The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett - Most Replayed Moment: Tony Robbins Reveals The Key To A Meaningful Life

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

As you build a successful life, are you making sure it’s meaningful too? Tony Robbins is a world-renowned life and business strategist, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and coach who has spent... decades studying the forces that shape human behaviour, achievement and fulfilment. In this moment, Tony shares the hidden needs influencing almost every decision we make, and explains why money, status and freedom can still leave people feeling strangely unfulfilled. He explores what social media may be amplifying in us, why some of our strongest drives can quietly work against the life we want, and what can help us build a life that feels not just successful, but deeply meaningful. Listen to the full episode here! Spotify: https://g2ul0.app.link/VDxq5xcGH5b Apple: https://g2ul0.app.link/ZIsEDFeGH5b Watch the Episodes On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDiaryOfACEO/videos Tony Robbins: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 In a world of challenging meaning, where a lot of my viewers are struggling with meaning, one of the things I've noticed is that it appears, especially with young men who you talked about earlier, it appears that more and more of them are turning to religion. And you mentioned your faith in God there. It's a really interesting phenomenon for me that I've observed in my own life. I've talked about this a few times. Certain friends of mine who were very individualistic, they were living the dream in any way that you might define it. You know, they had money, they had freedom, they had no boss,
Starting point is 00:00:32 dependence, no partner, and suddenly you see their life turn into what looks like depression, a form of depression, an absence of meaning in their lives. And I wanted to just to throw this out there because we are in a society that's, I think, increasingly encouraging independence. Yes. And there's upsides to independence, of course, we all understand those. But I wondered if there's a sort of a double-edged sword here when we're, you kind of said it earlier about making the world more about just me, me, me, me, and I. And in a world of abundance, I imagine many more people are going to choose to make it about I, I, I, I, I, I, I, because I can. I can put a headset on, but theoretically, never leave my house. Someone could literally put, a robot puts the food in my mouth.
Starting point is 00:01:12 I could have some sex robot that just gets me off. Money comes in my account by UBI. The reason your friends got depressed, I've had this happen. I've seen this as well. You know, most of my friends are old and I am. Usually for some reason, I gravitated to men that were 18, 20 years my senior, who are brilliant and learning from them and seeing where they're going in their life and so forth. But I watched something like sell their company and make a billion two. And then they were happy for like a month maybe
Starting point is 00:01:39 and they'd call me, let's go to this, go to that. And I try to go to them some. But I got a lot of companies, got a lot of kids, I got a lot of things, right? And it's like, and eventually they all want to get back in the game. Because we have six human needs. Certainty,
Starting point is 00:01:53 uncertainty, because think about this, if you were certain every moment of your life, you know what someone's going to say, and I'm sure you've had this somewhat, You know what they're going to say before they're going to say it. But if you knew what's going to say before they're going to say, you know what's going to happen for what's going to happen every moment of every day. In the beginning, it would be cool.
Starting point is 00:02:08 But after a while, what would you feel? Bored. Out of your mind, bored. So God, in her infinite wisdom, gave us uncertainty. We need variety. We need surprise. So I ask people, you're going to state in 15,000 people. And I say, how many you love surprises?
Starting point is 00:02:23 And everybody raised an idea. And I go, bullshit. You love the surprises you want. The surprises you don't. want you call problems, but we need those too, right? Third need is significance. They need to feel unique. You need to feel special. The need to feel important. Who do you think has that need? All of us? Everyone. Yeah. Now, some people, like Donald Trump is pretty obvious, right? And some people, though, it's like, I don't want significance. I don't want to be new. I don't want to be special.
Starting point is 00:02:49 That's only because they feel if they get special to get attacked. Right? Some people do it by earrings. Some people buy tattoos in certain areas. Somebody knowing box scores about a sport more than anybody else. Some people buy their art. Some people are the way they dress. Some people buy their money. Somebody will be more generous. Everyone finds a way. Okay. However, some people do it through violence. Okay. So let me give you another seed. Why has violence always been with us? If I feel I'm insignificant, and this is, by the way, even more powerful in most men's cases because of testosterone, right? Testosterone is about significance. It's about being dominant, right? So if I I'm in a community and I'm driving by or I'm walking by this community and it's a tough community,
Starting point is 00:03:33 a tough environment. Somebody comes up puts a gun to my head. I've never met him in my life. Why? Well, first of all, how certain do you think that person is you're going to respond when they put a gun to your head? Before, you may not have paid attention to them, but you're going to pay attention now. How significant are they in your life on a zero to ten scale with that gun to your head? They're the most significant thing on earth.
