Tony Robbins

Today I facilitated my first "TED TALK Salon" at the JCC.  TED talks are wonderful, inspirational talks on technology, entertainment and design given by the top people in their field who gather each year in Monterey, California.  Now, all of these talks are posted on the internet.  Today we viewed Tony Robbins "Why We Do What We Do" and then had a discussion about it.   Here are some lessons from Tony's talk...


Tony outlined his set of human needs, and says there are six. 

1. Certainty:  we all need stability, safety, and comfort.  But if this is all we had, our life would be boring, so we also need...
2. Uncertainty or Variety:  we need stimulation and change
3. Significance:  we need to feel worthy and receive attention
4. Connection and Love
5. Growth:  the way of the universe is to expand, and we also need to grow and to develop
6. Contribution:  the need to give something beyond ourselves

Tony calls  1 - 4 "personality needs" and 5 + 6 "spiritual needs."
Growth implies going beyond "caring about myself" to caring about the people around us. He also believes we are each driven by one of these needs and can trace our actions to this source.


Tony challenges that our past does not determine our future.  We choose what we want to focus on, the meaning we want to give it, and the action we will take.  He notes that achievement has TWO defining factors:  resources AND resourcefulness.  


Tony also says that the invisible force in our lives is our emotions.  We have a choice to act out of empowering emotions, or disempowering emotions.  He challenged us to see how many emotions we can name, because there are many flavors of emotions, but we tend to only visit the same 5 or 6!  See how many emotions you can name...