I get so many questions from people who are about to go to their first Tony Robbins event and don’t know what to expect from it. Tony loves the element of surprise, so I won’t spoil too much, but here are 17 things that may help you prepare mentally, physically and emotionally.
- Have fun!
When you relax, let go and have fun it becomes a great experience. Be yourself, but the crazy childlike version of yourself. Do crazy things like dance on the chairs or in the aisles, at first it may feel weird, but you get the most value when you truly let go of your inhibitions. Lastly, make sure you smile.
- Bring your A game and play full out.
Treat the event like the most important week of your life. You decided to attend for a reason, you will only give yourself the gift of the results if you put the effort in.
- Be open minded and open to change, don’t hold back and go with the flow.
You will get the most out of the event if you dive completely in and open yourself to new ideas. Tony talks about thinking with your heart instead of your head. If you get too stuck in your head you won’t be as open so try not to get too hung up on something if it doesn’t completely resonate immediately or you are stuck on something. In my personal experience and feedback, from speaking to hundreds of people who have attended Tony Robbin’s events, some things don’t make sense at the time or may not align with your thoughts in the past, but at the end it all suddenly makes sense. As Steve Jobs says “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”
- Get comfortable with being uncomfortable
Hopefully you already know that Tony Robbins events aren’t just sitting in your chair and listening to lectures all day long. There is a lot of physical activity to keep your energy high and to help you move outside your comfort zone. You really have to participate to be able to get the full benefit from the event. This is all part of integrating the learning and also changing the way you typically act to change the way you typically think. Don’t be afraid to jump, dance, hug, high five, share your thoughts etc.
- Disconnect
Be fully present. As mentioned a few times already you won’t get the full benefit unless you fully participate. There are not many breaks so it is best to tell people you will be completely offline and then, avoid your phone, social media etc. unless you are on a break or the event is over for the day. If you try to do your work and attend the event you will miss out as you need to keep your head clear and free from distractions.
- Hydrate
Take a reusable water bottle, there are typically places to refill, but it is super important to stay hydrated because you’re very active and the days can be long. Hydration = bathroom breaks, but don’t use that as an excuse not to stay well hydrated. Although there are no official bathroom breaks and you don’t want to miss a thing you can strategically time your breaks, right after an exercise or during dancing to minimise missing anything. Also, the bathrooms closest to the room are always the busiest, often it is faster to walk a little further than to wait in line.
- Nourish
Snacks are a must, make sure you bring them or allow time at the beginning of the week to stock up. Muesli bars, nuts, fruit, protein balls, dried fruit, trail mix, nutrition shakes, hummus and crackers or crudités, rice cakes etc. There is usually one short break each day, lines to buy food can be crazy because everyone breaks at the same time, so either buy the meal plan (offered at some events), organise a meal delivery service to your hotel (make sure you have a fridge in advance) and take it with you each day or get super organised to prepare a packed meal each day. The key is to make sure you have something decent to eat or your energy will fade. The room is cool, but I always take a cooler bag and ice pack with me to make sure the food I take stays fresh.
- Recover
You will meet a bunch of people you want to spend more time with, but beware the days can be very long so going out to party each night isn’t a great idea. The best thing you can do is get loads of sleep and make sure you are well rested each day. A huge tip I can give you is to give yourself a couple of extra days after the event to catch up on sleep, decompress, review your notes, absorb and process what you learned and make a plan for how you will integrate changes in your life. You will be tempted to plan to rush back into “life” straight afterwards but to allow yourself to recover and to successfully integrate your learnings you need to give yourself a little time.
- Be prepared to write notes
You will want to take a lot of notes, it’s all personal preference as to whether you want to write in a separate notebook, write in the handbook or both. If you want to write in the notebook and keep it all together there is usually enough notes pages to do so. Make sure you take pens (plural because so many people have pens that run out), you may also want to take coloured markers to help certain notes stand out I would highly recommend coloured markers for Date With Destiny.
- Dress for the event
Wear comfortable clothing and shoes, you’re going to be in them for a lot of hours and moving around a lot. I wear jeans or chinos and a button up shirt with a sweater and some comfortable boots, most women wear comfy stretch jeans or leggings with sneakers or boots along with a cozy sweater. Make sure you layer or take a warm coat, the room is literally freezing, then you jump around get hot, so it’s good to have layers you can easily add or remove. This isn’t a fashion parade and everyone is in the same boat, so truly wear what you are comfortable in.
