Change Leverage
Find the personal reason that turns change from a preference into a must.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 96%
Robbins defines leverage as something a person values more than their present way of acting. Rather than supplying generic motivation, the coach looks for the individual's underlying drives and the consequences that matter to them. Leverage may come from avoiding a personally meaningful loss or moving toward a valued relationship, identity, or future. Once the reason is strong enough, the desired change can become a must rather than a should. The framework then requires conditioning: rehearsing and repeating the new choice so the emotional decision becomes behavior. Robbins's on-stage example uses intense confrontation; this extraction limits the method to voluntary, proportionate, and psychologically safe reflection. Strong emotion should not be manufactured through deception, humiliation, medical speculation, or threats.
Origin
Robbins explains leverage while discussing why conversation alone rarely produces a deep change in priorities. Extracted from The Diary of a CEO.
Core principles
- 01A reason creates leverage only if the person genuinely values it.
- 02Leverage can come from anticipated pain or desired pleasure.
- 03The goal is to make change internally necessary, not externally forced.
- 04Insight still requires conditioning and follow-through.
- 05Coercion and humiliation are not acceptable substitutes for consent.
How to run it
- 1
Confirm the chosen change
Ask what the person wants to change and why. Establish that the goal is voluntary, safe, and within the scope of coaching or self-reflection.
Pro tip Use the person's language rather than prescribing an ideal outcome.
Watch out Do not proceed through coercion or outside professional scope.
- 2
Find the current payoff
Identify what the existing behavior provides or protects, even if it also causes harm. A pattern is harder to change when its function remains hidden.
Pro tip Ask what would feel threatened if the behavior disappeared.
- 3
Surface meaningful consequences
Explore the realistic costs of continuing and the benefits of changing. Focus on consequences the person genuinely values rather than dramatic abstractions.
Pro tip Use concrete future situations and relationships.
Watch out Do not invent medical outcomes or use unsupported fear claims.
- 4
Choose the strongest reason
Select the value or relationship that makes the change feel necessary to the person. State the commitment in their own words.
Pro tip The strongest reason may be unexpected and need not sound impressive to anyone else.
- 5
Condition the change
Connect the reason to a specific repeated behavior and rehearse the choice in the situations where the old pattern appears. Review and adjust without escalating pressure.
Pro tip Place a reminder of the chosen reason at the decision point.
In the wild
During the conversation, Bartlett identifies his fiancée as a source of leverage for prioritizing love differently. Robbins also says his wife and youngest daughter influence his own priorities.
→ A desired value becomes connected to relationships that make the change emotionally concrete.
Common mistakes
Using generic motivation
A reason that matters to the coach may have no leverage for the person changing.
Confusing leverage with coercion
External pressure can violate consent and produce compliance without durable internal commitment.
Stopping at the emotional moment
Robbins says the decision still needs conditioning through repeated behavior.
Is it for you?
Best for
Consensual coaching or self-reflection where a person wants change but has not found a compelling reason to sustain it.
Not ideal for
Coercing another person, treating illness without professional care, or intensifying fear in someone in crisis.
From the transcript
“You have to have something you value more than your present way of doing things.”
“You got to get make change a must, not a should.”
From the episode
Tony Robbins: No One Is Ready For What's Coming! Why The Next Decade Will Break People!