Un manual que vale la pena leer y releer.

Robbins introduce al lector la herramienta de la PNL, Programación Neurolingüística, para mejorar la calidad de la vida, tanto a nivel personal como profesional.

Desde superar fobias a mejorar hábitos... la PNL ayuda a pasar a la acción, y qué mejor herramienta para explotar en la era de la información en la que nos encontramos abrumados por tanta información que no logramos salir de la esfera mental y materializar la vida que deseamos tener.

Robbins explica la importancia de mejorar la calidad de la comunicación para mejorar la calidad de nuestra vida. Pero el matiz es importante, la comunicación se entiende en dos niveles. Por una parte, cómo nos hablamos a nosotros mismos, lo que podríamos llamar la comunicación interna. Por otra parte, cómo hablamos a los demás, la comunicación externa.

El autor también lleva la PNL al campo de la psicología clínica y explica que trastornos como la depresión, definida como un estado físico y mental creado por el propio sujeto, puede superarse cambiando las emociones y el comportamiento.

Tratadas las cuestiones de salud mental, Robbins profundiza en la idea de éxito y de liderazgo y lo hace elaborando una interesante lista de siete mecanismos activadores del éxito.
1. La pasión.
2. La fe.
3. La estrategia.
4. La claridad de valores.
5. La energía.
6. Poder de adhesión.
7. Maestría en las comunicaciones.

Para alcanzar el éxito una herramienta útil es el modelado que consiste en reproducir la excelencia de otros. Robbins explica la técnica del modelado que consiste en calibrar y describir la sintaxis o secuencia en que se vinculan los acontecimientos internos y externos. La sintaxis viene regida por un patrón que varía en cada sujeto e incluso en cada situación (visual, auditivo o cinestético) y subpatrones. Además conviene identificar las submodalidades. Determinar el orden puede ayudarnos a cambiar conductas que deseamos mejorar y a modelar a las persona que logran los objetivos que ansiamos.

Considero que la mayor aportación del libro consiste en entender cómo creamos nuestros estados y nuestros comportamientos, entendiendo que dos son los factores que contribuyen (las representaciones internas que nos creamos y la fisiologías que generan). Ser capaz de entender ese proceso puede dotarnos de poder sin límites.

Emplear técnicas como el patrón de tris tras para sustituir una conducta por otra parece casi ciencia ficción. Pero funciona. Lo mismo ocurre con la creación de anclajes...

Un libro que releeré sin duda.

An overly motivational mojo that seemed like a cheap spin-off from his other book, Awaken the Giant Within. Didn't seem to have that much basis to this book other than the rah rah cheerleader kind of disposition that the author adopted. The tools promised were also not that apparent. I would say that this is a very easily forgettable book. I recommend just reading Awaken the Giant Within would suffice.

Il voto è collegato alle motivazioni che crea nel leggerlo non certo alla qualità (una guida) letteraria.

2.5/5 stars

(Brief review)
This is one of the most controversial books I have ever read. Robbins has for sure a few useful things here that may help you, but they are mixed with tons of pseudo-scientific "psychology" that, in the best case, is useful in the short-term, and in the worst, even harmful.

The book is also quite repetitive and could have been compressed in a half, it is even ironic that Robbins says "our time is the most valuable resource" by lengthening the book. Also, I found most of the anecdotes and examples Robbins gave doubtful and questionable, especially in the first part of the book.

If we add that most of the book lack of references to scientific research or at least reliable sources, and Robbins did not add a bibliography, it is quite difficult to believe in lots of his statements.

I would recommend reading some chapters of the book, not the whole one. Here is a little classification I will develop in more depth later in this review:

*Useful chapters: 1, 5, 10*, 11
*Fair chapters: 4, 9, 12, 13, 14
*Poor/repetitive chapters: 2, 3, 7, 8
*DANGEROUS chapters: 6, 10

From chapter 15 onwards I did a fast reading because I just wanted to finish the book, so I won´t comment much about them. Probably, with the exception of chapter 17 about "anchoring" that may be qualified as dangerous similar as chapter 6, and chapter 19 about "values" that may be useful, the chapters 15-21 would be between the categories "fair" and "poor".

Now, I´m going to go more in depth in the chapters I fully read and tell why I think what I think about them.


(Full chapter review)
I have to say first that I´m a third year psychology student, and I have some frames of knowledge to compare what Tony is saying with I already know. Although I know that a degree does not contain the full truth about that topic, I consider myself quite capable to criticize the arguments Robbins has made in his book. I understand the fact the book was written in 1986 and may be a little outdated, but that is not excuse to give information to people that may be harmful for them in the long-term.

*Chapter 1: A nice introduction to the book. I really liked the definitions Robbins made about "Success" and "Power", and how he approaches those topics in the chapter.

