Decisions, Not Conditions, Drive Life Quality and Fulfillment

Key Quotes

"Most people are stressed because they stress is usually measured by how much you feel you control events versus events control you the more you feel events are controlling you the more overwhelmed you feel the more stress the more anxiety the more fear and we live in a culture where mental health is at record lows in terms of quality and happiness and joy and fulfillment and depression and anxiety are through the roof and it's not because the world is so much more stressful it's because the way we process the world we have more information coming at us than in any time in history obviously we're drowning in information we're starving for wisdom but in order to go from being stressed to not we understand that the i think the single most important tool is decision making because i think that's been the skill that took me from you know barely surviving in a family that had tremendous pain and tremendous angst was to be the nicest word and say and no finances and four different fathers and a lot of physical and emotional abuse to being able to serve literally hundreds of millions billions of people it's been decisions along the way so if you look at your own life yours mine anyone's life anyone listening or watching you have to be honest and say i'm a creator and if i don't like what i have i've gotten here by the decisions that have created that"

Tony Robbins explains that stress stems from a perceived lack of control over events, leading to negative emotional states. He posits that decision-making is the most critical skill for overcoming this, enabling individuals to move from a state of being controlled by circumstances to becoming creators of their own lives, a skill he credits for his own significant personal transformation.

"The smartest people usually are terrible investors and does that not be yeah they said because the smartest people want to know everything before they decide and if you wait till you know everything the opportunity's gone and that's true not just in finance i think that's true in life yes right we wait till we have absolute certainty there's no absolute certainty in life the only absolute certainty is faith you know it's like how do you drive down a street with nothing but a yellow line separating you from crazies coming driving at you at 65 miles an hour and every single day in every country in the world in every city in the world someone will cross that line and kill someone because they were drunk because they fell asleep because they're texting and yet how do you get out there every day without fear and do it you use a gift that god gave us it's called faith it's not what you learned faith i'm not talking about a religion i'm talking about the capacity to see beyond the present moment have a sense of certainty right and so why do you do it because the alternative is to live at home and do nothing go back to the covid days and be trapped right we know what that did to people psychologically and emotionally because they felt completely at the effect of things so the fastest way to change your life is to start making some real decisions"

Tony Robbins highlights that the pursuit of absolute certainty can hinder progress, even for intelligent individuals, particularly in finance and life. He emphasizes that faith, defined as the capacity to see beyond the present moment, is essential for taking action despite uncertainty, contrasting this with the paralysis that comes from waiting for perfect information.

"A real decision the word decision comes from incision in latin right means to cut off from when you cut off any other possibility except what you've committed to you will find the way it's always tell people if you want to take the island burn your boats as long as your brain has a way out it'll go back and it's amazing what you'll do when there's no option to go back most of my career has been because i had no net you know in order to screen a williams and i got to turn around right now she can't get on her sister died she can't get on the us oh but she can't get on stand up she can't get up to do anything everybody knows i'm working with her i don't get her up whole thing's over i get her up i turn the president around i do whatever i've got to do eat no matter who it was with no net you find a way so i think the biggest thing is once you decide you want to go to the second step this commit in fact i hear women say this to me all the time and i know you have a large female audience they'll say you know men don't commit and i said has he even decided because they're different steps women can jump to commitment very quickly men not as quickly right and so deciding is like a war sometimes you know i gotta figure it out okay i've decided but then commitment if i ask your audience to ask them what's the difference let me ask you what's the difference between deciding and committing to you"

Tony Robbins explains that the true meaning of "decision" comes from the Latin word for "to cut off," signifying a commitment to a path by eliminating other possibilities. He uses the analogy of burning boats to illustrate this concept, emphasizing that removing escape routes forces action and problem-solving, and distinguishes this decisive act from mere commitment, which he notes can be a subsequent step.

"Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure and you do not have to separate them because if what you're doing is designed to try and serve something more than yourself you're not going to be stressed i mean when you're trying to serve your kids or you're trying to serve your community or your country when there's something you care about more than yourself there's an energy that you have all suffering comes focused on the self and ironically again i started to mention self care i'm not being derogatory towards self care because i think it's important to take care of yourself so you can take care of others and take care of yourself but it's become the new it's it's the new hustle culture self care means you're doing something directing your mind soul and spirit to become more not just checking out right and so many people are doing it now and i think that's a huge reason why i don't know if you saw i looked it up the other day i was actually brought on to make sure i had the right numbers it blew my mind yeah 61 of gen z has been diagnosed with anxiety disorder 61 of a generation 54 of gen z women report diagnosed mental health conditions by the american psychological association 34 of gen z are currently taking prescription medication and there's been a 129 increase in the trajectory of antidepressant use among teenage girls since the pandemic i mean it's like there's something wrong here this mental health crisis is because we think we should do less and we're going to be happier"

Tony Robbins argues that success without fulfillment is a form of failure, and that serving something beyond oneself, rather than focusing solely on self-care or personal comfort, is key to avoiding stress and achieving true happiness. He points to rising rates of anxiety and mental health issues, particularly among Gen Z, as evidence that a culture prioritizing less effort and more comfort is not leading to greater well-