Starting point is 00:03:53 And by the way, every time it's a little different, they give variety. anytime you meet a belief, an emotion, or a behavior meets at least three of these six needs, you will become addicted to that thought, that feeling, or that behavior. It can be a positive one or a negative one, but you will become addicted to it. So violence connects to those three, but you can also get significance by tearing other people down. So why do we have so many warriors in their little house, you know, doing their little virtual signaling, doing what they're doing? Because they never done anything with their life.
Starting point is 00:04:23 And it used to be I'd have to confront you. Now I don't confront you. I don't even know who I am. I can say all this terrible shit and I'm sitting in my whole place and make my seal feel significant because I make you smaller, I'm bigger. It's why social media is so terrible.
Starting point is 00:04:37 There's great things social media. So it's so terrible about it. It's like people now can meet their need for significance without much effort. No consequence. You come and say this directly to me. You're going to pay a price of some sort, right? That's no longer there.
Starting point is 00:04:50 Now, fourth need, connection and love. Everybody wants love. Most people settle for connection because they've had love at one point. It was so painful when it ended, they decided to settle for connection. How can you get it? You can get it by going for a run and feeling connected to God of the universe, nature. You can get it by prayer. You can get it by being with some friends.
Starting point is 00:05:12 You can get it by making love. You can get it by getting a dog. If nothing else, get a dog, no, get a cat. Cats leave. But dogs, you leave for two minutes. It's like you've been gone for six months. They'll make you feel very loved. There's a million ways to feel connection.
Starting point is 00:05:23 and love. Some are positive, some are negative. Some people get connected by their problems. They're always comparing problems. You ever seen two people comparing, but I have this. Well, you think that's bad. Let me tell you. Mine, they're arguing over significance and they're connecting through their problems, right? So the biggest drug on earth is not cocaine. It's not fentanyl. It's not dope. It's problems. Because the deepest fear everybody has is they're not enough. And our deeper fears, if we're not enough, we won't be loved. I've never met a human. I've worked with kings, queens, winners of everything you're going to imagine, Academy Awards, scientists, there's some point in which you might feel for someone you care about most that you're
Starting point is 00:06:03 not smart enough, young enough, old enough, pretty enough, funny enough, rich enough, playful enough, something enough. And it is the worst feeling on earth. To feel like you are unloved and worthless is internal death. So people come up with a story. It's just because I have, you know, I have this dyslexia, that's why. Or it's because I was raped and maybe they really were raped. I'd like to kill the guy that hurt them, but that's not why they're feeling what they're feeling right now. It's because they're fearful. And so if you have a big problem,
Starting point is 00:06:31 that's why I'm not where I want to be. It's not that I'm not enough and not worthy of love. And so people use problems the way to connect. Now, these first four needs, certainty, uncertainty, you can see how they'd have a conflict. But have you ever rented a movie you've already watched. Yeah. Get a life.
Starting point is 00:06:48 I have two. Why would we do that? Because we're certain it's good, but it's been long enough that we hope there's a variety, we won't remember it all, have a variety once again. So you can meet multiple needs through the same task potentially.
Starting point is 00:07:00 But certainty, uncertainty, significance, or you are in Hollywood. Why do people come to Hollywood? Be famous. It'll be famous, right? They know what that really is. If they did, some of them would move away from it. But significance is what they're looking for.
Starting point is 00:07:15 But what they really want is love. That's what everybody wants. But you know what the problem is? They think if they're significant, Everyone's going to love them. And I get these clients, without mentioning any names, the biggest names in Hollywood, the biggest names in sports. And you know what their number one thing is? They're angry.
Starting point is 00:07:32 Why are they angry? Because they thought if I'm significant, nobody loved me. And now they go, people rip me online, they interrupt me with my family trying to have dinner. They don't give a shit about me. They just want a picture. They just want this. And if I don't do it, they write that about me. They care about themselves.
Starting point is 00:07:46 They care about themselves. And so what happened is I thought by being significant, I would be loved. And now I'm super significant and I'm not loved. I'm attacked. Because the more you try and push your significance on someone, the less significant they make you. If you love someone, there's nothing more significant than true love, not a trade, not I'll love you if you give me something, genuine love. And if that happens, you become significant in people's lives.
