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Browse every published article connected to Mike Robbins, with exact attribution and full-archive search.
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Browse every published article connected to Mike Robbins, or search within this exact expert archive.
When my wife Michelle and I were expecting our first child Samantha, we were very excited, nervous, grateful, curious, joyous, and more as we anticipated her arrival. With all of the books, classes, advice, and conversations we had encountered, most of the focus of this information has been on ...
My friend Gabrielle Be stein's new book, Miracles Now, has had me stop and think more deeply about my own relationship to "miracles" and also how to create more of them in my life on a daily basis. As Albert Einstein said, "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." This is so true! In this week's video blog, I explore this idea of miracles and share a few things you can focus on to create more miracles in your life.
My counselor Eleanor recently said to me, “Mike, if you’re trying to prove something, it means you don’t actually believe it yet.” Her words hit me right between the eyes, as they often do. She was right and as I reflect on certain aspects of my life, I can see that where I’m overly attached to proving myself, it’s because I don’t actually believe in my own skill, talent, or value (i.e. I’m looking for outside validation to “prove” my worth)...maybe you can relate to this?
I've had a number of experiences in the past few months which have both inspired me and challenged me to think big (and also to look at the ways in which I don't.) All too often we let our egos, our fears, our perceived limitations, or our selfish motivations get in our way from thinking big. In this week's video blog I talk about this phenomenon and how we can get out of our own way, with compassion, and challenge ourselves to think big in an authentic way.
We live in a world of distractions. All day, every day we are bombarded with opportunities to be distracted.
A few months ago I got some specific feedback that it would serve me, my work, and my growth to start practicing the art of allowing in a more conscious and deliberate way. While I was familiar with the concept of allowing, I realized I had very little awareness or experience of it in actual practice. As I looked more deeply at it, I realized that I had a judgment about the whole concept of "allowing." It had always seemed weak, passive, lazy, or based on "luck" to me.
Wow… that was an unbelievable World Series! If you watched it passionately as I did, you know what I’m talking about. Even if you didn’t and you don’t know or care that much about baseball or sports, there are a number of things that made this World Series remarkable and also some important things we can learn from it that go way beyond baseball and sports in general.
I’ve been fascinated by the recent sensationalized stories in the media about “Balloon Boy,” the White House party crashers, and the various alleged mistresses of Tiger Woods coming out to tell their tales.
My wife Michelle and I recently went to see Glennon Melton speak about her new book, Carry On Warrior. Glennon is a blogger from Florida who has a very successful blog called Momastery.com. Her posts are read by tens of thousands of moms like Michelle (and others) around the world. I thought I was attending the event to support Glennon’s new book and to support Michelle (since she loves what Glennon does so much). And even though I was one of only a handful of men in the sea of a few hundred women at this event, I got so much out of it.
These few days before the start of the new year have a magical and sacred quality to them. I appreciate the lull in activity that often takes place this week and the opportunity we have to reflect back on the year that is ending, as well as to create new possibilities and intentions for the year that’s about to start. It often seems more exciting to focus on our “resolutions” for the coming year than it does to look back.
I saw Rev. Michael Beckwith perform a re-commitment ceremony for a married couple a few years back and it blew me away. He looked at the husband and said, “Your job is to be her biggest fan and her greatest critic for the purpose of her spiritual development.” He then turned to the wife and said the same thing to her about him. As simple of a concept as this was for me to understand, I’d never heard anyone say it quite like that before. As what he said fully registered with me, I was moved deeply and began to cry.
I was talking to a mentor of mine a few weeks ago and I asked him, “Do you think I’m on the right track?” He said to me, “Mike, the issue isn’t whether or not you’re on the ‘right’ track; it’s that you think there’s a ‘right’ track to begin with.” As we talked about this more and I began to think about it in a different way, I realized that so often I find myself striving for this insatiable “right track,” as if there’s some place I’m “supposed” to be and some outside authority who can validate it for me.
I was recently invited to be a speaker for an upcoming online telesummit called The Power of Purpose. While I’m honored to be a part of this program, the invitation had me pause and reflect a bit about my own life and work, and specifically ask myself the question, “Am I living on purpose?” My initial answer was, “Yes, of course I am.” However, as I thought about it more deeply, I could see that there are many aspects of my life and my work that aren’t “on purpose” at all.
In a recent session with my counselor Eleanor, she said something simple, but profound to me; “Nothing changes until you do.” She went on to say, “Mike, you keep trying to control and manipulate the situations, relationships, and outcomes in your life – thinking that if they changed in the way you want them to, you’d then change and things would be better. It actually works the other way around.”
A few months ago one of my mentors said to me, "Mike, it sounds like you're 'should-ing' all over yourself." I laughed when she said this, as I've heard this saying many times before (and have even given this same feedback to others). However, something about her saying this to me at that particular moment caught my attention and struck me deeply.
How often do you not say or do something because you’re worried about how it’ll be perceived? For most of us, myself included, this happens more often then we’d like to admit. We live in a culture that is starving for authenticity. We want our leaders, our co-workers, our family members, our ...
