Eben Pagan with Tony Robbins - Compassion and Acts of Kindness

I came across this brief video featuring personal development expert Eben Pagan, in which he shares his understanding of compassion with speaker and author Tony Robbins. His premise - that compassion is a much more powerful relationship skill than people realize, whether in business or one's personal life. Always articulate, Eben clarifies the practice of compassion:



Watching this video reminded me of a simple act of kindness that had a profoundly beneficial impact on me personally.

One day my friend, Clinton, who lives a few blocks from me, was talking to Ron, who works in the California wine industry and lives part-time locally to be near family. Ron said he was bringing several cases of wine to his new home here, but he wasn't sure how he was going to store it.

Clinton immediately connected the dots. He knew we were moving and had to get rid of our large wine cooler, so he told Ron about it. "It's huge. I'm sure they have to sell it, and you can probably get it cheaper than you'd have to pay for a much smaller one."

Clinton called to be sure we were home, then he persuaded Ron to come over to take a look at it. Clinton introduced us, and a sequence of events then took place. Ron said he loved it but would have to take some measurements to be sure it would fit in his house. When that checked out, we haggled over price.

Alexa, 8 weeks old

While this was going on, Ron told us that he found a tiny kitten crying at his back door, so he had started feeding it. He didn't know what he was going to do, though, because he had to return to California for a couple months. Since our cat Max had passed away, my wife, Kathleen, had been wanting a new kitty. When she went over to his house to see it, she was so taken with her that she brought her back for me to see. I have to admit, it was love at first sight.

"If you agree to this price, I'll take the cat off your hands," Kathleen said.

Then there was the matter of moving this restaurant-sized wine cooler from our house to Ron's. It had two french doors, each of which weighed 150 pounds. He rounded up some friends and family, and Clinton and I helped them disassemble the cooler and haul it down the street to Ron's house.

An hour later...

• The wine cooler we didn't know how to get rid of was in Ron's dining room.
• We were $900 richer than we were when we got up that morning.
• A desperate little homeless kitty had found a loving home.
• And we had a beautiful new spirit in our lives.

We named her Alexa, although I still call her "Baby Girl." Ten weeks later she had grown to four times the size when we got her, our older cat Ernest has adopted her as his little sister, and we can't imagine living without her.

Alexa, 4 months old

All the events of that fateful day happened because Clinton was so persistent about facilitating an act of kindness. There was nothing in it for him. He just wanted to do something nice for his friends. He didn't know that the consequences would be life-changing.

We don't know how Baby Girl ended up in the woods in our neighborhood, but she was lucky that she came to the right house, that Ron was living there at the time, that he was goodhearted enough to care for her, that we would meet Ron because of the wine cooler, and that discovering and adopting Baby Girl would become part of the negotiation.

They talk about "random acts of kindness." Hey, acts of kindness don't have to be random. Just do them! You never know how wonderful the ultimate consequences will be.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2013. Building Personal Strength .

Tony Robbins - My Favorite Quotes

Tony Robbins

Anthony "Tony" Robbins (1960- ) is a hugely successful author and speaker on the topic of personal achievement. His best-known books include mega-bestsellers Unlimited Power (1986) and Awaken the Giant Within (1992). He's been marketing his success programs for 30 years, and his popularity continues to grow...

I think his content contains genuine wisdom. He challenges his audiences, leaving implementing the wisdom up to them. As it should be. There's no quick fix. No magic bullet. Tony can challenge us and motivate us, but we have to do the work.

My favorite quotes...

CHANGE - "I've continued to recognize the power individuals have to change virtually anything and everything in their lives in an instant. I've learned that the resources we need to turn our dreams into reality are within us, merely waiting for the day when we decide to wake up and claim our birthright."

CHARACTER - "The only reason we really pursue goals is to cause ourselves to expand and grow. Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long term; it's who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of fulfillment."

COMMITMENT - "I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life's greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve. This level of resolve can move mountains, but it must be constant and consistent. As simplistic as this may sound, it is still the common denominator separating those who live their dreams from those who live in regret."

DECISIVENESS - "It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”

FLEXIBILITY - “Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.”

FOCUS - "Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives."

INITIATIVE - "In life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action."

PASSION - “Until you get dissatisfied, you won't do anything to really move your life to another level. Dissatisfaction is a gem. If you're totally satisfied, you're going to get comfortable. And then your life begins to deteriorate.”

PROACTIVITY - "The most important thing you can do to achieve your goals is to make sure that as soon as you set them, you immediately begin to create momentum."

VISION - "The past does not equal the future."