Starting point is 00:08:10 But that's the number one challenge in this community. So significance love have attack. If you're significant, you're the individual. But I need to be connected. Or if I'm so connected, who am I? And that's the pull. The secret to it all are the final two needs. These are the spiritual needs, not religious, but spiritual.
Starting point is 00:08:26 And that is, we all must grow. When you grow, you feel alive. And if you don't grow, you start to die inside. And this isn't my rule. Everything in the universe grows or dies, as you well know. This is the law of the universe. If your relationship's not growing, it's dying. Don't bullshit yourself.
Starting point is 00:08:40 If your business is not growing, you're a businessman, you know. It is not growing. It is dying. You better do something now, right? But we grow, so we have something finally to give, which is where meaning comes in life. When I grow, I have something more to give. And if I can give that to someone,
Starting point is 00:08:55 then my life is more meaningful than just the pleasure of, I have the machine that makes me feel pleasure in certain parts of my body and feeds me and all the things you talked about. If you went to Vegas and you pull down that, you know, that little jukebox thing and you get boom, boom, boom, bars, bars, bars. What's your reaction? Amazing.
Starting point is 00:09:14 Amazing. Wow, this is amazing. And you pull it a second time and you get it again. Amazing. And you do it a third time. You get it again. Less amazing. And now you do 100 times.
Starting point is 00:09:25 Yeah, less amazing. And now what you have is a job. You do this and you've got a predictable outcome. The fact that you don't know what the outcome is, that that's the jackpot in it. They get someone hooked on anything. That's what makes it significant because it's scarce, right? So when you do this, if I said to you, Osama bin Laden, what would you say is top-kneed driving for us? Was it certainty?
Starting point is 00:09:47 Was it variety? Was it significance? Was it love? Was it growth or contribution? I'd say probably significance. 100%. He was one of, I forgot the number, 27 children. Literally he was 27 children.
Starting point is 00:10:00 He was a nobody. He took his dad's money. He was not very religious. And he went to Afghanistan and he used his money and became significant. Not by shooting people. He provided resources. And then all of a sudden his entire life change. How do you know?
Starting point is 00:10:13 The most significant thing is he sent other people to die. He didn't go. go to die. He said other people. Now, his number of un drive is significance and his way of doing it was get other people to die. On that same day in 9-11, there were men and women in the fire department and the police department who entered those buildings knowing a good chance they would die to save a stranger, also driven by significance but with different rules. If I die a hero, my life is meaningful. And that's a meaningful life. So people can even have the same need structure, but their beliefs about how to meet those needs are the most important thing.
Starting point is 00:10:51 And the needs of connection and love, growth and contribution have no downside. If you have certainty is your number one thing, you're always trying to keep life the same way, and you're going to be stressed out, especially with AI, you're going to be really stressed out. If you're a variety person, you can have a lot of fun, but eventually not much variety. The life you describe for all these people, now they have the money, they have the sex, they have this, they have that, they have the woman, they have the notoriety, they have the Academy Award. it all gets old because if we're not growing, it doesn't matter. How many people do you know that we're famous, who were rich, who had supposedly everything
Starting point is 00:11:24 people want and took their own life? Why did they take their life? They stopped growing and stop having a sense of meaning by giving. I can show you example after example of people. So these need structures in the new world have to be met. We can meet certainty right now very easily by going online and controlling our communication. That's why people text. That's much easier than communication.
Starting point is 00:11:46 back and forth with someone, right? We can get variety by going online so easily now. We can get significance, tear other people down or work on something significant, we think, right? AI, explore the world. We can get a sense of connection through people online or through a robot. Or these days, people have an AI and they talk to it like it's their boyfriend or girlfriend because it totally affirms them. They say something idiotic and they tell you're so smart, right?
Starting point is 00:12:09 You're better, right? But you're missing, growing, and contributing. If you're missing, growing, contributing, you will not feel fulfilled. You, as a person, if I've read your books correctly and I didn't read them all, but I thought pieces of it, probably the best lesson you got early in life was there's the science of achievement, there's the art of fulfillment. They're two different skills. If you want to extraordinary life, you need both. You go to the East, they're really great about fulfillment.