One of my favorite quotes is this one from Tony Robbins: “The answer is always ‘no’ if you don’t ask.” Isn’t that the truth?! So often we know exactly what we want, but for a myriad of reasons we are unwilling to ask for it. Usually we’re scared we’ll get rejected or we’re worried about what ...
Appreciating “Difficult” People Are there people in your life, on your team, and/or with whom you interact regularly that get on your nerves? Have you ever found yourself wanting to yell at the top of your lungs, “Knock it off, I can’t stand you?” If so, you are not alone…welcome to being human! ...
Have you ever had something taken away from you only to realize how much you appreciated it after it was gone? Most of us have taken someone or something for granted. We only truly realized how much that person or situation meant to us after the fact. For example, at the age of twenty three ...
Failure! Just the word “failure” can send shivers up and down our spine. If you’re like me and many of my clients, you’re probably not a big fan of failing. However, if you think about some of your biggest failures in life, haven’t they taught you a great deal and been extremely valuable to ...
In a recent sessio I had with my new counselor Eleanor, she said to me, "Mike, it sounds like embracing powerlessness is something that would benefit you right now." When she said this, a chill went down my spine and my body tightened up. "What do you mean, 'embrace powerlessness'?'" I asked. "Why would I want to do that?"
About a year or so ago I started playing a game with my two girls, Samantha (our six year old) and Rosie (our three and a half year old). The game goes like this; I ask each one of them, “How much does daddy love you?” They respond by putting one or both of their arms up into the air as high as they can and say, “This much.” Then I say, “That’s right! And how come I love you so much?” To which they say, “Just because I’m me!”
I had a painful, but poignant phone conversation earlier this week with my wife Michelle. She shared some challenges with me in a vulnerable and passionate way. As I started to give her some of my "helpful advice" (as I often do - being a man, as well as an author, speaker, and coach, I'm fairly well trained at giving advice), she stopped me and said, "Can't you just give me empathy for me? That's what I really need right now. Once I feel your empathy, I can hear your feedback."
How often do you catch yourself worrying? When I was a kid my mom used to say to me, "95% of what you worry about never happens." I think she recognized that I was the "worrying type" and was trying to help ease my mind. Although this rarely worked, I appreciated her sentiment and know now that she was right.
Michelle and I were having dinner with some friends a few months ago and our friend Joel said, "I'm practicing giving up blame completely." As he said this, I found myself simultaneously inspired and confronted. As I've explored the idea of letting go of blame in recent months, I've been quite humbled and surprised to realize how pervasive blame is in our culture, my community, and in my own life. How often do you find yourself blaming other people or circumstances for your stress, frustration, or for things "not being the way they 'should' be?"
Trust can be tricky for many of us, myself included. It can be scary, seem naïve, and feel vulnerable. We often spend a lot of time and energy shielding ourselves from failure, being taken advantage of, or having our trust violated. What are we really protecting ourselves from? As someone said to me many years ago, “Mike you’re living your life as though you’re trying to survive it. You have to remember, no one ever has.”
My friend Rich came over to my office last week and we had a wonderful and authentic conversation about what's going on in each of our lives right now. I'm so grateful to have people in my life like Rich whom I can talk to and get real. Authenticity creates freedom and having people around us we can truly be ourselves with is so important. Rich and I talked vulnerably about our relationships, our challenges, the things we're most excited about, and some stuff we'd both like to change about ourselves and our lives.
This video blog post (http://mike-robbins.com/take-care-of-your-animal/) is inspired by an interview with Elizabeth Gilbert and my friend Jonathan Fields on his podcast, The Good Life Project. Elizabeth talks about the importance of taking care of her “animal” (aka her physical body) so that her “supercomputer” (aka soul/spirit/creative life force) can function at the highest level. I love this simple, yet powerful distinction. If we can take good care of ourselves on a basic, physical level, not only are we healthier, but we become more open, receptive, creative, and powerful.
September 3, 2015 The unexpected passing of Dr. Wayne Dyer has had a big impact on me. He was an amazing teacher who inspired me (and millions of others) for many years. He was also someone I was honored to have met a few times in the past few years when we both spoke at events for our publisher, Hay House.
Given the focus of my work, especially in the past five years since the release of my book Be Yourself, Everyone Else Is Already Taken, which is all about authenticity and vulnerability, I’m constantly in situations where I’m talking about, encouraging, and seeing the positive impact of vulnerability.
Have you ever had something taken away from you only to realize how much you appreciated it after it was gone?nnI ask this question every time I start one of my speeches and seminars on appreciation. As I pause and wait for people to respond, many hands go up. nnMost of us have taken someone or something for granted. We only truly realized how much that person or situation meant to us after the fact. nnFor example, at the age of 23 my professional baseball career ended abrupt
Have you ever had something taken away from you only to realize how much you appreciated it after it was gone?n nI ask this question every time I start one of my speeches and seminars on appreciation. As I pause and wait for people to respond, many hands go up. n nMost of us have taken someone or something for granted. We only truly realized how much that person or situation meant to us after the fact. n nFor example, at the age of 23 my professional baseball career ended abr