Kristin Alioto and Tony Robbins
BREAKTHROUGH WITH TONY ROBBINS
Friendly Rating: Middle school and older.
Safety Rating: Some bleeped language under duress.
Quality Rating: Pop psychology 101 – if that’s fun, you’re gold.
Series premieres tonight on NBC at 8 p.m.
My biggest single thought while watching this show was “Do as I say, not as I do.” I’m not saying Tony Robbins doesn’t have some good things to say about getting past the baggage and other nonsense most of us use as excuses to stay stuck in our personal mires. But I’m sorry. Most of us can’t afford to go sky-diving, let alone in Fiji, to re-awaken our feelings of personal power.
Admittedly, I’m one of those folks who cannot understand jumping out of a perfectly good plane just for the fun of it.
Basically, an Oprah Magazine on steroids, the show is an Extreme Makeover: Head Edition for folks who can really use some help getting past some serious stuff. For example, the couple in the premiere episode, the Aliotos. The night they got married, he jumped into a shallow pool and broke his neck, turning him into a quadripelegic. And they were having some trouble getting past this.
Enter Robbins and the trip to Fiji to go skydiving. Ummm. Most of what Robbins encouraged the couple to do, they were able to do right here – like listen to each other and step off the guilt-go-round long enough to check into each other’s feelings.
Oh, dear. Mummy’s sounding cynical and cranky again. I’m not sure what Robbins’ background is – NBC lists him as an “entrepreneur, author and peak performance strategist.” Wikipedia defines him as a “self-help author and motivational speaker.“ Oddly enough, I see nothing about his academic background. A cautionary flag, but I’ve met wiser folk who had no formal education, so that’s not necessarily a problem. Your mileage may vary.
The bottom line is that Robbins has some interesting things to say about getting past the dreck. It’s a little simplistic. The settings are more than a little ridiculous. So if you do as he says….. <shrug>
