Howard many years back and attended quite a few Amway meetings and they didn't do anything for me. Chris Howard is called a Tony Robbins wannabee for a reason. Although there were a couple of things I gained in the Chris Howard's seminar but Amway meetings were a waste of time.

There is nothing esoteric in Tony's seminars. The 6 human needs (based on Maslow's heirarchy of needs) and other NLP stuff etc is all there in the books written by others too. Tony freely acknowledges that. Where he excels is in the way he delivers that message which is quite unique and effective. I would again reiterate, one doesn't need to attend the seminars costing thousands of dollars, though the seminar atmosphere does move some people to action way more than books or tapes. Different people react differently.

Perhaps, I am just different. I have been going downhill since my 20th birthday when I was at the pinnacle of knowledge and experience. I knew all there was to know. Now, for the last 30 years, with every passing day and every new experience I realise how little I know and how much more there is to learn about myself. Trading is the greatest vehicle of self-discovery and self-help seminars, books, tapes, videos are useful too.

Cheers

 

[matty77]

It was a great experience.

Tony Robbins is on the money with a number of things such as:

- The 6 universal human needs
- How our values and then beliefs shape the quality of our life. If we set impossible standards and don't feel successful we won't be in a resourceful state.
- The principle of pain and pleasure and getting leverage on yourself to change
- How a few simple shifts in diet can take us away from an acidic body and create lasting energy

I don't believe absolutely everything he teaches but no doubt he is one of the best.

Like I said previously you take the good and bad and use the good.

I feel sorry for people who can't see the good in things. You basically get out of it what you are looking for.

People can put him and his teachings down until they are black and blue in the face but the reality is he is an enormous success and changing the lives of many many people.

I wouldn't go as far as attending the Mastery University (4 courses for $9995), but as for an $800, 4 day conference, if you use the material it is well well worth it.

Would highly recommend.

Please revisit this in 3 months, 12 months and tell us how you have improved your life, if you think it was still worth it, and if you are still motivated....

 

[pavilion103]

Please revisit this in 3 months, 12 months and tell us how you have improved your life, if you think it was still worth it, and if you are still motivated....

Good point. I also went and saw him at the Ultimate Success Summit last September in Sydney (along with other speakers). It is a direct result of that that I have taken action developing my trading system. I went from spending about 2 hours a week (which I didn't even enjoy), to committing 15 hours a week and purchasing software, more books, learning etc... I was really struggling with motivation and struggling to take action until then. That was the leverage I needed and I have now made strong progress. As far as the rest of my life, I am still applying a number of exercises and feel the best I ever have in the past 6 months. Very worth it.

After UPW conference on the weekend I realise how much I want to step it up further and have the tools to transform my mindset, goals, beliefs etc. I want to commit to closer to 30 hours a week now on top of full time work. I've got new associations, priorities and even stronger outlook and feel amazing (as well as making new friends over the weekend which I will keep in touch with)

I will revisit my feelings about it in 3-6 months but if it's anything like the last time I heard him (and other) it will be well worth it, because without it I would have barely got started

 

[pavilion103]

I do understand your point however, but I am the type of person who will commit the hours implementing the techniques learnt (I did go through a 3 year period where I read over 200 books and implemented very little however).


To answer the other questions. The reason you need someone else to help you is because they have got the results in life that you are seeking. Why try to reinvent the wheel when you can model the techniques/strategies that they have spent years developing (if you like those techniques)? People have different gifts and if someone can help to inspire you and bring out something in you then why not listen to them?

In terms of those 3 links, I'm not sure how a few paragraphs of writing covers a the material covered in 50 hours over a 4 day seminar. If a person who attended is prepared to use the material is will assist them greatly. If they are not then it's not Tony's fault but the individual.


I understand different people have different opinions but it would be good if they were all informed. His seminar is one of many things which are helpful. Add to the content covered the bonus of a wonderful experience, new friends made and a great weekend away. All the material is pretty much contained in his Personal Power II audio program. So $300 on that is the cheap alternative, however I would go see him live again. I wouldn't spend more than $1,000 to see any speaker but for TR $800 was good value. If someone coming out of it can improve their life by $800 from having been there, then there is something seriously wrong with them and not the program.

 

[wayneL]

No matter how motivated we are towards whatever we love doing, there is always room to improve. That is the reason that the best of best sportsmen still have coaches. It is the coach's job to point out the things that the athlete, despite his drive, passion and knowledge of techniques, fails to see.

The coach thing is a good point, but how many sportspeople do you know that turn up to a $5000 weekend seminar for their coaching?

That's right, exactly zero.

Coaching is an ongoing enterprise; the coach making incremental improvements on a day by day basis, not a massive improvement in one fell swoop.

If you want a life coach, have one that is around you a lot.

 

[pavilion103]

The coach thing is a good point, but how many sportspeople do you know that turn up to a $5000 weekend seminar for their coaching?

That's right, exactly zero.

Coaching is an ongoing enterprise; the coach making incremental improvements on a day by day basis, not a massive improvement in one fell swoop.

If you want a life coach, have one that is around you a lot.

That's a very good point. It's not so much coaching as it is presenting.

I think one other aspect is that is expands the mind being around people with that level of success. It's quite motivating and takes you above the day to day ordinary life. Granted, if you do nothing with that motivation it is a waste of time. I'm not saying that it's worth $5,000, as I said previously, I wouldn't pay that much.

 

[Ruby]

I don't wish to denigrate the positive benefits some people gain from these things, but my experience (personal and observation of others) is that the euphoria generated is short lived. I went to quite a few of these personal growth type things when they started to proliferate about 30 years ago.

