This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Awaken the Giant Within" by Tony Robbins. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What is Tony Robbins’ CANI theory? How can committing yourself to CANI produce better results in the long term?
Tony Robbins’ CANI technique is all about committing yourself to constant and never-ending improvement. Making consistent, small changes to your life is often more effective than trying to change everything at once. Commit to Tony Robbins’ CANI method to take control of your life, with powerful results over time.
Keep reading for more about Tony Robbins’ CANI theory.
Tony Robbins and CANI: Make a Change
Before we discuss how to create change, first acknowledge that you need to make some strategic changes. Your current thoughts and behaviors have produced the life you have now, so you can’t expect to get different results as long as you continue to follow the same patterns. Whether you’re an individual looking to improve your life, the head of a company seeking to make the organization successful, or a government leader trying to raise your country’s international profile, the basic principles of change are the same:
- Raise your standards. The standards you set dictate your aspirations, your expectations of yourself, and what you’re willing to tolerate. This book will help you identify what your current standards are and determine what they need to be to create your ideal life.
- Believe in yourself. No matter how much you raise your standards, you won’t reap the benefits if you don’t believe that you can reach them. Your beliefs dictate what you can and can’t do, and what’s possible and impossible. If you believe you can do something, then you will find a way to do it—you’ll dig deep, push ahead, and reach your standards. This book will help you identify your current beliefs, determine which beliefs are helping you, and change the beliefs that are holding you back.
- Adopt new strategies. Your strategies for achieving your goals determine how efficiently and effectively you meet your high standards. While you’ll likely develop some of your own strategies, this book will also provide some tried-and-tested approaches. One of the most effective strategies is to find a mentor who’s achieved what you’re striving to do and use their knowledge and experiences as a foundation for your own journey.
Constant and Never-Ending Improvement
If you’re a fan of Tony Robbins, you’ll be learning insights and tools that will empower you to change your life. While this is exciting and liberating, it can also be overwhelming. Rather than trying to do everything at once, commit to constant and never-ending improvement (CANI).
The key to CANI is to consistently take actions to make small improvements. On one side of the spectrum, this prevents you from trying to take on too much at once—on the other end of the spectrum, it prevents you from stagnating. Over time, these incremental improvements compound to produce incredible results.
For Tony Robbins, CANI can even change the way you look at failure. Committing to CANI! means constantly looking for ways to improve yourself and your life, and a failure in some area of your life provides valuable feedback that your current approach isn’t working. This creates a critical experience and an opportunity to improve by altering your flawed approach.
Although in this summary you’ll gain a lot of knowledge about how to take control of your life now, you’ll also encounter opportunities to improve yourself throughout life. Your ultimate success depends on your long-term commitment to CANI—in your personal life, finances, health, relationships, work, and spirituality.
To reinforce your commitment to Tony Robbins’ CANI theory, ask yourself these three questions each night:
- What did you learn today? Learning is essential to personal growth and improvement. Once you establish a habit of reviewing what you’ve learned, you’ll start actively looking for learning opportunities.
- What did you enjoy? Consistently improving yourself will continually increase your enjoyment of life.
- How did you make a contribution or improvement? Contributing to the well-being of others not only improves their lives but also makes you a better person. Acknowledge your achievement when you give back to others or make improvements in your own life.
Tony Robbins’ CANI theory can help you reframe what improvement means to you. Rather than trying to tackle everything at once, commit to constant and never-ending improvement for long-term results.
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Here's what you'll find in our full Awaken the Giant Within summary :
- How to make transformational changes to your life through small adjustments
- How you create your destiny every time you start a sentence with “I am…”
- Strategies to take control of your thoughts and emotions
