Tony Robbins, byname of Anthony Robbins, original name Anthony J. Mahavorick, (born February 29, 1960, Glendora, California, U.S.), American motivational speaker and “life coach” who created a multifaceted business empire by preaching a gospel of self-improvement.

     has been called “the CEO whisperer.” He’s coached everyone from Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey to Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela and is held in awe by blokes and billionaires. Perhaps no other life and career coach today can make that claim.

Robbins is so successful, in fact, that he has quietly built an empire of companies that generate around $5 billion per year. If they were one company, it would warrant inclusion in the Fortune 500. Robbins himself is worth an estimated $480 million.

But Robbins did not always have a rose-tinted life. In fact, the man who seems larger than life was once shrimpy and short. He grew up in poverty, in a broken home and had zero prospects.

    The oldest of three children, Robbins’ parents divorced when he was seven. His mother married several more times, but there was never a stable father figure or regular income.At the age of 14, Robbins had become the man of the house. He took care of his siblings, cooking meals and acting as a handyman around the home.

By the time Robbins was 17, he was out of high school, living on his own, his dreams of a degree in sports journalism dashed. He had to survive on a janitor’s salary of $40 per week. But Robbins wasn’t demoralized.

    Robbins’ biggest personal mistake may have been marrying ex-wife Becky Jenkins at the age of 24 — for all the wrong reasons.Jenkins had three children when she married Robbins — a 17-year-old son, an 11-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son. Robbins stayed with her until the youngest kid had gone off to college before finally making the painful decision to part ways.

Robbins’ incredible rags-to-riches story, outrageous confidence and unshakeable optimism are driven by his almost complete mastery over his own thoughts. He thinks that the biggest thing holding most people back is their own self-limiting beliefs. “People are not lazy,” he said. “They simply have impotent goals, goals that do not inspire them.

Team Inspiring Life provides you with a list of 7 lessons you learn from the life of Tony Robbins.

 7 lessons to learn from the life of Tony Robbins.

1. Keep your focus right.

What we focus on feels real to us in the moment, and whatever we pay more attention to in our lives grows. If we’re focused on how we can add more value to our clients, we’ll consistently find ways to add more value to their lives. If we’re focused on our excuses for why we can’t achieve something, we’ll empower that limiting belief more and more.

Tony Robbins excellent at guiding the focus of a room full of thousands of people in his seminars, and you can be too. He does this most effectively by asking specific questions. It’s our questions that direct our focus. And when we get to the root of it, we all have at least one primary question that drives our lives, that drives our focus, that directs our energy, and that creates our story and our life.

2. Change your story.

Tony Robbins believes that we all have stories for our lives. Most of the time, we tell them unconsciously to ourselves and to others. For example, how’s your day been so far? The answer you’re thinking of right now is a story, and the fun part is you have the ability to define your story. You might not be able to change the events and circumstances that happen in your life, but you can certainly choose the meaning for them.

3. 2 mm change is sometimes all you need.

In soccer, the difference between scoring a goal versus missing the goal is within 2 mm. It’s the difference between hitting the sweet spot on the ball rather than coming under the ball making the shot fly over the crossbar.

The smallest changes can result in the biggest achievements. According to Tony Robbins, a 2mm difference in where you kick a soccer ball determines whether you will score a goal or not. You can apply the same concept to your health, finances, business or family life. Find out what you need to slightly adjust in any of these sectors and you will achieve the happiness that you desire.

4. Spend time appreciating rather than deciding.

Tony Robbins believed that one of the ways to achieve happiness is being grateful. You can only be truly grateful when you appreciate the things around you. By being appreciative, you get to feel rich, wealthy and most importantly happy. This is regardless of how your finances look like at the moment. Therefore, Tony encourages you to appreciate what you currently have instead of spending your time desiring the things you don’t have.

5. Making progress is the path to success.

Tony Robbins believed that working towards your personal dreams and goals is one of the most fulfilling expressions of human happiness. Whenever you face a difficult challenge and ovecome it, your soul and heart both rejoice in the achievement. Tony says that we should understand the link between happiness and achieving our goals. Strive to overcome the hardship associated with your goals and make gradual progress until you achieve success.

6. Your decisions create your destiny.

Tony Robbins indicates that we create our destinies in the moments of our decisions. There are three main decisions that we make on a daily basis that guide our lives forward. They include what we are focusing on, how much it means to us and what we need to do about it. Tony says that we can actively shape our destinies by answering these three questions.

7. Foster the right habit according to your fundamental needs.

No matter where we live or our present circumstances, we all share 6 fundamental needs. They include certainty, significance, variety, growth, love and contribution. Whenever we create a habit that meets three out of these needs, then it actively becomes an addiction. This can be a powerful force guiding our decisions and actions too. Tony Robbins says that we need to create constructive addictions so as to achieve success. They will propel you forward in a powerful way.