It's almost like mass hypnosis - the presenter whips up the atmosphere and the emotion - and everyone gets carried along on the tide of good feeling and better intentions, but once ordinary life resumes it is hard to keep that momentum going. It is not unlike fundamentalist religious meetings with people swaying to and fro, falling backwards when the preacher touches them, and having their ailments 'cured'. The cures rarely last.

Having said that, I do know some people make permanent life changes as a result of one of these courses, but I think they are very few.

 

[wayneL]

IMO the big question is "what do you want from life". These types of seminars can trick people into thinking that untold wealth is what they want.

While I think having boxes of money lying around the house is a fine thing, there is a price for any prize. I lust after untold wealth as much as the next self centered ars5hole, but the price for me is too expensive.

This is the danger IMO of such seminars is the skewing of price/prize dynamics as it relates to an individual's happiness. I like people with a balance of needs as it relates to human interactions and wealth goals... I would prefer a friend over a dollar.

I think modern society has lost its way and prefers a dollar over a friend and I believe seminars such as Robbin's engenders this attitude and amplifies it.

Don't get me wrong, "poor" is not the path to happiness, but neither is chasing wealth... there is a balance that is optimum.

 

[pavilion103]

Tony Robbins teaches that growth and contribution are the 2 highest needs and emphasizes happiness as the main goal, not financial success. It is very relationship focused.

If people are going to knock anything, knock the people who attend the seminars and don't use the stuff. Don't knock the presenter, event or materials. These things have been aroun long enough for people to know what they are. In addition to this they are given valuable tools that other successful people implement yet they choose not to use them.

 

[Gringotts Bank]

Hi Gringotts,

There is nothing esoteric in Tony's seminars.

... Now, for the last 30 years, with every passing day and every new experience I realise how little I know and how much more there is to learn about myself. Trading is the greatest vehicle of self-discovery.
Cheers

Esoteric is fine by me. In fact I'd prefer esoteric to mainstream psychology. I can get down with the best of them, so long as it works in real life... that's the only condition. People think that progressing in trading is about understanding charts and balance sheets in more detail, but it's not. It's about uncovering and analysing all those deep murky beliefs that linger in the unconscious, and seeing how they direct all our behaviours. So I agree with you that trading can be a great tool for self-understanding.

 

[wayneL]

Tony Robbins teaches that growth and contribution are the 2 highest needs and emphasizes happiness as the main goal, not financial success. It is very relationship focused.

If people are going to knock anything, knock the people who attend the seminars and don't use the stuff. Don't knock the presenter, event or materials. These things have been aroun long enough for people to know what they are. In addition to this they are given valuable tools that other successful people implement yet they choose not to use them.

I suspect there is a problem in delivery then, as IME the above purported message has failed to be transmuted to the plebeians who attend.

Indeed it is apparent that Robbins himself's relationships are as problematic as the average pleb.

 

[Wysiwyg]

It's quite motivating and takes you above the day to day ordinary life.

And then one has the awareness of falling back into the way it was before. Drawn back to the way it was before by naysayers and those of pessimistic incline or the mass psyche in our day to day habits. I believe inner strength, determination and boundless energy is what all successful people have. Maybe Tony's message is "tap it".

Did you walk the hot coals with fear?

 

[pavilion103]

And then one has the awareness of falling back into the way it was before. Drawn back to the way it was before by naysayers and those of pessimistic incline or the mass psyche in our day to day habits. I believe inner strength, determination and boundless energy is what all successful people have. Maybe Tony's message is "tap it".

Did you walk the hot coals with fear?

I agree mate. It's only after reading hundreds of books that I even started to feel any sort of inner strength to move against my current environment. I'm still learning, but am in a really great place. I know I know nothing, yet I know I am in a good place.

To be honest I didn't really fear it. The fact that thousands of other people can do it makes you realise it obviously isn't impossible/difficult. Having said that a great experience. I'm going to tackle some other fears in the near future such as sky diving and bungy jumping.

 

[aarbee]

I think modern society has lost its way and prefers a dollar over a friend and I believe seminars such as Robbin's engenders this attitude and amplifies it.

This is really the reason why I keep labouring the point that before voicing opinions one should make an effort to expose oneself to the message. TR is not about greed and pursuit of money. It is all about balance in life. Instead of forming strong opinions based on vicarious experiences, please just read one of his books or listen to one of his audio programs. You don't have to go to his seminars and hug strangers. Personally, I have made some very nice friends that I met at his seminar many years ago and still meet on regular basis.

Tony does have his Wealth Mastery seminar that others present under his banner. I have never been tempted to attend that one. To me the value of his teaching is not in chasing money but balance in life.

Matter of fact, week before last Christmas I took my two boys for packing gift hampers as part of TR inspired local chapter of the international basket brigade. Talk of quiet, motivated bunch of people going about contributing to the society. The boys learnt more about life and caring and giving in a day than they would in a year of Sunday school.

As for coaching, there are a lot of people like Andre Agassi, Venus Williams, Anthony Hopkins, Bill Clinton, et al who pay far far more to TR for coaching than the $5,000 you mentioned. As for me, attending a couple of his seminars was an eye opener for me and I still regularly listen to his audio CDs.

Cheers

 

[aarbee]

I'm going to tackle some other fears in the near future such as sky diving and bungy jumping.

That's a very good idea. My experience was the same as yours, though even after watching others do it, there is always trepidation before taking the first step on burning coals. It is a great experience.

In December, I took up skydiving. Talk about overcoming your fear. Just like trading, I learnt more about myself in a few jumps than years of self study. I would strongly encourage you to go and do it. People go for the thrill and adrenaline but for me the main motivation was to get over my own fears. Just do it. I have done 15 jumps so far with about 10 to go for my A licence. I probably would give it up after getting the A licence and hopefully fear would, by then not be such a challenge.

Cheers

Cheers