Starting point is 00:12:34 They can live in poverty and feel totally happy and connected to God or the universe. You come here and people can have an incredible external life, but they're in a really great about fulfillment. internal life often, not so nice. They get really pissed off because they didn't get their special sauce on their burger, right? It's a different world. I believe you can merge those two. How? You master the science of achievement. There are rules to achieve, as you well know. You wrote a old book with 33 rules in it. Me too, right? So I know those rules. I know books on finance, three of them. I want an answer, is it still possible to win the financial game because so many young people think it can't be done? So I interviewed 50 of the greatest financial people alive today. All started
Starting point is 00:13:10 with nothing, all billionaires, nobody from the lucky sperm club, they all did it on their own, Ray Dalio, Carl Icon, Warren Buffett, all of them. And guess what I found? They're all different, but I'm a modeler. I found the strategies that are common between them, and I applied them. I taught other people, wrote the books, but I applied them myself. And that's how my businesses in my life grew geometrically. I modeled, I didn't have to learn on my own experience. You follow? I've got to ask you some questions on those two points. So on these six needs, because I also want to ask you about the 50 rich people that you've interviewed for the books. But on those six needs, when you look at someone like me and you look at the broad world that I'm
Starting point is 00:13:44 heading towards as a 30-year-old man, what configuration of these needs? Well, I'll tell you what creates all the pain first. Okay, please. So if I go to a room and I'll say, I explain these needs like I have. I know this is kind of lecture here. I didn't mean to be that, but I just want to share it because I'm so passionate about it. And I'll get people to understand what they are, and then I ask them, I want you write down, what you think your top two needs have been, not in what you want, but in the way you've been living.
Starting point is 00:14:12 Because people might want love, but they think they have to be significant before they can get it. Or they might want love, but they want certainty that level never go away. You follow me? And so that modifies things. And I'll say, so the way you've lived, the way you've lived, the way you've lived, where it would have been the top two. And then I say, I want you to write a paragraph about what's the downside of having that one so high on your list. And it's amazing. So then I say, now write what you think.
Starting point is 00:14:36 think your list top two should be to go to the next level of your life. Okay? Let's how that you do that. What do you think your top two means how I see you doing it right? Which I love. I love how active you are. So what would you say your top two have been up until now? I think if I'm being completely honest. Yes. And by the way, I want to thank you because I watch several your pieces and you are. You're not bullshitting about you can go. There's just no, I'm going to die some day. So there's no, even if being honest makes me look bad. It's like because my, of course, like significance, of course. Yes, especially from where I came from.
Starting point is 00:15:09 Where I came from, that was the big problem, was, you know, being different and not in a good way. That's right. And then I would say, interestingly, it feels like uncertainty and significance are really, really high for me because I've, for some reason, I have a huge appetite for uncertainty. Yeah, well, you're wired that way in a beautiful way. It also leads to learning for you. That's one of your vehicles for learning, is it not? Yeah. Yeah, dropping out of school, stopping going to school when I was younger, dropping out of university,
Starting point is 00:15:38 quitting jobs where, you know, I shouldn't have quit them after a month. Which, by the way, if certainty was your top need, would you have done that? No. No, completely. So you understand this, these are, I'm talking about the six controlling forces of your life. There's a million stories about your life, but there's only six reasons you do anything. Yeah. You have all these stories with reasons.
Starting point is 00:15:55 So what would you say would be the downside of that? By the other way, there's been the upsides, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, great, yeah. We're sitting here because they're upsides. Your desire for significance made you look for significant ideas, significant application, succeed in business. Oh, the downsides of wanting significance is at the top, not because it's valuable. Significance is valuable, period.
Starting point is 00:16:14 Everyone should want it. But it's the sequence. So if it's the top of your list, what's the downside? For me, it costs me connection and love and all these, and some of these other opportunities. That's correct. Which is what you really want underneath it all. Yeah. Your desire for significance really came from the fact that you were not loved and connected
Starting point is 00:16:32 by people. People judge you the color of your skin. They put you in a community where you were different. You were outside the, so it's like, I'll show them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Which, by the way, was a very healthy response, right? But now at this stage of your life, this is the gift that you have now at this stage your life, right? You're entering this second season, right? Yeah. Now, you don't have to be driven by that anymore. You already are significant. Like, what more are you going to do? I'm sure you'll find more significant things to do, but you've done so many significant things. You've help millions of people, I'm sure, through your insights, your elements, you've written books, you've built businesses, and you're only 33 years old. That's pretty effing awesome, right?
