Awaken the Giant Within Book Summary

Introduction

Hi Success Titan reader, I’m Sal Damiata, and that’s the book summary of “Awaken the Giant Within,” written by Tony Robbins. 

Why this Book?

What if beneath you lies an invincible version of yourself that is capable of making both your life and other peoples’ lives a masterpiece? Keep reading, as that’s probably the right book summary for you.

Synopsis

Awaken the Giant Within is a book that will teach you how to exploit the infinite power you have within you to create mind-blowing change in your life. Anyway, is it really true that we all have that power within us? And if yes, how can we harness it? Let’s discover it together.

Who’s it for? 

• Everybody feeling stuck and like they can’t change their lives for the better;
• Entrepreneurs or any kind of professionals that would like to feel more empowered in their job;
• Anybody wanting a better life both for him/her and their loved ones.

What You’ll Learn from it

• The strategies that have helped Tony Robbins and his students shape their own lives;
• Techniques that will help you to overcome your limiting beliefs, surpass your own limits and take control of your life;
• How to use the power of decision and concentration to make your dreams come true.

In a Nutshell

• We are the forgers of our destiny. Within all of us lies the power of change because we can make conscious decisions about how to carry on with our lives at any given moment. Once we make better decisions, our actions will change, and so will the results that will eventually give us a better life.

3 Sentence Summary

• This means that when you shift your perception of yourself, your entire life will change as a consequence of that. When you fail at something, don’t say to yourself that you are a failure, because all you are, is the same person that produced a specific event that you called “failure.”

• To change your behavior, all you have to do is to mentally associate something positive to the behaviors you’d like to have and something negative to the behaviors you don’t want to have. The rest will be done automatically by your habitual mind.

• If you want to experience long-term happiness, become aware of what your value system is. Once you know it, align your daily actions with those values that are important to you consistently.

Big Ideas

Those are the most relevant ideas expressed in the book that we’ll explore together.

1. Make Committed Decisions
2. Know Your Values
3. Ask Powerful Questions
4. Expand Your Identity
5. Your Habits Shape Your Destiny 

Time to learn more about them now!

Big Idea #1: Make Committed Decisions

As Tony Robbins says, our destiny is shaped during the moments we make decisions. If you are getting stuck by your circumstances, make a committed decision to change your behavior because cause once you produce different actions, different results will inevitably occur. 

The father of all actions is decision then, not circumstances, and realize that whenever you don’t make a decision, you’re actually making one; you’re deciding to stay the same person you were. 

What’s important, when making new decisions, is to always make them in an empowered state of mind rather than in a low one because they will be directly affected by how you will feel in the very moment you make that decision.

The next time you are in an empowered state ask yourself the following questionS: “What kind of person do I want to be 10 years from now?”, What goals and dreams would I like to achieve during that period?”

A Relatable Example

Think about an event that occurred a long time ago, maybe 10 years or more. Travel back to your memory and think of the person you were. 

Now think of the person you are now and ask yourself, “How much have I changed?” Maybe you’ve changed a lot, or maybe you’ve stayed the same. 

The reality is that you could have made this 10 years change in one day. Why? Because changing our actions is not supposed to be a long term process and, even neurologically, it just takes 21 days for you to change from one habit (behavior) to another one. 

Big Idea #2: Know Your Values

Whenever we honor our values, we go into the right direction in life and feel joy and contentment with what we do, whenever we don’t honor them we feel like carrying a burden that we are not supposed to carry. 

That’s true because our values guide us towards our most authentic pursuit. Many people that aren’t happy is because they didn’t make a conscious decision for what to strive for; thus, they go after things that don’t lead to their happiness but to a meaningless life.

If you don’t want to be one of those people that will regret how they spent their lives on the deathbed, become aware of what you value and align it with the decisions (thus actions) you make every single day. 

When you are aware of what you value, and you don’t, every decision will be far easier to make for you.

A Relatable Example

Tony shows how the most successful people in history always had their value system aligned with their actions. 

An example of that can be Gandhi that, instead of striving for war, fought for unity, Nikola Tesla that valued a lot of human progress, Salvador Dali that valued art and expression or Mike Tyson that valued victory over anything else.

