So what we've got to do is make that change in those standards.

That's where the shifts happen; doesn't happen in any other place

and I'll give you a very simple example.

If you want to make a difference in people's lives, it all comes down to:

what are the things that are 'musts' for you versus 'shoulds'?

So let me tell you this. We said: to have extraordinary life

you have to have an extraordinary psychology, right?

Extraordinary psychology means you have to live in an extraordinary state.

To be in an extraordinary state, you have to condition your nervous system

you body, your physiology and focus to be at their best.

Do you agree with this, yes or no?

Then to do that though; you can do that

why doesn't everybody?

Not because you can't, we all have the ability!

It's because of our standards.

I remember a time early in my career, I was about 24

and I went to do a seminar in Boston.

And in those days, a big seminar for me was like 125 people.

It was a 3-day-seminar and we worked around the clock

and people made such extraordinary changes in their life

and at the end of it I was feeling so fulfilled, I was thinking

"My God, I'm 24 (or maybe 25 at the time) and I am so happy

because I have found my mission in life:

I'm doing what I love; it's making difference in people's lives; this is extraordinary!"

So we finished at about midnight on the Sunday night.

And at around midnight, I'm still wound up so I don't feel like going to bed

so I decided: OK. Let me take a walk here

and I decided to go through Copley Square;

if you've been through Copley Square, you know it's a pretty neat place.

Because in Copley Square you can look up and see buildings

that were here before we were known as the United States

and beside them you can see skyscrapers that are new -

it's a pretty cool place. So I'm walking around. Midnight on a Sunday night

(there's nobody in Copley Square at midnight on a Sunday night)

and I'm walking along, and I see this guy in the distance.

He's kind of stumbling back and forth between the gutter and the sidewalk.

He had a long trench coat on and his head's down like this

he's holding the brown bag

and I can start to smell him even before I get there

and I'm thinking: this guy is obviously drunk.

And as I started to get closer, I thought: I bet he's going to beg me for some money.

And sure enough, whatever you focus on in life, tends to happen doesn't it?

So sure enough, he gets really close to me and I thought

he's not going to do it and all of a sudden he popped his head up

and it was really weird, he went "Mister!" He had this really bizarre look and voice.

"Mister, could you loan me a quarter?"

and I thought: hmmm

do I want to reward this behavior?

And then I thought I don't want him to suffer.

Do you have this dilemma sometimes?

I'm not here to judge, so years ago I finally decided I'll always just give

even if a person's pulling a scam, that's for them to deal with.

If I have the ability then I give.

And I thought: but could I teach him something?

So I asked him a question back, I said "Is that all you want, a quarter?"

He said "Yeah, just one quarter. One quarter will change my whole life!"

And I said "Really?" - "Yeah, just one quarter..."

So I reached into my pocket and I pull out my money clip

and in those days, I was very young, just starting to succeed

and my original mentor was the man named Jim Rohn.

How many have heard of Jim Rohn (1930-2009)? [Audience cheering]

Yeah, great guy and Jim told me "Tony, look...

You've come from a poor background, you've got a poor psychology

you've got to change it! You don't have any money

so pretend you do. Start training your brain; condition it.

Go save all your money, get three $100 bills

and put them all on the outside of your money clip

even though you know you have only $5 in between.

Every time you pull that out, you'll see that

you’ll feel inspired and you’ll feel better.

And if you feel better, you’ll do better."

So I did. I pulled out my money clip and sure enough I have three $100 bills there

and I made sure he saw the bills. I’m tearing through

looking in between there seeing if I can find some change

but I made sure he saw it.

Sure enough he's looking at the $100 bills, checking it out.

I find a quarter and pull it out and take the money and put it in my pocket.

I notice he is watching my hand going in the pocket

and I took the quarter, looked at him and said

“Sir, life will pay any price you ask of it”

and I gave him the quarter.

Then something really interesting happened: he took the quarter

he looked at the quarter, he looked at me, he looked at my pocket

looked back at the quarter, looked at me, looked to my pocket

looked at me again, looked at the quarter, looked at the pocket

looked back at me and said “You’re weird!”