Starting point is 00:17:08 So now you get the leisure of be able to sit back and say, now with the greater level of consciousness, what would ideally be my top two? What would you say your top two need to be to have the next level of your life, to go to the next level for you? It was really easy for me to answer this question. Connection and love and the need to grow and give? Yes, yes. Yeah, well, those are two different ones, contribution, growth and contribution. Of those two, which one do you think is even more important for you? Oh, God, of those two? Yeah. It's hard because one you can see as a vehicle to the other. Yeah, exactly. I understand that, but I'm asking a different question. I'm saying which is more important to feel, experience? It would be contribution. Yes. So for you,
Starting point is 00:17:46 you're saying love and contribution? I'm saying love and contribution. And what order? Love first and then contribution. It's a good choice. I try, in my head I tried the other way around that I thought, no, It's almost like monks have said to me many years ago that you need to fill up your cup so you have something to pour out for others. And that's what I was thinking of. I was thinking it doesn't work the other way. That was a wise choice.
Starting point is 00:18:07 Most people wouldn't make that choice. I, for most of my life, was contribution first and then love. It was my way of earning love. And so, like, I'd be on stage for 13 hours, and this is before people had phones, and everybody wants to sign something and give me a hug. I work my guts out. And then that was my take-it-in time.
Starting point is 00:18:23 So I'd be there, finish at 1.30 or 2 in the morning, and I'd be there until 3.30, until every person had an autograph, got, you know, their hug and everything else. Now, his picture is a lot faster. But that was my life. I met my wife, Sage, changed my entire life. She didn't care of that I was Tony Robbins. She just loved me.
Starting point is 00:18:41 And all of a sudden, I never thought 12,000, 15,000, 20,000 people of love pouring at you could compare one person to a pair, but way beyond that. So now I finish it. I'm when I give my guts, I go to one in the morning. But then I get up. leave, right? You know? I take pictures in the middle of the day and then I leave at that time. I go and be with my wife. And it switched where love was there. Because think about this. If contribution is first, and this is what a lot of people do, then it's a way to protect
Starting point is 00:19:09 yourself from feeling rejected. Because if I, I'm always giving to you truly generously over beyond you can imagine. And then you treat me like shit. Well, then you're clearly the problem, right? I don't have to think I'm not enough. So, but the more honest way is love because if it's love first, now I'm giving because I want to, not because I have to. Because I'm Make sense? So tell me how you think that would change your life if you made love and contribution your top two and the way you actually live. Because you already value love and contribution.
Starting point is 00:19:35 But if they were the highest priority, how would it shift your life for the better in your mind? I feel like I would be significantly less stressed. You're correct. You are absolutely correct. So when I ask the audience this, I have them write down and I've got 15,000 people. And I'll say, okay, how many have certainty on your list? And they've come to an event that has a firewalk.
Starting point is 00:19:57 And you get like 50, 60% of the rooms in their top two of their list, right? Because in our culture, it's still the most important one. It's the foundation. It's the one that's going to have the biggest problem with AI because they want things to stay the same and life isn't. The only thing is for certain is change. And now rapid change, like geometrically rapid change. Okay. Variety, small number, significance through the roof.
Starting point is 00:20:18 Social media has made significance disproportionate in our culture and it's why people are so unhappy. You used to maybe compare it most of yourself to your neighbors or your friends. Now you compare yourself to a billionaire's of which there's only 3,000, right? And so you're like, my life's not that great anymore. Or you compare it to pictures that have been doctored. A friend of mine owns a gym and he says, you can't believe it. Women and men come in here who are influencers. They lay everything out and then they do their video and they never work out.
Starting point is 00:20:47 They're 27 years old. They have to work out for shit. I mean, it's like they do a minimum workout. They've got jeans. They're just fine. They don't even do the workout. It's all pictures. It's all bullshit, right? You know, he goes, it makes me so mad because, you know, real people there working hard to make something happen. So that's why people get so women, especially depressed, comparing themselves to images that are not even real, right? It's totally absurd. So when I do it with the audience, though, certainty and significance is 80% of the room, right? There's growth people, contribution people, but that's the dominant force because of our cultural conditioning and because certainty is basically a survival tool. Then I've asked them to do what you did. And I say, okay, tell me, I don't tell them anything.
