This book is BIG.

It is the longest and thickest book I have read in a while. But there’s a reason I kept hitting the ‘renew’ button on the library site: it was worth it.

What do they say about big books? BIG shoes IDEAS.

I did not transform into a giant after this, but my brain definitely feels a lot bigger and since I read it over the Christmas I likely got a bit bigger too. All jokes aside, I feel more confident and assertive about my life in 2023 after finishing this inspirational read.

SO I am gonna break down a few of the very insightful techniques I learnt and list what I liked:

Pain vs Pleasure: a core focus in every decision we make. Robbins suggests humans are constantly searching for ways to avoid pain and gain pleasure (unconsciously and consciously). This might seem straightforward but when we think a little bit more into it, we can see how we could be opting for short-term pleasure regularly, thus resulting in long-term pain.

E.G. avoiding a big task because tackling it seems painful, thus avoiding it = pleasure. HOWEVER, in the long-term we end up suffering more through being unproductive because we are avoiding what needs to be done. Robbins advises us to use ‘pain’ as our friend so it doesn’t use us. He provides problem-solving activities to help us determine our learned associations with ‘pain’ and ‘pleasure’ then challenges the reader to reevaluate them.

Transformational Vocabulary: Robbins found the language we use can often impact our mood and our body’s beliefs. For example, if someone asks “How are you?” and you respond “awful”, this will feel very different to “I’ve been better”. He asks the reader to describe how they view aspects of their life and then challenges that vocabulary.

If you constantly repeat “The world is just horrible, isn’t it?” or “The weather is always bad” then you are going to adopt the mood these words bring. Robbins asks the reader to find new vocabulary and to question the language they use.

This was a very fascinating read for me as I normally encourage people to use specific words to express exactly how they feel rather than hiding emotions and saying ‘I’m fine’ when you aren’t. But Robbins believes the more you use positive vocabulary, the more your nervous system will believe you actually feel that way.

Values and Rules: The book asks you to list your most important values from 1-10. This task made me consider what I prioritise in my life and moreso why. For instance, Success was a priority I learnt to value as a kid so I always worked very hard at school to achieve. Yet when reevaluating this, I realised health and passion are actually more important for me now than success because overworking can be detrimental to my health and relationships. This small realization helped me understand what rules and values I adopted from my loved ones and society, and how they might differ to my inner values and desires.

I have a journal filled with notes from this book. It might be BIG but it has many techniques to help achieve your ideal behaviors and build new habits. Little steps consistently can be more productive than massive steps irregularly. So start by reading a few pages each day and you’ll find you won’t be able to put this book down (except when your arms need a break cos it’s so heavy).