Tony Robbins is not your Guru.

Tony Robbins is a master at motivating people into changing their lives, although I have been reading his books and listening to him speak since the 80's I have found it hard to stick but what the new documentary: Tony Robbins: I am not your Guru explains is that you need a physical shift in the way you transform into a new way of being.  I guess I haven't had that physical change but I must say that some of the things he has said over the years have stuck with me.  I find myself thinking about a lot of it after seeing the documentary which takes you into his Date with Destiny 12 hour, 6 day seminars.  You pretty much give up everything and focus on your life in those 6 days, and I guess that's where the physical transformation comes into play.  When all you do is focus all of your attention on the things you are unhappy with in your life you start to think about what you have to do to change it.  Tony helps you zero in on what the core of the problem is and what you have to do to make the change.

I saw the documentary at the 2016 Hot Docs film festival where Tony was in attendance to introduce the film.  I have to tell you that I stood in a rush line for an hour to see the 1st screening at which he did a full Q&A and unfortunately the Rush line cut off just in front of me.  So my friend and I killed time at the coffee shop next door waiting for the 2nd screening.  I knew Tony would be there and wanted to get a chance to see the screening and hear what he had to say, even though I knew the film is going to be shown on Netflix in July.  We did get in and we did get to see Tony Robbins but unfortunately he wasn't able to stay for a Q&A afterwards but the director Joe Berlinger did.  Joe was the director of the great documentary about Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.

Joe explained that he met Tony socially years ago and didn't believe in the seminars but Tony invited him to attend one and even though he was skeptical it changed his mind and his life.  He decided he wanted to make a documentary about it and see if it was real and was persistent in asking Tony to let him do it and after a long time Tony finally agreed.  He didn't want the cameras to get in the way of the attendees experience.  Joe took a fly on the wall approach to filming and even though he did some interviews it is mostly just viewing people going through their experiences at the seminar and sharing their stories.

Because I was well aware of what Tony Robbins does after even seeing him live at a Millionaire Mind weekend seminar at the Metro Convention Centre years ago, note: don't go see him on a full stomach,  I wasn't able to stay until the end of his seminar but I got a good 40 minutes experience of it.  It's a non stop full impact high energy and very interactive presentation.  Prepare to be all in if you attend one of these seminars.  The one I attended was a weekend with many different speakers and although I was turned off by many of them because I found that most of them were just pushing books or future expensive seminars,  there were a few of the speakers that were very interesting and made a lot of sense.  I am sure Tony tried to sell some books and seminars but I left before he got to the sell part.  That was the only thing that turned me off was that most of these things get you hyped up and sucked in to spend more money, kind of like some psychics.  I am not saying Tony does this but it's because of this kind of practice that Tony has a lot of skeptics.  I do think he is the real deal and understands and can get to the root of someone's problems like a qualified psychologist.  I suppose you really need to experience it or read the books to see if things click for you.

I would suggest that you see the documentary and decide for yourself if you believe in it or not.
I do think that Tony is genuine and real and you have to be to do this for 30 plus years with countless corporations and celebrities.  Celebrities who were in attendance at the seminar shown in the documentary were Julian and Derek Hough and Maria Menounos.

He has a reputation as huge as he is and I suppose the title of the film speaks to the fact that you have to do the work and he just gives you the tools to do it.

I would recommend seeing the documentary if you don't know much about him and see if any of it relates to your own life.  Watch with an open mind and you will get something from it.