I find it hard to express how much I took away from this book. I slogged through, knowing it holds value much greater than its difficulty. In short, it contains endless wisdom and actionable advice on how to design and live the life you want. Now I've begun the difficult process of assimilating all I've learned into my daily life. I took so many notes and underlined so many passages that I hardly know where to start. I have too many thoughts to capture in a short blog post. I also continue to learn as I revisit and work to master the principles Tony teaches. Here's what I learned:
Key Takeaways
Memorable Quotes
Rating: 9.5/10
I took so much away from this book: exercises to do, principles to understand, new goals to consider. I know I'll have to revisit this 4-5 more times to learn everything it has to offer. This book changed my life already, and who knows what it will do in six months once I've had more time to work at it. I recommend this book to any ambitious person who values constant improvement. The only reason it's not a 10 is because it's old! Published in 1990, it uses dated examples that could use an update. The principles and the exercises hold up though, and that's what matters.
Key Takeaways
- You can create lasting change in yourself or others by raising standards, by changing limiting beliefs, and by changing strategies.
- People make decisions based on pain and pleasure. They avoid pain and seek pleasure.
- Decisions hold unlimited power to change our lives. Everything that happens in your life starts with a decision.
- Ask better, more empowering questions of yourself and others.
- Your vocabulary and the words you use affect your thoughts and feelings more than you consciously realize.
- Understand and harness the emotions that give you power to effect positive change.
- Singular, clear goals in each area of your life are the key to making progress.
- To change who you are, change your values, rules, references, or identity.
Memorable Quotes
- It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped. – Anthony Robbins
- I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. – Henry David Thoreau
- God's delays are not God's denials.
- A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary. – Seneca
- The belief that becomes truth for me ... is that which allows me the best use of my strength, the best means of putting my virtues into action. – André Gide
- We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world. – The Buddha
- The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread, but every time we repeat the act we strengthen the strand, add it to another filament, until it becomes a great cable and binds us irrevocably, thought and act. – Orison Swett Marden
- Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature: these are the spur and reins whereby all mankind are set on work, and guided. – John Locke
- Our questions determine our thoughts.
- The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. – Albery Einstein
- Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance. – Bruce Barton
- Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. – John Wooden
- In a full heart there is room for everything, in an empty heart there is room for nothing. – Antonio Porchia
Rating: 9.5/10
I took so much away from this book: exercises to do, principles to understand, new goals to consider. I know I'll have to revisit this 4-5 more times to learn everything it has to offer. This book changed my life already, and who knows what it will do in six months once I've had more time to work at it. I recommend this book to any ambitious person who values constant improvement. The only reason it's not a 10 is because it's old! Published in 1990, it uses dated examples that could use an update. The principles and the exercises hold up though, and that's what matters.