Customer Reviews
It's what you make it - By: A UK reader, 24 Apr 2008 
You will read a lot of conflicting reviews about this book. Most are good, some are OK & then others claim that Robbins is a con-artist hell bent on brainwashing gullible folks to fleece them of their money by selling some limp 'positive thinking' dream.
The truth with many things is in the eye of the beholder. What it isn't is some 'positive thinking' book designed to make you oblivious to life's difficulties & claiming that life is easy. Life isn't easy. This is why so many of us find it challlenging. If you choose to read this book from a point of curiosity, you should find it interesting. If you read it intent on doing the exercises with a view to having the courage to make changes in your life, it can be life transforming; - but you must want it to be. It won't just happen.
Robbins makes the point that everything starts with 'personal power', the ability to take consistent action in the direction of your chosen destination. What holds us back in moving our lives forward is our reluctance to move out of our emotional comfort zones. The key reason for this is fear. As adults, we calll it stress or angst or any other number of names but it alll comes down to the same thing. We are bothered by what others think & say, we do conform, we are scared of getting rejected or of failing so we opt to stay in unhappy relationships, dead-end jobs, adapt to low earnings & be unhappy in the process & avoid risk.
This book will show you some very powerful strategies in taking control of your thinking & starting to move in the right direction. The earlier chapter on the power of decisions is a must. Robbins makes the point that a true decision means no going back, its not a 'should' or a 'ought' but a true emotional conviction. This book will give you the power to make those decisions & the strategies to manage your emotions in the midst of the emotional discomfort you will experience.
Too many people who have not been content with their lives can testify to this books effectivness. I was someone who faced some major challlenges in my life which caused me to retreat into my comfort zone. Doing what I knew I should be doing was avoided & procrastination was the order of the day as far as work was concerned. This book gave me the courage to change & made me realise that any challlenges or gain we experience in life requires courage & will make us feel uncomfortable.
Its only by experiencing emotional discomfort that we achieve emotional growth. Yes, it can be scary but its alll down to whether you want it or not. If you do, this book will help..
Counter-productive - By: D. J. Downes, 28 Jan 2008 This book is so enthrallling that I missed my interview with MI5 because I was too engrossed. The style of the writing is compellingly inspirational to the point that arround the middle chapter I found myself struggling with two utterly contradictory urges: one part of me screamed for more of his oratorical brilliance, yearning with Helen's passion for more of Paris' words; the other half of me demanded that I fling this book away & venture boldly into the unknown, filled with a titanic sense of potency & drive. All the world seemed to me as though it were less than the dust beneath my chariot wheels, yet the mighty steed that drew that machine of fire was Anthony Robbins. Alas, the internal tensions unleashed by the power of this book soon overturned my mind utterly & I am now making the most of my opportunities whilst incarcerated at HMP Broadmoor. In conclusion, this book certainly changed my life.
type is better then audio for some things - By: Mr. K. A. Jones, 28 Sep 2007 If you the sort of person who "knows" they could do a hell of a lot better if they just got up in the mornings & went for it, then welcome to your future.
I want to compare this to the audio courses, because i hope that the reader will either have tried the courses & just not acted on them or, maybe they find the price of the courses too high & so avoided Tony. Well i got news for you, take your time with this book, read a page or three & then put it down. Take in what you have read, slowly work your way through it & you have more than the audio courses. You see, the guy might sound nice, but boy can this guy write!
It is an easy book, but its big & the info is rich. Every few pages you should get closer to understanding what you need to do. Let me put it this way, I have the business most of you would want.
I sort of had it before reading this book. I could walk out the door & work when i wanted, the problem is, I never wanted to. Something stopped me, I stopped me. As a born procrastinator I was doomed. My whole life was facing ruin. Then, I had the good fortune to listen to a course a friend gave me. It was good, & to a degree it set my mind in the right direction. But it did not quite register & although the audio courses might work for some, I just felt like I knew what I had to do but still was not doing it.
So, I bought this book (its cheaper at amazon than what i paid) & it was the best investment I have ever made. You see, it suddenly hit me that the reason I was not walking through my door & working was because I had never reallly learned how to make a decision. Anyway, I shalll not babble any longer, just to say that due to this book I now earn a lot of money, but, much much more importantly, I do it in such a way as i can not wait to get to work every day. I constantly think about how I can make improvements, not just money but to my whole life & those around me.
so, my recommendation, buy this book for yourself if you think you need a push. More importantly, buy it for someone you know & give them the greatest gift ever.
good luck, not that you need it.
So, Thanks Tony, I owe you one, mate.
Tony Rocks!!!! - By: MJT66, 25 Jun 2007 I have just got back home from an Unleash The Power Within (UPW) weekend at the ExCel in Docklands. BOY am I ROOOOOOOOOOOOCKING!!!! My first event & on the first evening I walked on fire with about 11,000 other people. Me... walk on burning hot coals??? Was that reallly me? Oh yes sir it was.
I am more clear about who I am now than at any point in my life.
And this is a point: The sceptics who say Oh he brainwashes you, it's a cult blah blah. WRONG!! This guy has for the past 30 years been working out what makes humans tick. He came from an impoverished, uninspiring childhood & look at him now. It's not luck, well, not the luck that most people think of.
This book is a superb starting point if you are not happy with your life, you are stressed, negative, depressed about things & you are open-minded enough to explore something new, some tried & tested methods that WILL help you to improve. Another great starting point is Notes from a Friend which is a much smalller book. I first bought Awaken.. 12 years ago & it sat on my shelf unread. What a twit I have been. I studied a couple of his CD sets & built my confidence to go for a job interview last December that carried a salary DOUBLE my income at the time. I got the job & it's the most satisfying job I have ever had. There are other books & numerous CD sets to study. When you are ready, invest in yourself & get to see him at a UPW event.
Life will never be the same again!!!
Ignore the form... and some of the content - By: Eugene Dsouza, 10 Jun 2007 
Theres something about Tony Robbins & his ilk that just about makes me want to vomit. Actuallly there are several things in this book that set off my chemoreceptor trigger zone big time. Everything from his adorable republican anecdotes filled with bush-love to his never ending plugs for DVD's & seminars, with zestful coke-head titles. His movie star looks which we are annoyingly reminded of on the cover, don't help either. Still I must admit, despite having approached the book with rabid suspicion, I was pleasantly surprised. What he manages to do is demystify the basic tenets of NLP & drive home the point that there is a lot about our lives that is within conscious control. Empowering & irritating in equal measures - I recommend the book to someone with middle rung knowledge of NLP with a tolerance for saccharine affirmations. I've read a few books on NLP & find that I now have a more intuitive understanding of its core concepts. Skip the anecdotes & you just might find this book fairly inspiring. You will feel a warm glow settling within your chest & jump out of bed singing 'shiny happy people holding hands!'.