*Chapter 2, 3: Quite repetitive chapters, if you want to save your time just skip them. To sum up, Robbins is just telling you a little bit about the importance and history of NLP and the importance of modelling successful people (imitating their beliefs, actions etc.), that will repeat many times in the rest of the book. I have to say with this last point that modelling is useful, but you have to adapt it to your own circumstances.

Also, the model about "inner representations" and "states" to produce behaviour is quite simple and lack of lots of the nuances and complexity we human beings have, but at least is not harmful.

*Chapter 4: Not a bad chapter, a little repetitive at first but I liked the exercise analysing your own beliefs later.

*Chapter 5: Really nice chapter. All the beliefs and mental frameworks that Robbins gives here are very valuable. This is one of the chapter I would recommend to be a must read in this book.

*Chapter 6: Very DANGEROUS chapter. I won´t say this chapter is useless (it is not), but it is not helpful for the reasons Robbins intends. Here, Robbins shows you principles of NLP that are not supported by sciences, and that may have a little of right, but in a global perspective are biased.

For instance, following Robbins instructions I would be a visual person for the way I talk and look, but an auditive one for the way a breath and I even I could fit in kinaesthetic by other criteria. Funny thing? Robbins said every person has a predominant "style" to gather information, and we should focus on that style in our communication and when we teach and learn. This is simply NOT true, we learn for instance by all our senses, and if we think we are an "auditive" person and we just start listening audiobooks for years, our important ability to read and write will be impaired. To know more about this topic, I suggest looking for Beth Rogowsky learning styles research.

But this is not the most dangerous part of the chapter. The real harm if this chapter comes when Robbins tries to teach you "how to modify your memories", giving more strength to the positive ones and removing it from the negatives. To be honest, this probably works in the short-term, but can be fatal in the long one.

I will explain this with a metaphor. Imagine that you have an injury in one foot that does not allow you to walk. It is hurting a lot and it is paralyzing. What Robbins teaches you is how to stop completely the pain so you can continue walking through life. The problem? Well, the injury is still there, because PAIN is a SIGNAL that our body emits when something goes badly, either physical or emotional. And if you just forget about the injury because there is not pain, and the injury continues bleeding, you will be in big troubles.

The same happens with depressed people. Robbins has a very simplistic model of "how to cure depression" that fails in this same problem, totally disregarding the cause. You may be depressed because of your economical situation and because you are not being able to bring money to your home to pay the food and the bills for your family (it is important for you, and you feel helpless). With Robbins approach, you won´t feel the symptoms of depression, you may even be "ok" with your situation, but the same problem is still there and if you don´t address it you will be much worst in the future.

Again, it is ironic that at the end of the chapter Robbins says that "if pain tells you that you need to change something important, you will have to or it will come back", when in the rest of the chapter he just ignores and disregards this issue.

Read the chapter if you are curious, but be aware of these dangers.

*Chapter 7, 8: Okey chapters, again Robbins falls in the problem of the lack of evidence behind NLP principles and the visual-auditive-kinesthesic classification, but there are some interesting things about relationships.

*Chapter 9: Not a bad chapter, it talks most about body language and its importance to how we feel and what we convey to others. If you have time, it will be good reading it.

*Chapter 10: I will be brief and concise here with each principle Robbins address, but to sum up, this is one of the few chapters with real scientific references (at least in some principles), and there are ones that are really useful and right and others very WRONG and harmful:

-Power of breathing: completely right, I just tried myself and it was really helpful. Most of the times we are not aware of the power of oxygen, but after all it is another essential nutrient for us.

-Water and food with water: again right, the quality and quantity of water is vital for our body to work.

-Food combining: NO TONY, THIS IS COMPLETELY NOT LIKE THAT. There is a phrase a chapter onwards from Tony that says "every lie contains a grain of truth", and this is perfectly the case with this principle.

Of course if you combine things like legumes, with let´s say oats and beans, you are going to be full of gases afterwards and feel bad and without energy. But this is not what Tony says about food combining, just pseudo-science like "don´t combine proteins with carbs because the digest differently". With the exception of vegetables, almost every food contains a PORTION OF EVERY MACRONUTRIENT, and they are all mixed in the stomach, which release the same kind of acid and enzymes every time no matter the type of food. Just try eating 1000kcal of carbs like rice and veggies at once, and you will be amazed with the insulin peak and the incredible feeling of tiredness due to the extra work your pancreas is doing to move too much glucose at once.

-Less kcal more lifespan: this is true, there is research that support this finding. However, we don´t know exactly the mechanisms behind this, maybe is not the fact of eating more itself but the toxic particles with it, so we may counteract this encouraging our draining systems. Also, there was a while ago an interesting experiments with monkeys trying to prove this, and surprisingly they found that the monkey that ate more and freely during the years, lived more that his twin because he was more happy and more willing to live.

-Fruit alone: probably false as food combining, but just try and experiment with yourself. This is still one I have to try in my own body.