Big Idea #3: Ask Powerful Questions

We often ask questions to ourselves, but what kind of questions do we usually ask? In fact, as in everything, there are good and bad questions that we can use to influence the way we think.

When you start to pose yourself a different set of questions, you will reshape your attitude towards reality, and this will eventually change your emotional response to any event you will be subject to.

This means that when you start posing yourself the right questions and start using the right words, you’ll start to think differently, and when you think differently, guess what happens? You act differently, and different actions produce different results. 

This means that you’ll literally change your life by changing the questions you ask yourself and by changing the words you use to define who you are and the events you experience.

A Relatable Example

If you get dumped by your 10 years old girlfriend, you can ask yourself two types of questions; the first one can be:

1: “Why the hell am I so unlucky? After 10 years, she dumped me, I even wanted to marry her.”

2: “What can I learn from this? By the way, better that she left me before we got even married.”

Which one of those questions makes you think in a more powerful way, in your opinion?

You know the answer. Now think of all the different possible ways you can apply this concept to the different areas of your life, and you will have a life-changing weapon between your hands.

Big Idea #4: Expand Your Identity

Our destiny is largely controlled by who we think we are more than you can imagine. Our self-perception is so powerful, yet it operates below the surface of our consciousness. 

This means that when you shift your perception of yourself, your entire life will change as a consequence of that. 

The first principle to apply when changing your self-perception is to separate your negative behaviors from your identity. 

When you fail at something, don’t say to yourself that you are a failure because all you are is the same person that produced a specific event that you called “failure.”

When you start to understand this, you can change your identity at will. One way to do this is by setting higher standards for yourself so that you know what you deserve and what you don’t deserve. 

Make a conscious decision after you finish reading this article of the person you want to be and start living like that person, regardless of your past and of who you think you were before reading this article.

A Relatable Example

One famous example showing how powerful a change in our self-perception can be one of the school children. Some poor-performing school children were once taken by a professor individually, and it was told them that they were actually gifted. 

Not surprisingly, their grades started to change for the better, and they actually became so good to take excellent marks, all because they truly believed to be gifted. 

Big Idea #5: Your Habits Shape Your Destiny 

Having come to this point, I believe Tony’s point to be clear to you; if you change your habits, you will change your destiny. In order to change your destiny, then you simply need to adopt the following principles.

1: First of all let go of all the disempowering thought patterns you might have about yourself, life and the world;

2: Whenever there’s something you perceive as a problem, focus on its solutions rather than complaining

3: Change the meaning you give to “bad” events and manipulate your thinking so that they become a good lesson for you;

4: Use failure as a way to learn and move forward more than a way to stop yourself from acting. 

A Relatable Example

Many people are stopped by the habit of procrastination. According to Tony, procrastination happens because one believes that by acting, he will experience more pain than procrastinating. 

To change those behaviors, all you have to do is to associate procrastination with pain and acting with pleasure, and you will automatically improve your productivity. 

How can you do this? By listing all the good things that will happen to your life (in the short, medium and long term) if you act, versus all the bad things that will happen to you (in the short, medium and long term) if you fail to act.

Conclusion & Takeaway

Many people have self-imposed barriers that, most of the time, are just illusions. You can shatter those barriers and create a brand new life for yourself by making a committed decision to change the way you think and act. 

Once you start to do this, you’ll experience true change, and you’ll have defeated your only enemy, your limiting beliefs.

My Advice For You

My advice for you is to start applying those concepts right away instead of closing this page and getting to your next activity unconsciously. If you liked this book, I suggest you purchase it and to put it into practice. 

Yes, I said put into practice and not read it because that’s a book to practice and not just to read. If you need any further clarification or help, feel free to contact me on my social media pages as personal change is my bread and butter.

About the Author

Anthony Robbins is probably the most influential personality in the self-development industry. Until he was 18, he was just getting by, until he hit the lowest point in his life that eventually inspired him to become the man he is now. 

He is the author of many best-selling books, and today, he holds seminars around the globe, inspiring millions of people every year to become their best version.

Reading Suggestions

• “Unlimited Power” – Tony Robbins
• “Money” – Tony Robbins
• “Think and Grow Rich” – Napoleon Hill
• “The Power of Positive Thinking” – Norman Vincent Peale
• “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” Stephen R. Covey

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