More...

Wisdom from Tony Robbins - How to Stay Motivated in a Slump

Decisiveness and Commitment - Tony Robbins Explains the 3 Most Important Decisions of Your Life

Tony Robbins Pillar #1 - Focus on Your Core Motivation

Tony Robbins Pillar #2 -Empower Yourself with the Best Tools

Tony Robbins Pillar #3 -Remove Barriers to Action

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2011. Building Personal Strength . (Public relations photo from Tony Robbins)

Brian Tracy - World-Famous Success Coach Tells His Own Success Story

Brian Tracy

Brian Tracy is one of the most well-known personal development authorities in the business. If you haven't heard of him before, it's time you did. A best-selling author and world-famous speaker, he's been teaching people how to set goals and achieve success for several decades now.

The video below is brief - a little more than two minutes. His "rags-to-riches" account reminds me a lot of Tony Robbins' own story. I didn't know that Brian Tracy was a high-school drop-out who once lived in cars and worked minimum-wage jobs.




As I listened to his amazing story, I kept thinking...anyone could achieve this level of success, provided that he or she was the same kind of obsessed, action-oriented self-motivated learner and exercised the same kind of passion, creativity, initiative and perseverance that he did.

One of his most recent books is Goals! How to Get Everything You Want. His latest, No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline is due in 2011. You can check out these and many other books by Brian Tracy on Amazon.com.

Another excellent brief video clip from Brian Tracy...

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2011. Building Personal Strength .

Eben Pagan - Insights about FUN and RELAXATION

Success gurus Eben Pagan, Tony Robbins and Dan Kennedy tell us that one of the keys to success is something they call MASSIVE ACTION. They're probably right. In my company, we try to implement that imperative every day. It makes for some intense days!

But in my experience I think you also need to achieve something called BALANCE. There ain't gonna be any massive action if your batteries run out.

Actually, Eben Pagan agrees with me on this. Give a listen to this brief video clip...



By the way, in case you missed it, the techniques I describe in my post on FOCUS were adapted from Eben Pagan's productivity series, "Wake Up Productive."

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2010. Building Personal Strength .

Wisdom from Tony Robbins - How to Stay Motivated in a Slump

The first decade of the 21st century has presented us with huge challenges. Making a life is hard enough without having to deal with economic turbulence. Alas, we do.

I like what Tony Robbins, playing the role of truth-teller, has to say about keeping your spirit strong, even when economic conditions are bad. He puts things in a realistic perspective...



What we do with this wisdom is, as always, up to us...

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2010. Building Personal Strength .

Tony Robbins' Pillar #3 - Remove Barriers to Action

If you haven't viewed the previously posted videos about Pillar #1 and Pillar #2, you should do so. They're really brief, worth your time. Now Pillar #3...



Can you put these three insights into action? A good first step is to relate Tony's concepts to you personally. Write down the answers to these questions.

1. Focus on your passion, your core motivation. When you think you know what it is, peel back the onion...ask yourself why you want that. When you have that answer, ask "why" again.

2. What will empower you to action? What tools and resources do you need? How can you put those in place so you can move forward?

3. What's holding you back? What slows you down? What do you have to do you remove these barriers?

This may sound like a lot of work, just for a New Year's resolution. If it does, then maybe you don't want that goal badly enough....

Tony Robbins' Pllar #2 - Empower Yourself with the Best Tools

For all you folks who take New Year's resolutions seriously, yesterday I posted the first in a series of brief videos in which Tony Robbins describes the three most important factors in goal achievement. If you missed it, you should definitely check it out.

Here's Pillar #2...



Tomorrow, the third "pillar"...

Tony Robbins' Pillar #1 - Focus on Your Core Motivation

A whole lot of people are making New Year's resolutions today. I believe that's a good thing. We should be positive. We should breathe new life into our goals. Get back on track.

But why is it that few of us will continue to follow through until we've actually achieved them? Tony Robbins knows.

On Day One of 2010, here is Pillar #1, the first of three short videos in which Tony Robbins explains the secret to goal achievement. While I believe what Tony says is true, knowing isn't doing. He can tell us what we have to do. It's up to us to actually do it.



I hope this helps. Tomorrow, Pillar #2...

Decisiveness and Commitment - Tony Robbins Explains the 3 Most Important Decisions of Your Life

Tony Robbins has a way of stating the obvious. But that's what we need. Someone to remind us of what's important - the plain, simple truth of things. After that, it's up to us to do what will bring us fulfillment.



My opinion: he's on target about the 3 decisions...