Tony Robbins -Re-Awaken_the_Giant_Within

CHALLENGE: THE TEN-DAY MENTAL
CHALLENGE
Here’s your opportunity now to really apply all the new disciplines you’ve learned in the previous
chapters. My challenge to you is simply this:
For the next ten days, beginning immediately, commit to taking full control of all your mental and
emotional faculties by deciding right now that you will not indulge in or dwell on any unresourceful
thoughts or emotions for ten consecutive days.
It sounds easy, doesn’t it? And I’m sure it could be. But those who begin it are frequently surprised to
discover how often their brains are engaged in nonproductive, fearful, worrisome, or destructive thinking.
Why would we continually indulge in mental and emotional patterns that create unnecessary stress
in our lives? The answer is simple: we actually think it helps! Many people live in a state of worry. In
order to accomplish this state, they continually focus and dwell on the worst possible scenario. Why
would they do this? Because they believe it will get them to do something—to take action. But the
truth of the matter is that worry usually puts a person in an extremely unresourceful emotional state. It
doesn’t usually empower us to take action, but rather, it tends to cause us to become overwhelmed with
frustration or fear.
Yet, using some of the simplest tools in this book, you could change your worried state immediately by
focusing on a solution. You could ask yourself a better question like, “What do I need to do right now to
make this better?” Or you could change your state by changing the vocabulary you use to describe the
sensations you’re feeling: from “worried” to “a little bit concerned.”
In essence, if you decide to accept my Ten-Day Challenge, it means that you’ve committed to putting
yourself and keeping yourself in a passionately positive state, no matter what happens. It means that if
you find yourself in any unresourceful emotional states, you’ll instantaneously change your physiology
or focus into a resourceful state regardless of your desires of the moment. For example, if someone does
something that you believe is destructive or even hateful toward you, and you begin to find yourself
becoming angry, you must immediately change your emotional state, regardless of the situation, during
these ten consecutive days.
Again, remember that you have a multitude of strategies for changing your state. You could ask yourself
a more empowering question like, “What could I learn from this?” or “What’s great about this situation,
and what’s not yet perfect?” These questions will lead you into resourceful states where you’ll find
solutions instead of dwelling on and habitually running the cycle of increased anger and frustration.
©2013 Robbins Research International. www.tonyrobbins.com 41