Your Big Breakthrough With Tony Robbins & Jim Kwik

Are you ready for the next level? Welcome to the Kwik Brain Podcast, a show for busy people who want to learn faster, achieve more, basically live your limitless life. And in this episode, we are going to talk about your big breakthrough. And our guest is world-renowned entrepreneur, author, life strategist, Mr. Breakthrough himself, Tony Robbins. Hi, Tony.

Hi, Jim. How you doing?

I'm doing outstanding. So, um, Talk about breakthrough. Many of our listeners know that I had a traumatic brain injury when I was a child that led to some learning disabilities. And so when I first learned how to overcome them when I was 18, like through speed reading, accelerated learning, memory, stuff I know you know a lot about, I wanted to help others. And automatically when I had that feeling, self-doubt crept in, lack of confidence. And my college suitemate and I were watching an infomercial late at night in 1993. Could it be that?

Oh, you're close.

And we bought these audio cassettes called Personal Power, and like millions of, you know, people around the world did. A couple years later, I actually found this on the shelf. We went to this event in 1995.

Oh my gosh, that's wild!

1995, E3. And this is— that was a broadcast event that you did. And so I want to thank you for the breakthroughs you've had in my life and, you know, for so many of our friends and fans.

Thanks, Jim, and thanks for all that you share with other people. I love— you and I both have a similar background in many ways. It's like all the pain and problems we went through made us care more, and then we found answers, and then the first thing you want to do is of course help anybody else because you know what it feels like to suffer. You don't want anybody else to suffer, and you've done an amazing job of helping so many people. So my kudos right back to you, brother.

That means everything. So speaking of that, challenging times and suffering, a lot of, you know, the past couple years have been incredibly challenging. You know, for a lot of people, many of our listeners, they've been knocked down personally, professionally. So let's talk about breakthrough. First of all, what is, uh, what is breakthrough? What does that mean to you?

Well, to me, a breakthrough is a moment in time. It's a moment when the impossible becomes possible, and you don't just think about it, but you act upon it. You know, it's like you can have a concept that doesn't create a breakthrough. The breakthrough is when you get to the point where you actually are going to do something about it. And I ask people all the time, I ask your listeners or viewers as well, it's like, I'm sure you've had a time where you struggle with something, right? You're gonna do something about this relationship, but you keep not changing it, right? You know, pulling back, or you're gonna stop smoking, or you're gonna go lose those 25 pounds or whatever it is. And you start to make progress and then you pull back and you get disappointed and get frustrated. But then there's some times where finally you hit this threshold, you hit this moment where your brain says, not another day, Not in an hour, I'm changing this relationship, I'm losing this weight, I'm making this happen. And people create that breakthrough. And it can happen, it's the difference between what triggers it versus what makes it possible. What triggers it is usually pain or massive inspiration. Nothing in between does it. Most people, they hit a threshold of pain and say, it's like, I ask people, how many of you have ever been in a relationship way too long? And everybody raises their hand. I go, why? Why'd you stay? Hey, you weren't happy, they weren't happy. It's just because of the unknown, the uncertainties, the idea of change. It could be worse to be alone. But then there's that moment when you finally hit the threshold and you go, it's been painful in the past, it's painful now, it's gonna be painful in the future, I'm gonna change it now. So the trigger that finally made that happen, I'd ask your audience if they think of something where they finally broke through, what was the trigger? Usually that moment, that day, you hit a threshold of, I can't take anymore, I'm changing. Something inspired you. You saw something was possible. If they can do it, I can do it as well. But that's what makes it possible. What makes it last is a change in your emotions, or a change in your belief system, or a new strategy, right? You and I both know, because you're both strategists, the right strategy— hell, you can consume a book and remember more of it in 30 or 45 minutes than you did when you used to spend 10 days on the damn book, right?

Yeah.

