Anthony Robbins AWAKEN THE GIANT... - Lemma Coaching

elationships if you saw life as a dance? Could it change the way you operate in your business? You bet
it could! This is an example of a pivot point, a global change, where just making this one change would
transform the way you think and feel in multiple areas of your life. I am not saying that there is a right
or wrong way of looking at things. Just realize that changing one global metaphor can instantly
transform the way you look at your entire life. Just as with Transformational Vocabulary, the power of
metaphors is in their simplicity.
Years ago I was conducting a two-week Certification program in Scottsdale, Arizona. In the middle of
the seminar, a man jumped up and started stabbing out at people with his bare hands as if he were
holding a knife, while screaming at the top of his lungs, "I’m blacking out, I'm blacking out!" A
psychiatrist who was sitting two rows in front of him shouted, "Oh, my God! He's having a psychotic
breakdown!" Fortunately, I didn't accept the psychiatrists label of Transformational Vocabulary.
Instead, all I knew was that I needed to change the excited man's state instantly. I had not developed
the concept of global metaphors yet; I just did what I knew how to do best. I interrupted his pattern.
I went up to him and yelled, "Then just white it out! Use that stuff you use when you're typing! White
it out!" The man was stunned for a moment. He stopped what he was doing, and everybody paused to
see what would happen next.
Within a matter of seconds his face and body changed, and he started to breathe differently. I said,
"White out the whole thing." Then I asked him how he felt and he said, "That feels a lot better." So I
said, "Well, then, sit down," and continued with the seminar. Everyone looked dumb-founded, and to
tell the truth. I, too, was a bit surprised that it worked this easily! Two days later this man approached
me and said, "I don't know what that whole thing was about, but I turned forty that day and just lost it.
I felt like stabbing out because I was in this blackness and it was swallowing me up. But when I put
that White-Out on, everything just brightened up. I felt totally different. I started thinking new
thoughts, and I feel fine today." And he continued to feel fine for the duration—just by changing one
simple metaphor.
So far we've spoken only of how to lower our negative emotional intensity through the use of
Transformational Vocabulary and global metaphors. However, sometimes it's useful and important to
get ourselves to feel negative emotions with strong intensity. For example, I know a couple who have
a son who was caught up in drugs and alcohol. They knew they should do something to get him to
change his destructive patterns, but at the same time they had mixed associations with interfering in
his life. What finally pushed them over the edge and gave them enough leverage to get themselves to
take action and do something was a conversation they had with someone who'd once been addicted
himself. "There are two bullets pointed at your son's head right now," he told them. "One is drugs, the
other is alcohol, and one or the other is going to kill him—it's only a matter of time—if you don't stop
him now."
By representing things in this way, they were driven to action. Suddenly, not taking action would mean
allowing their son to die, whereas previously they had represented his problem as merely being a
challenge. Until they adopted this new metaphor, they were missing the emotional potency to do
whatever it would take. I am happy to tell you that they did succeed in helping this young man turn
things around. Remember, the metaphors we use will determine our actions.