Anthony Robbins AWAKEN THE GIANT... - Lemma Coaching

One of the most empowering global metaphors that has helped me through tough times is a story
shared by many speakers in personal development. It's the simple story of a stonecutter. How does a
stonecutter break open a giant boulder? He starts out with a big hammer and whacks the boulder as
hard as he can. The first time he hits it, there's not a scratch, not a chip—nothing. He pulls back the
hammer and hits it again and again—100, 200, 300 times without even a scratch. After all this effort,
the boulder may not show even the slightest crack, but he keeps on hitting it. People sometimes pass
by and laugh at him for persisting when obviously his actions are having no effect. But a stonecutter is
very intelligent. He knows that just because you don't see immediate results from your current actions,
it doesn't mean you're not making progress. He keeps hitting at different points in the stone, over and
over again, and at some point—maybe on the 500th or 700th hit, maybe on the 1,0004th hit—the
stone doesn't just chip, but literally splits in half. Was if this one single hit that broke the stone open?
Of course not. It was the constant and continual pressure being applied to something else. And pretty
soon, what does it become?" And he said, "A butterfly."
I asked, "Can the other little caterpillars on the ground see that this caterpillar became a butterfly?" He
said, "No." I said, "And when a caterpillar breaks out of the cocoon, what does he do?" Joshua said,
"He flies." I said, "Yeah, he gets out and the sunlight dries off his wings and he flies. He's even more
beautiful than when he was a caterpillar. Is he more free or less free?" Josh said, "He's much more
free." And I said, "Do you think he'll have more fun?" And he said, "Yeah—he's got less legs to get
tired!" And I said, "That's right, he does. He doesn't need legs anymore; he's got wings. I think your
friend has wings now.
"You see, it's not for us to decide when somebody becomes a butterfly. We think it's wrong, but I think
God has a better idea when the right time is. Right now it's winter and you want it to be summer, but
God has a different plan. Sometimes we just have to trust that God knows how to make butterflies
better than we do. And when we're caterpillars, sometimes we don't even realize that butterflies exist,
because they're up above us—but maybe we should just remember that they're there." And Joshua
smiled, gave me a big hug and said, "I bet he's a beautiful butterfly."
Metaphors can change the meaning you associate to anything, change what you link pain and pleasure
to, and transform your life as effectively as they transform your language. Select them carefully, select
them intelligently, select them so they will deepen and enrich your experience of life and that of the
people you care about. Become a "metaphor detective." Whenever you hear someone using a
metaphor that places limits, just step in, break their pattern, and offer a new one. Do this with others,
and do it for yourself.
So try the following exercise:
1. What is life? Write down the metaphors you've already chosen: "Life is like. . ." what? Brainstorm
everything you can think of, because you probably have more than one metaphor for life. When you're
in an unresourceful state, you probably call it a battle or a war, and when you're in a good state,
maybe you think of it as a gift. Write them all down. Then review your list and ask yourself, "If life is
such and such, what does it mean to me?" If life is sacred, what does that mean? If life is a dream,
what does that mean? If all the world is a stage, what does that mean? Each of your metaphors
empower and limit. "All the world's a stage" may be great because it means you can go out there and