Starting point is 00:21:25 Like, I didn't tell you anything. And then I say, okay, who has certainty on their list now? And in a room of 15,000 people, 12,000 people, there might be like five. Okay, there's five people that really do like pain. So I point that out to them and they look at me. And then I go, okay, how many got, you know, variety will be more variety. How many got significance? The number plummets, just like it did with you.
Starting point is 00:21:45 People, I didn't tell them anything. Their own intelligence knows this, right? How many got love through the roof, right? Contribution through the roof. growth through the roof. Those are the ones that expand. And then we show people how to condition that, though, because it's one thing to know it. It's another thing to start training it in your body to make those priorities happen in your life, right? Just like any other habit, working at or anything else. You have to build the neurology of that. You have to practice putting yourself
Starting point is 00:22:08 in those states over and over again where you make the value based on love or you make the value based on contribution. See, before you do something to be significant and you miss out on some with a love. Now love is probably always what you wanted. That's why you could make that decision so quickly, right? But now I'm going to go for that first, not this circuitous route. By the way, you will still be significant. You'll be loving first and you'll be contributing, and that will make you significant. Is it really possible to change, like, that deeply? No, not at all. I've never been able to do that. And my 49th year, I'm just, I've never seen that happen. No, I was, I was thinking really, really deeply about what you were saying. And I was thinking there
Starting point is 00:22:48 will be some people that are listening. And I think there was maybe a part of me, my conscience, that's like, because that's a journey I've never gone on before, I've never shifted from the... Well, you're not going to do it by discussion. You have to have leverage. And what is that? How do I do that? Leverage is, you have to have something you value more than your present way of doing things. Leverage can be pain or pleasure, right? So... Like my fiancee. You know, your fiance. I understand how you got to L.A. A little leverage, right?
Starting point is 00:23:16 Her love, her happiness, your joy. Oh, that's beautiful. That's my girl. You and Sage. That's awesome. You're good at putting people to state with her pictures. That's impressive. It's a beautiful photo.
Starting point is 00:23:28 Yeah, I love her so much. We've been together 25 years. I love her more today than ever before. She has a force in nature of this woman. Really, really great. But yes, she's leverage in my life. My youngest daughter's massive leverage, you know, is four and a half years old.
Starting point is 00:23:42 It's beautiful. But I'll give an example. I worked with a woman. one time on stage and she was a colon therapist and a vegan and, you know, so, but she was always sick because she's so stressed all the time trying to be perfect at everything. There's a constriction in her body, right? And the level stress was just ridiculous, right? So I was trying to get her to see, have some other options about what do it without boring me the whole story. I'm looking for leverage always. That's how you get someone to make a change. You got to get
Starting point is 00:24:10 make change a must, not a should. Not me making it to you. If I put a guy, under your head, that's leverage. But some people would rather die than bend to your will. You'll find it what moves that person. It's unique for everyone. Not what motivates them. I hate the word motivation. I've never used it. I want to know your drives. Look, if you're fat, you're motivated to eat. I want to know what's underneath. I want to know what the drives are. So this woman, I'm trying to help her make changes. And I show her these things and see the consequences. And she wouldn't change. Wouldn't change. So finally, I said, man, I got to push this lady. It's like, I said, how long I wouldn't tell her this? I asked.
Starting point is 00:24:44 I said, how long with a person with the level of stress with these things you're doing and these ailments, how long will a person like that live if they don't change? And she paused and she thought and she said, probably to 35. How old are you? 32. Okay, she's going to change now. Maybe she's going to do it, right? That's the leverage.
Starting point is 00:25:04 She's got to change. But it can't change. I just can't. It's just how my life is. I said, well, I said, this session is on videotaping. know? And I said, how do you think your daughter's going to feel when she's carrying your coffin and she knows that you knew you could shift this and you didn't? This is pretty intense. I mean, she thinks she's going to die. If she doesn't do it, she probably could. So I'm picking up big leverage,
Starting point is 00:25:31 right? Because I know that's horrible, but I can't change. And part of my head I'm like, holy shit, she's not going to change here. What the hell is going to change her? And then I said to her, I said, yeah, what if her new mother is a meat eater? And she exploded on stage-old. That is not happening. I will not make this happen. I mean, she went berserk. And she goes, fine, I'm changing this now.