You know, it's the right strategy But you're not going to find the strategy until it's a must for you, not a should. You know what I mean? Or it's that change in belief. It's like, okay, I've put up with this crap long enough. I'm better than this. There's something more in me that you finally find in yourself, or you finally get pissed off enough, or you get excited enough to make that real change. And so what I've studied is I like to take complex things and make them simple because I found that, you know, The more, you know, when I was really young, I tried to make things more complex, I think to try to convince myself how smart I was or other people, I don't know what, but it's stupid, 'cause complexity is the enemy of execution. And the only way your life changes or your business changes is execution. So it's like, how do you make it simple? And I started looking at all these, you know, I've been doing this, this is my 45th year doing this. I started when I was 2, of course. And I started seeing these patterns all over the world, working with the greatest people on earth, athletes, business people, the most challenged people in prisons. Like, what are the common denominators in all these cultures? And I began to see there's 3 things you need for a breakthrough, but most of us do them in reverse order so we don't get the breakthrough. The number one thing most people do when they want to have a breakthrough, they don't— they want to change their body, want to change their finance, they look for a strategy, which makes common sense. That's what I used to do. But the problem is strategy could be the problem And maybe you need a better strategy, but that's not usually the real problem, right?

Right.

Like, for example, 3/4 of America is overweight or obese. We're the fattest humans in the history of the world. We all know COVID, other than age, the number one risk factor is obesity. That's number one. And yet very few people do anything about it. And why is that? Is it because, you know, the strategy for being fit and strong is so complex, or only the 1% know it? Or it costs a fortune to do it. No, you have to be fighting not to see all the strategies to make your body physically better. They're around you everywhere. So it's— you could have the wrong strategy. Like, I remember years ago on the COVID of Time magazine, they had the Atkins diet, and they said, you know, I think it was 15% of Americans were doing it. Well, if you gotta pee on a stick so you don't get too acidic and your breath is that bad, it's pretty obvious that's not sustainable. So sometimes it's a strategy problem. But when you work for the how first and you've never figured it out, your emotions get in the way. It's the wrong sequence. It's like the dog bit Johnny, Johnny bit the dog. Same words, different experience if you're Johnny. So strategy naturally is where people go, but rarely do they change with that. What the real problem usually is, the story they've developed. And a story is just code for all the things you've told yourself over and over again till you believe them, right? There's an old language pattern that says, tell a lie big enough, loud enough, long enough, sooner or later people believe it. That was Hitler who said that. And so most of us are Hitler in our own mind. So it's not that they can't— you know, what do people say? How come I can't lose weight? I can't lose weight because, you know, I've tried everything. No, if you tried everything, you'd be fit, right? They didn't try everything. I've tried millions of things. Really? Name them. Well, I've tried hundreds. Name them. And then they'll tell you 3 stupid things that don't work that they did over and over again, right? It's the story. I, I don't have a relationship because all the good ones are gone, or they're gay and I'm not, or I'm gay and they're not, or whatever the story is. The story is what'll keep you— like, I'm sure, you know, Jim, you have so many great strategies you share with people. Haven't you had times when you give someone an answer right there in front of them and they just can't even see it, right? They don't believe it because the story is literally blinding them. In psychology, we call it a scotoma, a blind spot. But then there's one level deeper than even the story, and that's your state, the mental, emotional, physical state you're in. Because when you're in a low mental, emotional, physical state, you can have all the brain capacity in the world, but you're not going to use it. And so when you're in a lousy state, you come up with a lousy story, and then no strategy works. It doesn't matter what it is. If— and I don't know if you've ever noticed, have you ever gotten really angry at somebody and then suddenly you remember all the ways they've ever screwed you over? You've been upset with them, right? But on the other hand, you fall in love and what's wrong with life? Nothing. I have no money. It doesn't matter. We're in love. It's all wonderful, right? So the sequence in which we do things accelerates or decelerates or stops progress when it comes to a breakthrough. And what I found is change the state first. You and I can talk and give people a million strategies, but if I'm sitting here at home in this state and I'm just listening like this and nodding like this, yeah, that makes sense. Nothing's going to happen. So the reason that I've done events over my lifetime and the reason why I do immersion events, you know, 10, 12, 14 hours a day, you learn a little bit at a time, like language. You don't remember the language a few years later, but I drop you in Rome and say, you got no teacher and you got 60 days, I'll be picking you up. I'll pick you up 60 days from now, you're going to be speaking Italian, right? Especially if I put you maybe with some passionate people who are really going for it in their life. You're going to have a whole different state about you. You're going to develop a new story and you're going to figure out the strategy. So I think the challenge for most people, especially with COVID is we've all had our state dropped. People have been isolated. They've been pushed at home. They've had expectations that have fallen away. Like, I remember a year ago, a lot of people were like, all right, we got vaccines now. It's a new year. It's going to be a brand new thing. You know, 2021. Now this year, you talk about people don't even have any goals or anything because they've gone into learned helplessness because they've been disappointed so many times. They start thinking the problem's forever. No problem is forever. No war is forever. No pandemic is forever. Your mind is weak now and it's gotten weak habits and you're in a lowered state. So you start to believe that. And so it's like, you got to change people's state first, then you got to give them the story that can help them. Then you give them the strategies that work. And even if you don't give them the strategy, they'll figure out their own strategy. You're a perfect example. example of that, right? You figured it out because you got yourself to the point where it's like, I've got to turn this around. And then you have something that you can give and then expand your life as you've experienced, Jim.

