Tony Robbins -Re-Awaken_the_Giant_Within

RULES: SETTING UP THE GAME
SO YOU CAN WIN
As I write these words, I’m looking out over the deep blue Pacific from my room at what was once the
Hyatt Regency Waikoloa resort on the Big Island of Hawaii. I’ve just observed something that won’t
happen in North America again until 2017: a total eclipse of the sun. I got up this morning at 5:30 a.m.
so that I, along with thousands of other visitors, could witness this rare astronomical event.
As crowds of people gathered at the viewing site, I began to entertain myself by watching the diversity of
people who had come to share this occasion: everyone from top businesspeople to vacationing families,
from scientists lugging dozens of telescopes to hikers who’d pitched their tents in the lava pits overnight,
and little children who knew this was an exciting event only because their parents had told them so.
Here were hordes of people who had flown in from all over the world, at a cost of thousands of dollars,
just for the chance to see something that would take about four minutes! What were we doing here? We
wanted to stand in a shadow! We’re an interesting species, aren’t we?
By 6:28 a.m., the drama had begun to unfold. There was anxiety in the air, not just the anticipation of
seeing the eclipse, but the fear of disappointment. For on this unique morning, the clouds had begun to
gather, and the sky was becoming overcast. It was interesting to see how people were dealing with the
possibility that their expectations would not be met. What they had come to see was not merely a brief
flitting of the moon over the sun, but a four-minute total eclipse—when the shadow of the moon would
completely block the sun’s rays and envelop us in darkness. They even had a name for it: totality!
By 7:10 a.m., the clouds had increased and were getting larger by the minute.
Suddenly, the sun broke through a hole in the clouds, and for a moment we could all see a partial
eclipse. The crowd greeted it with excited applause, but soon the clouds rolled back in, thicker and
thicker, completely obscuring our view. Nearing the moment of totality— utter darkness—it became
obvious that we wouldn’t be able to watch the moon overtake the sun.
Suddenly, thousands of people began to run over to a big-screen television set that one of the many TV
crews had erected. There we sat, watching the eclipse on national television, just like everyone else in
the world! In those moments I had a chance to observe an unlimited range of human emotion. Each
person responded according to their rules: their beliefs about what had to happen in order for them to
feel good about this experience.
One man behind me started cursing, saying, “I spent $4,000 and traveled all this way, just so I could
watch this for four minutes on television?” A woman only a few feet away kept saying, “I can’t believe
we missed it!” while her bright little daughter enthusiastically reminded her, “But, Mom, it’s happening
right now!” Another woman sitting just to my right said, “Isn’t this incredible? I feel so lucky to be here!”
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