[Audience laughs]

Then he shuffled on off and I thought to myself:

wow, what’s the difference between him and me?

I mean I was 24 or 25 at the time, doing what I love most

I had my mission in life

and he is in his early 60's, drunk on the street, begging for quarters.

What’s the difference? I thought: maybe God’s bust me

because I’m such a good person? And I thought: oh and he's

such a bad person? That’s such bull!

Then I thought: wow, maybe the answer to that question is what I just told him?

"Life will pay, whatever price you ask of it."

But you know what’s interesting? You have to ask intelligently.

In the bible it says "Ask, and you shall..." what?

[Audience:] Receive!

It's a pretty good formula; you ought to look into it.

But you know what? Its says “Ask and you shall receive"

but I’m sure it meant "Ask intelligently," I’m sure that’s what God meant.

I’m sure he didn’t mean "Bitch, and you shall receive;

whine, and you shall receive," I don’t think that was the instruction.

Now if you were to ask intelligently, there might be five elements to that.

Number 1, you'd have to ask specifically, wouldn’t you?

You wouldn’t ask in a general way.

People do that all the time. They go "I want more money!"

"Fine, here's a dollar, get out of here!"

Very often, you're getting what you're asking for

you're just not aware of how general you’re asking.

Clarity is power!

The more clear you are about exactly what it is you want

the more your brain knows how to get there.

Your brain is a servomechanism.

It’s like a bomb. Those bombs, those missiles? They have a servomechanism

so if the target moves, it knows what the target is and it follows it.

Your brain, when you condition it, knows exactly what to go for

and it will find a way to get there.

Did you ever buy a certain outfit or a certain car

and suddenly see that car or outfit everywhere?

Whoever has had that experience say "I".

How come that car or outfit's everywhere?

It was always everywhere but now you notice it.

The reason is, is because there's a part of your brain called the Reticular Activating System

the RAS. That part of your brain determines what you notice

and what you don’t notice.

Your brain spends most of its time trying to make sure you don’t notice

because you'll go crazy if you notice everything.

But when you decide what’s most important to you

your brain goes after it.

Everyone I know who's successful, have built what I call an RPM Plan.

An RPM is built on the metaphor, that the way to get from where you are

to where you want to go the fastest, you've got to build power, like in a car:

RPM’s, and the 'R' stands for: they know the result they're after;

they know what they want, precisely.

If you don’t know exactly what you want

or you let yourself get beyond that and into something general

you're not going to achieve it.

Clarity is power. You've got to know the specific result you are after.

What do you want? If you can’t answer that question right now

in your personal life, in your body, in your relationships, in your finances

in your spirituality, then you're not going to be as fulfilled as you want to be.

Today, we're going to have you answer one of those questions at least.

The second part of it, you've got to know 'P'. Why you're doing it.

Because you know what, you may have a big goal and say

"I want to make a billion dollars, I want to bring peace to the Earth."

Why?

Because as soon as you come up with a goal, all the obstacles show up.

And unless you've got enough emotional drive to break through that

you’re never going to discover what it really takes.

So you've got to get yourself past that

and the way to get past that, is to have enough reasons.

Reasons come first, answers come second.

This man didn't know what he wanted, he didn't have enough reasons.

To ask intelligently, you've got to ask specifically.

To ask intelligently, you must know why you want it and have enough drive to make it happen

enough 'juice' to make it happen. If you don't have enough reasons

you will not make it happen.

And the 'M' is, what is you Massive Action Plan?

What is going to get you to actually follow through?

Because if the first plan's not going to work

and the second's not going to work

you better have enough plans that if the first two don’t work

you still got something else, otherwise

you’re going to have excuses why it didn’t work.

Asking intelligently requires that.

If we're going to be extraordinary in our results

we've got to be in an extraordinary state:

we've got to know what we want and we've got to go use it.

"Life will pay whatever price you ask of it."

Anthony Robbins

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