(Day 128 / -83 lbs.) The Way of the Tony

Many years ago I ordered Anthony Robbins' "30 Days to Personal Power" program during one of those late-night infomercials. I'll admit that it was about 2AM and in my half-dazed state I probably would have bought just about anything. I forget what the price was at the time, but whatever it was seemed paltry when compared with the potential realization of "personal power".

Once the package arrived, I had no idea what it was that I had ordered- making it a little like somebody sending me a present; so I ripped into it like it was my birthday. Inside I found a set of cassette tapes in shiny plastic boxes that looked really cool on the top shelf of the bookcase in my office, which is where they sat for about a month.

Having not achieved personal power on my own, I retrieved the first shiny box from the shelf and popped it into my cassette player (for those of you born after the Golden Age, please ask an older person what a cassette is) and hit the play button. What filled the room was majestic and almost inspirational music accompanying various inspirational speakers introducing Mr Inspiration himself, Anthony Robbins.

Now, I don't mean that with any amount of sarcasm. The guy is good. You listen- and if you truly listen and want to absorb what he's saying, you kind of get excited about life. You begin to think that things are going to get better; that little by little you're going to increase your "personal power". All it takes is to follow a very simple formula:

1. Decide on your outcome
2. Take massive action
3. Notice whether what you're doing is working and adjust if necessary.

There is also a "shortcut", 1-a step:

1-a. Find someone who is getting the results you want for yourself and copy them.

Guess what? IT WORKS. When I think about anything good that's occurred in my life and analyze just how it came to be, I can identify little things that directly relate to Tony's formula--- even before I listened to the tapes. Does that mean I already had "personal power"?

Whatever.

What it means is that Anthony Robbins really knows how to recognize, package, and market positive human behaviors. Bravo Tony!

What it means to me is confirmation that I (just like EVERYBODY else) am already capable of achieving whatever I want if I consistently do what's worked for me in the past.

Again, bravo Tony. Thanks for articulating what I should have realized and gone consistently after all along. And if you think this is an endorsement of your program, whatever the latest generation of your spiel is called, feel free to send me a free copy (or better yet, a check-- I love big fat checks).

I've said all along that most programs have a grain of value to them if you take action and apply what you already know: that it's up to you to make the change. Copy somebody if you want, but no matter how miraculous the results, it's always you, and only you, doing the heavy lifting.

Decide, act, adjust, repeat; that's my plan.