Starting point is 00:25:57 Like, there is always leverage. There is something that will make change a must and not a should. Change is never a matter of ability. It's always a matter of strong enough reasons, of motive. If you got strong enough reasons, you can do just about anything. But if you have weak reason, you're not going to do anything. So the fact that you understand this is our discussion.
Starting point is 00:26:16 In an event, you'd be in a rather peak state, and I take you through a process of consequence where you will envision what the consequences are, and then you can make that shift. And you've still got to condition it. This specific change is the hardest one. I think a lot of people might say, I was thinking forward as life events to come,
Starting point is 00:26:33 and becoming a father is often... That will do that. Well, absolutely shift to a lot of people. Becoming a father, getting married, falling in love. There are certain events. losing people will make you reevaluate things. Hitting a birthday, you know, you're 33, when you hit your 40th birthday,
Starting point is 00:26:49 I'm sure you don't think it'll be any different. I remember people telling me that, but you tend to reevaluate for some weird reason or a culture. And after 40, usually a five-year or a 50-year or 60-year, it's just part of the way we look at life. There's a process you go through and there will be different things that trigger you. But when you want a real lasting change,
Starting point is 00:27:10 you have to change the driving force. When we change these, it's changing your values. So again, like, think about how your brain is a predictor, and it's trying to close the gap between what it's predicting what reality is. When it's not working, it looks for an answer. When you get to the point where your old strategy doesn't work enough and you have enough pain, you will search for something new.
Starting point is 00:27:30 And if at that time we can give you something that actually works, you'll grab it. It's like if you're drowning in a sea of confusion and I throw your life after, you're not going to go, I don't like the color. You're going to grab a hole, then it comes into your unconscious. And the last thing I'd say about that is it's also about going beyond your conscious mind, right? If you ever try to do something and then sabotage yourself, it's just consciously you wanted one thing, subconsciously another. I believe all lasting change happens in an altered state. When I say an altered state, you could call it hypnosis.
Starting point is 00:28:01 I tell people I'm a dehypnotist. Most people walk around in hypnosis. People tell me like, you can't hypnotize me and they're in a hypnotized state in that moment. Do you ever drive your car and then something catch that? your attention and you stay focused on too long. And all soon you realize, holy shit, who's been driving the car? Yeah. You ever have experience? That was a hypnosis state. Hypnosis just means you're inside, not outside, most of the time. And in an hypnotic state, what goes in, goes in deeper than in just in a consciousness state. That's why I like doing
Starting point is 00:28:29 storytelling. And my wife and I are, there's certain things in life that just shouldn't happen that are inhuman. And trafficking is one of them. And we had a friend that child was taken in trafficked. It was the most brutal thing. And so I got us involved. And so I know, we've We've contributed to 72,000 children being saved. I've gone out on some of these undercover with scars on my face and elements. It's the most brutal thing you can possibly imagine. But I tell you this because when you witness certain things in life that are so intense, they alter you.
Starting point is 00:29:01 They change you. They change what you value. They change what you make important in your life. And so what I say to people, you want your life to keep growing, keep putting yourself in new environments. Keep getting around things you're not used to. to and let something hit you. People don't know their passions because they keep going to doing the same things.
Starting point is 00:29:17 It's like, get around where it's better and see what hits you. And something's going to strike you. Something's going to wake you up. Something is going to make you feel more, desire more. Want to give something to life as opposed to just live your life. Because the life you described to those people is predictable. You get familiarized. Even pain.
Starting point is 00:29:34 I mean, you look at people in Auschwitz, you know. Man Search for Meings, one of my favorite books. Have you read it? Victor Franklin. Yeah. And I bought the rights. I'm making the movie. Right.
Starting point is 00:29:42 Really? The reason I was telling you about the fun of kids is I made the sound of freedom. Did you see it? Yes. Incredible. And we beat Disney that week, and people thought it would never happen, right? But that movie changed people, radically woke them up, brought resources at the table, has created real shift. Man Search the Meaning, I think, can do that as well.
Starting point is 00:30:01 But in those places, they get habituated to the pain. You get habituated pain or pleasure. That's why we've got to grow. And when we grow, we get that life cycle. we feel more alive and then we got something to share and then we feel meaning and it's like a virtuous cycle and life gets better and better. What you just listened to was a most replayed moment from a previous episode. If you want to listen to that full episode, I've linked it down below. Check the description. Thank you.

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