-Less proteins: ... Tony, you are a guy whose height is 2.01 meters (6.6 feet), just try to live your life eating 30-50g of proteins a day as you recommend, and let´s see what happens to you. Just don´t follow his advice, we need proteins, look at most of the official recommendations today, neither of them are below 0.8g per kg of our body. And important tip, it is not the same just having enough protein to survive than to flourish (if you want to gain muscular mass).

Also, Robbins is super against animal products in this chapter, especially against meat that is like the devil for him. You know what? I´m vegetarian and I don´t consume meat after lots of research and trials with my body, but I can tell you for sure eating some meat is not bad. We probably eat too much nowadays and from animals that are bad fed, but the arguments that Robbins made to support his view in this book are more than defective.

*Chapter 11: this was a GREAT chapter to guide your life purpose and your objectives and goals. I recommend you doing the exercises on it, for sure the most valuable thing I found in this book.

*Chapter 12, 13: interesting chapters about relationships, a little simplistic in some parts but yet nice.

*Chapter 14: not a bad chapter, but again somehow simplistic and does not really represent the complexity of human beings.

As I said before, from chapter 15 onwards I did a fast reading because I just did not have more motivation to continue the book. If you are curious, read all the chapters keeping in mind the issues I addressed. If you want to save your time and just get the best of the book, read the chapter I recommended before.

Thank you for reading this long review! I really appreciate it! ;)

As a leader of self-actualization seminars, Robbins trumpets the power of reframing your thoughts to recreate your reality. "Achievers tend to believe that no matter what happens, whether it's good or bad, they created it," he says. "No scientist can prove that our thoughts create our reality. But it's a useful lie. It's an empowering belief. That's why I choose to believe in it." (p. 75) He is clear that new thoughts need to be followed up with action. "If all we needed were ideas and positive thinking, then we all would have had ponies when we were kids and we would all be living our 'dream life' now. Action is what unites every great success." (p. 7)

This 400-page book from the 1980s makes a few interesting practical claims. For example, he says that right-handed people and some left-handed people look up and left when asked to remember something visual that actually happened. They look up and right when asked to use their imagination to construct an image. They look up when thinking about things they like and down when thinking about things they dislike. This knowledge can be used, he says, to interpret someone else's thought patterns and to deliberately reprogram your own thoughts. For example, if you're trying to replace chocolate with carrots in your diet, learn to visualize carrots in the top left of your vision and chocolate in the lower left of your vision. (He does, in fact, recommend veganism for health reasons and includes a chart of recommended vegetables.) He also recommends distinguishing whether certain memories are visual, aural, kinesthetic, etc. because this will help you reprogram and redirect your thoughts and make new "anchors" (similar to what we might call "triggers" today).

He notes that our personal values are shaped throughout our lives and we will be unhappy if we do not live consistently with them. We should list our most cherished values--especially in the context of relationships--and ask ourselves and our partners why those values are important. He outlines character traits that contribute to success: passion, belief, strategy, clarity of values, energy, bonding power, and mastery of communication. He says beliefs are formed through environment, events, knowledge, past results, and visualizing the future here and now.

الكتاب يفتح نفسك من اول ما تقراه ، كتاب تحفيزي راااائع ، فعلا بيخلي عقلك يعرف ان مفيش حاجة صعبة عليه لو هو عاوز :)

One of the first self-help books I read. If you don't feel as if you have control over your circumstances or choice in life, give this book a read.

I read this book back in 1987 and it had a profound impact on my life. I have a signed copy as I had the opportunity to meet Tony Robbins when he came to Cleveland for a seminar. Me and 335 others did a firewalk with Tony and because he was not attracting the audiences he is these days, I got to spend quite a bit of time chatting with him. He shares the science of NLP and for anyone interested in that subject, this is a must read.

This book is one of the books on the recommended reading list of my book,The Upside of Down Times: Discovering the Power of Gratitudewhich can be found here: http://amzn.to/NjNs06

Перед тим, як почати читати цю книгу, я думала, що Ентоні буде давити на мене своїми криками. А виявилося, книга настільки мотивуюча та потужна, що хочеться почати діяти під час її читання. В ній дуже корисні поради для покращення свого життя

این کتاب را باید چندین بار خواند

This is actually a fascinating book of practical NLP masquerading as self-help dreck. Unfortunately, the entire chapter on health and body is such horseshit that I don't even want to dignify it with the term "pseudoscience" - which then makes me question a lot of the "totally true, bro!" anecdotes that are alarmingly unsupported by citations. That aside, a neat book and an intro to some fun brain gymnastics for personal improvement.

تحفة جدا مكملتوش لاخره عشان مستعيراه بس مرضتش اكمله عشان لازم اشتريه عشان اعلم علي حاجات تحفة ليه بجد جميل اوي ربنا يكرمها بقه الي كانت عطياهلولي ^^