Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2015, when Tony Robbins was 55 and had just finished a tour of six countries in 12 days; his age and the stage of his working life described are as of that time.
The first time I saw Tony Robbins speak on stage, even though I didn’t understand what he was saying (he speaks English, and very fast at that), I understood why he is considered the best coach on the planet. He conveyed a passion and an energy you rarely see in a speaker or lecturer.
Tony Robbins has been giving seminars for more than 30 years, some of them lasting over 50 hours, and he is one of the few who can draw between 5,000 and 10,000 people to a single seminar. He has advised former president Bill Clinton, tennis player Serena Williams and veteran hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones, and he has sold millions of books and videos, among them Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within (which I have recommended enthusiastically before).
It may not look like it, but Robbins is 55, and he says he is currently in the most active stage of his working life, which is why so many people want to know his secret for getting through days that sometimes feel like marathons.
Robbins recently gave an interview to Business Insider. He had just finished a tour that took him to six countries in 12 days, something exhausting even for a 20-year-old athlete. These are some of the routines that keep him energetic and full of life despite the pace he keeps, even when he doesn’t always manage to get enough sleep.
Robbins says he doesn’t take any stimulants. Instead, he has built strict habits around managing his emotions, his diet, exercise and stress. And, above all, around the morning, one of the most important parts of the day.
(See also: Tony Robbins: 5 tips for building wealth so obvious they’re fascinating)
His morning routine
No matter how much he has slept, and no matter where in the world he is, the first thing he does in the morning is plunge into a cold bath for one minute. He says he used to shower in hot water and then switch to cold, but now he goes straight to the cold water.
“I don’t do it because I’m a masochist. I do it because nothing changes your whole system like a radical change in temperature,” he said. At home he has a whole-body cryotherapy machine.
And the truth is that many studies support cold showers, not only to strengthen the immune system but also to release a rush of endorphins in the brain.
The 10-minute ritual
Robbins advises everyone to set aside 10 minutes in the morning for some light breathing exercises and meditation. Each person should find their own. His is a yoga exercise in which he sits up straight and does a series of inhalations and exhalations.
Expressing gratitude: A great believer in gratitude, he recommends reminding yourself every morning of everything that makes it worth getting up, from your personal goals to your children.
(See: 12 things you need to remember when you wake up every morning)
When it comes to managing emotions, it’s clear we can’t feel six emotions at the same time, so if you choose gratitude and look for the things you’re grateful for, you’ll start the day with some motivation and, most importantly, without dwelling on so many worries.
The fuel
Tony Robbins knows there are very tasty foods (think of Spanish cured sausages like sobrasada or salchichón), but he sees breakfast for what it is: fuel. So the fuel has to be nutritious and healthy, even if it’s more boring. He says he eats fish and salad for breakfast, but it’s up to each person to find their own preferred fuel within healthy options.
Moderate exercise
For Robbins, exercise should be compulsory for everyone. He admits he had weight problems as a child. Although he wanted to shape his body, he says that by the age of 20 he was no longer motivated by improving his physique and focused mainly on exercise as a source of energy. Of course, one thing naturally leads to the other: if you exercise to feel full of life, you’ll also be in better physical shape.
To do this he learned from Stu Mittleman, the American who ran 1,000 miles in 11 days, sleeping only three hours a day. We talked about him in our article “How to condition yourself for success by breaking your limits“.
To train like Mittleman, you should go at a comfortable pace and keep your heart rate at a steady level when doing other exercises. There’s no need to push your body beyond its limits, which is what people who focus on improving their physique rather than gaining energy tend to do.
He doesn’t worry about age
When Robbins was 39, he did an intense 120-day seminar tour around the world. Someone told him: “Tony, remember you’re 39, and even great athletes usually retire at 40.”
He says it didn’t have to be that way. He wanted to stay full of life whatever his age. So he sought out the most extreme athletes to study what made them so different from everyone else.
That is how he came across Madonna Buder, a nun who started her athletic career at 40 after a priest recommended running as a spiritual exercise. She went on to complete 45 Ironman races and more than 350 triathlons. In fact, she was still racing at 80.
What is the difference between this athlete and others? There may be some genetics involved, but the truth is that, with equal conditions and health, the only difference is that some athletes know they are already old at 40, while others know they are young at 50 and that age is no obstacle to progress.
Blood tests
Robbins also found that almost all the exceptional athletes over 65 paid careful attention to their nutrient levels through blood tests.
That’s when he started having a blood test every six months instead of once a year, and using the results as a guide to adjust his diet, adding the nutrients he needed according to the deficiencies the tests showed.
He doesn’t drink coffee or take recreational drugs and, needless to say, Robbins neither drinks alcohol nor smokes. He wants his body conditioned the way athletes condition theirs and his mind completely clear and lucid, so, as he admits, alcohol is one of the biggest destroyers of energy, besides being considered a potential depressant, which interferes with managing emotions.
Energy is life
You can lack anything in life, money, resources… but if you have energy, you’ll be able to get it done. If you don’t have energy, your children will wear you out, because they have more energy than you. If you don’t have energy, you won’t be at 100% in your business, let alone be able to run several businesses, as Tony Robbins does.
See also: The 6 areas of your life to master to control your destiny, according to Tony Robbins
Featured image: U. A. Saarinen, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