- Build your immune system
There are a lot of people in an air-conditioned room, you are likely not getting as much rest as you usually do, you are physically active the whole time and you could be dealing with emotional things that come up for you. All of this may lead to you feeling run down or getting sick. As such it’s not a bad idea to build your immune system with vitamin C and zinc (or whatever else works for you) before, during and after the event.
- Learn more about Tony’s work.
This is completely optional as he will ensure you follow along regardless of what you know, and there is a good argument for it being better to go in blind. As I get asked this a lot here is the content I can recommend, but I can’t stress enough that it is not necessary:
- Read/listen to any of his books or audio programs
- Check out what is on YouTube e.g. his TED Talk
- Enrol in Breakthrough University
- Watch I Am Not Your Guru on Netflix
- NLP is the core of a lot of TR work, if you do a bit of research on this it will help you understand more
- Six Human Needs and Triad are the core of his work you can learn more in his TED Talk or on his website
- He does some things like sing “This is how we f*** ourselves up” and tap his head when people are stuck in their “story”. Don’t worry, you’ll catch on fast.
- Have no expectations
Despite this list don’t go in with any expectations, the experience is really different for each person. You just have to know the vast majority of people have a positive experience, often referred to as life changing, but you just don’t know what it will be for you, so all you can be is open and optimistic.
- Don’t sit with or buddy up with people you know
Don’t sit with people you know, you can be more open, play full out more when you are with strangers. Also, you can be your true self when you don’t know the other person as they don’t know you or have any expectations of who you “should” be. If you need to buddy up for the long haul my tip is to choose your buddy wisely, an amazing buddy helps create an amazing experience. Choose someone who is playing full out, has loads of energy and is super engaged. The best thing you can do though is give your buddy more than you expect them to give you. You get what you give. There is no such thing as a bad buddy, it is all about what you make of it.
- Stick with it!
You may feel tired, you may feel hungry, you may feel physically exhausted, you may feel run down or sick, the experience may feel uncomfortable or frustrating. The key is to stay in the room and see it through even if you’re not feeling at your best. It is often in the moments when you are close to your limits that the biggest breakthroughs happen, so don’t sell yourself short.
- Ask for help
With reference to the above point the whole team (crew, leaders, trainers etc.) is really caring so if you need any support don’t hesitate to ask. I’ve seen people sleeping in the back with pillows and blankets just to stay in the room. If you’re not in the right state, not getting it, not feeling right etc. ask any of the leaders and trainers for help, they are amazing resources and have been through it so many times before so have seen, heard and experienced it all before.
- Make connections
I remember being in line before the beginning of my very first event and meeting an amazing guy who told me that the people you sit next to in the room end up becoming some of your best friends and this couldn’t be more true. At each and every event I have attended I have met the most phenomenal people who have become lifelong friends. I’m not sure exactly what it is, whether it is because deep down everyone who chooses to attend has a similar type of personality or if it’s because you go through such an intense experience together? I’m really not sure, but either way I have met people who have become great friends, workout buddies, accountability partners, a master mind group, business partners and coaches and know many people who have ended up meeting their significant others at an event. It’s beautiful because afterwards you all speak a common language, have shared experiences and are committed to holding one another to a higher standard in life. You need to go there with the view of being open to meeting new people and being yourself, but also remembering to be the kind of people other people want to meet. There’s a saying “your vibe attracts your tribe”, if you want to attract amazing people into your life you have to give off the vibe to attract those people.
Overall, I am so grateful that I took the plunge and decided to go to a Tony Robbins event. Before I signed up I felt uncertain, wondering what it was all about, if it was some kind of cult, had no idea what to expect and wasn’t sure if it was really for me. It was really the fact that I felt so stuck in my life I figured I had nothing to lose so I did it.
I know there are split opinions on Tony and his work. I am not here to convert anyone, but what I can say is if you’ve read this far there must be some intrigue, so it may be worth investigating. I truly owe it to attending his events, learning so much about myself and uncovering my life purpose. He’s not a magician or a guru, but he knows his stuff and if you put in the work to apply what you learn it can truly be life changing.
Learning from Tony and the guests he has at his events has been so integral to my life I am now a part of Tony’s exclusive Platinum Partners family and enjoy amazing adventures with my peer group while I continue to learn from the best to ensure I am able to pass that knowledge onto my friends and coaching clients. If you ever have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out for honest answers.
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