So state, story, and strategy. And now you have an upcoming breakthrough event where people could go deeper in this. Can you tell me a little bit more about what this is and why you're doing it?

Sure. Well, it started in 2020 because like 6 months into it, the whole world shut down. I couldn't do seminars because Maximum number of people is 10 people. I know they got 15,000 to 30,000 in a stadium. So I was like, what do I do to help people? And I was like, okay, I'm going to do a free seminar. We'll put it online and we'll make it live so we can interact with people. And I'll do 2 or 3 hours. And I was like, no, everything I do is immersion. So I was like, let me do 5 days and I'll do 90 minutes a day. It really went 2.5 hours, 3 hours a day. We had 430,000 people show up. My biggest seminar I'd ever done.

Wow.

And then last year we thought COVID was finishing. I said, okay, let's help people start this new year off right. We had 875,000 people join us.

Wow.

And so this year it looks like we're going to have over a million people and I'm doing it for free. It's not partially free, it's totally free. It's January 25th through the 29th, starts at 2:00 PM Eastern, 11:00 Pacific, but people are joining us from 195 countries all around the world. Enroll yourself. Again, there's no cost. If you want to bring a family member or friend, or you want to do it at your office with some of your friends, you're welcome to. But we're going to do your body, your emotions, your relationships, your finance, and your career or business over those 5 days. And again, we say 90 minutes, but I should pre-frame people. It's probably 2 hours or a little bit more, but you will be immersed and you will love it.

Well, you absolutely love to overdeliver. I have one last question in the theme of breakthrough. In the last 12 months, I'm just curious, was there a new belief or behavior or habit that you implemented yourself that has improved your life massively?

