I can remember sitting in the audience at one of Tony Robbins’ events. He said the phrase “Rewire your brain.” This was the first time the concept of neuroplasticity was introduced to me.
Neuroplasticity
is the ability of the brain to change continuously throughout your
life. It’s a simple reality that your brain changes and therefore
whatever you think and do can be completely shifted. In other words,
nothing in your life is fixed.
This
was a radical idea for me back in 2013 when I was battling extreme
mental illness and believed it would be my eventual downfall. My life
was a mess and I was just existing. The pain had numbed me and I didn’t
give a damn about anyone else.
I
remember sitting in the taxi on the way home after the event, knowing
I’d never be the same again. It was an emotional experience that I
thanked Tony for initially, and later, realized that Tony’s ideas were
just the catalyst. The changes were the results of my actions.
Tony’s ability to rewire my brain with his words and ideas changed everything. They can do the same for you.
“Nothing in life has any meaning except the meaning we give it.”
This
quote is the best way to reprogram your brain forever. It’s more than a
reframe; it’s a transformational thought that will set you free.
Your
brain gives meaning to every thought you have. That’s right: you decide
the meaning of everything in life. Someone can tell you their opinion
but you decide if you are going to accept it or not.
Your failures can have an empowering meaning. Your near-misses can mean you’re almost there. Your periods of stagnation can mean you’re preparing. Your lack of luck could mean your lack of trying.
What meaning are you going to assign to everything that happens going forward?
“We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish.”
There are things you daydream about all the time. Your mind can tell you that these fantasies can never be real.
The
truth is you can be anything you want. You can dream something up out
of nowhere and then use your daily actions to manifest it into the
physical world. The key concept here is that we are responsible.
We decide on the changes. We commit to the changes. And we respect the changes with our actions.
People
always tell you what you can’t do but rarely what you can do. That’s
why you’ve got to give yourself permission to do exactly as you wish.
Don’t wait for outside validation because you may not ever get it.
“Every man dies. Not every man lives.”
You’ve
met that man or woman who is dead inside. They show up every day at a
job they hate, to pay for a house they don’t need, to buy stuff they
think will make them happy, and the entire time they treat most people
badly.
Their
excessive debt weighs them down. They don’t know why they do what they
do. They don’t care about anything in particular. Life is a race to
survive and making it through is ‘good enough.’
There’s no point in being alive unless you actually live. What does living look like?
Showing up with energy
Taking care of your health and wealth
Finding ways to be helpful to others
Smiling for the heck of it
Enjoying the small events
Taking on crazy projects
Not being afraid to fail
Loving people for no good reason
Spending time being creative
Taking time off without stressing about money
You rewire your brain when you refuse to do anything less than living your life to the fullest.
“A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.”
There
are times where we sit around and realize that we haven’t taken the
actions we committed to. Understanding why that is can be challenging.
This quote from Tony holds the answer. A lack of action means you’re still unsure about the right decision for you.
Don’t blame yourself or think that you’re lazy; go back and understand whether the decision you made was the right one.
It’s
easy to make the wrong decision — and even easier to go back and change
your decision so you can remove the barrier to the actions you know you
must take in your life.
“If you talk about it, it’s a dream, if you envision it, it’s possible, but if you schedule it, it’s real.”
This one quote completely changed how I took action.
The
old days used to involve me feeling like I wanted to take action or
saying “I’ll do it tomorrow.” It was a subtle problem that didn’t look
like it was the root cause of my failed dreams.
The
shift in my mind was simple after hearing this quote from Tony. The
moment you think of an action you need to take, either take action right
then, or if that’s not possible, schedule that action in your calendar.
I
remember wanting to sign up to the gym and always putting it off. After
reading this quote, I looked up a few gyms at 9 PM one night. To make
the action real I left my contact details on three gym’s websites. Even
though it was too late to call and sign up with the gym, this next best
action forced the goal to become a reality.
Sure
enough, the next day, all three gyms called me to book an appointment.
It was too hard to back out so I made the appointments. Shortly after, I
was a member at a local gym and now felt like I had to get value out of
my membership. Eventually, I began to enjoy going to the gym and it
changed my health for the better.
Schedule your actions the moment you think of them.
“The only thing that’s keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself.”
When
you talk to people that have unmet goals that they’ve never started,
you might see something odd: they have a story about why.
It’s
not just any story either. They can tell their story about what they
never got started with, with pinpoint precision. They can blame the
results they’ve never got on a divorce, their kids, a job they hate, or
toxic friends. The story you tell yourself about why you can’t have that
thing is the barrier.
Stories are an enabler of your excuses.
Stories are how you explain your broken dreams to people you’ve just met.
Check
in on your stories. In a single day, write down all the stories you
tell yourself and other people. Here are a few of mine:
You can’t change careers right now because the economy is bad
Your writing results have gone backward because of the pandemic
You’ve stopped posting so much on LinkedIn because you’re scared
Having that cancer-check postponed is because of Covid-19
Your work colleague doesn’t answer your calls because they think your sales results suck
These
are some of my stories. Write down some of yours and notice how they
limit your potential. Then drop the stories and write over the top of
your old stories with new ones that empower you to take action.
“Focus on where you want to go, not on what you fear.”
Your life can be dominated by fear.
Your
thought patterns sound like this: “What if….happens and it ruins
everything?” You find yourself thinking about the downside rather than
focusing on the upside and getting where you want to go.
Fears don’t motivate you. No one wants to come face to face with their demons, unless they’re a navy seal on $200K per year.
Think
about where you’re trying to head. What would life look like if it made
sense? What direction have you always wanted to go and never gone?
“I’ve found that 20 percent of any change is knowing how, but 80 percent is knowing why. ”
Why you do what you do is crucial.
If
you don’t know why you’re reading this article or why you feel bored or
unmotivated, the ‘how’ becomes irrelevant. I’ve spoken to many people
via email over the years who always want to know from me how they can do
something. They look up to me as having some form of wisdom they don’t
have which is false. It was only the other day that I realized what was
missing: it’s the why.
If you have the why, you can Google the how.
The
“why” is the hardest bit. It takes a lot of time to understand your
motivations and decide on why you do what you do. My ‘why’ is to be
helpful and inspire others through personal development and
entrepreneurship.
What is your why? If you don’t know, what would you give as your answer if you had a gun to your head?
“At any moment, the decision you make can change the course of your life forever.”
This one makes me tear up.
You
never know which decision you will make that will change your life
forever. The decision I made to go to a Tony Robbins event in 2013
changed the course of my life forever.
The
decision helped be defeat mental illness, it changed my career, it
brought love into my life, it allowed me to start writing and reach tens
of millions of people online, it caused me to drop my selfish
tendencies, and it made me go from existing to living.
The
decision didn’t start out as life-changing though. I didn’t want to go
to the event because I was afraid to fly. When I got there, it felt like
rah-rah nonsense and I was ready to leave in the first hour. It made me
uncomfortable and opened up many old wounds. Every part of meeting Tony
Robbins was scary.
While
the decision to stay and listen to Tony seemed small and insignificant
at the time, it led to all the results that followed.
I
hope these quotes from Tony Robbins can rewire your brain and show you
what is possible. If one quote doesn’t have a significant impact on you
then I hope the thoughts will at least lead you to the ideas that will.
You
can do anything when you rewire your brain, believe anything is
possible, and you control the meaning of what happens in your life.
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