You know, I used to spend, uh, an average year I would travel to 115 cities. I'd go to 12 to 16 countries, some of them like Australia 2 or 3 times. And so every 2 or 3 days I was on a plane, a train, or helicopter. And I don't think anything would have ever stopped me. But when all of a sudden, you know, I was doing this seminar in San Jose, San Francisco, and the governor shut down the state and said no more than 10 people. I was like, okay, we're going to Vegas. They'll never shut down Vegas. Of course they shut down Vegas. Okay, I'm gonna do 1,500 movie theaters across the country and 10 people each. Then they shut down the movie theaters. I was like, they're never gonna shut down a church. They're not gonna open Costco and shut down a church. I have a friend with a megachurch in Houston, 15,000 people. They shut down the church and they kept Costco open. So I finally had to reevaluate my belief. And my belief was, I mean, I went and saw a guy do like a webinar. There's 2 52-inch screens and like, I think you've seen my events. It's no webinar. This is like, it's a rock and roll experience. It's transformational. It's physiological. And so I was like, I said, I'll kill myself first. So I pulled out a tape recorder, I brought my team together and I said, okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to find a building with 40-foot-high ceilings. We're going to build 20-foot-high LED screens, 50 feet wide, 180 degrees around me. I'm going to call Eric Yuan at Zoom and I'm going to say, listen, I need more than 1,000 people, I need 100,000 people. And then I'm going to build a software piece in people's phones so they can shake it and it makes authentic clapping. In other words, more people shake it, the louder the clapping goes. And I'm going to do this interactivity. And so I brought in, I think it was 8 companies, and I said, uh, we got to get this done. They said, well, this is a huge project, you know, maybe in 9 months. I said, no, no, 9 weeks. And, you know, about half those companies didn't make it on the journey with me, but we did it. And now I'm seeing 10 times as many people And a lot of people that couldn't leave their home, and now I see them in their living room or their garage, and I meet their children and their kids and their husbands and their wives. And even though I love live events, and I'm still doing those also, you know, I'm doing— you know, I just did a Date with Destiny. We had people from 195 countries, literally every country in the world and every time zone. So we started 10 AM here, it's, you know, 1 AM in Australia, and we're going 12, 13 hours a day, and everyone's fully engaged. So I would never have thought that was possible. And because of that, Both do I have a better physical life, but my wife and I, you know, I have, I had 5 kids and 5 grandkids, but I had 4 kids and 5 grandkids up until this year. And I was like, okay, let's give it one more shot since I'm home. So I have a 9-month-old daughter because of that change. And so I'm pretty thrilled to say the least. I'm very grateful.

Congratulations, Tony. Thank you so much for, for being on our show.

Thanks, Jim. It's great seeing you again.

All right, sign up everybody and remember to be limitless. Are you ready for your big breakthrough? If you enjoyed this episode with Tony Robbins and you're ready to soar to new heights, to step up and win this year, secure your spot in Tony's free breakthrough event. All you need to do is go to jimkwik.com/tony. That's jimkwik.com/tony. Just take a moment and just imagine your future self, the one that you know is possible. Step into it. See it. Feel it. Believe in it. There is a version of yourself patiently waiting. Keep showing up until you're introduced. Go to jimkwik.com/tony and we could break through together. And stay tuned for upcoming episodes where I will be sharing with you fun and fast tips that you can use right now for a better brain and a brighter life. Level up your learning and your life each and every Monday. Let us know that you'll be joining the Breakthrough. Remember to screenshot this episode, whether it's on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes. You could tag Tony Robbins, you could tag me so we see it, and just let us know that you'll be joining. I'll repost some of my favorites because you're tagging us, so I'll get to see it, and I'll actually gift a copy of Tony's brand new book and send it to one person randomly just for participating. But you must go to jimkwik.com/tony. And these links, as always, will be in the show notes at jimkwik.com/notes. Hi, Kwik Brain. It's your brain coach. I want to thank you so much for watching this video. 3 things to do. Number 1, make sure you share this, because when you teach something, you get to learn it twice. Update your learning so you can update other people's learning as well. Number 2, make sure you subscribe To this channel, so you don't miss a thing. Because if you miss a video, you miss a lot. And finally, make sure you hit that bell so you're notified and you find out when we put out the latest and the greatest. One extra thing: if you want really close attention, then text me. Here is my phone number: 310-299-9362. Did you remember that number? 310 299-9362. Shoot me a text and we'll stay in touch. Ask me your burning question. And I wish your days be full of lots of life, lots of love, lots of laughter, and always lots of learning. I'll see you in our next video. Bye.