Photo: Courtesy of Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins, the bestselling author, entrepreneur and life and business strategist, has spent decades challenging people to examine what they want, what they believe and what may be keeping them from changing their lives.

Now, more than 30 years after Awaken the Giant Within was first published, Robbins has returned with an updated edition of the book—and some of its questions may be even more interesting in the second half of life.

What Do You Really Want?

It sounds ridiculously simple. What do you really want?

Not what did you want when you were 25. Not what your parents expected. Not what your children need. Not what your résumé says you should be doing.

What do you want now?

One of Robbins’ recurring points is that many people never clearly decide. We spend years responding to what is immediately in front of us—work, family, bills, deadlines, obligations. Suddenly, decades have gone by.

That question becomes especially interesting after 45 because the answer can change. Maybe what mattered tremendously at 35 doesn’t matter nearly as much at 65. Maybe something you put aside years ago suddenly does.

Maybe you don’t want to retire in the traditional sense. Maybe you want another career. Or to start a business. Travel. Paint. Learn Italian. Get stronger. Make new friends. Move. Stay exactly where you are but live differently.

Robbins argues that change starts by deciding what you want and identifying what is stopping you.

That second part may be harder.

Is Your Age a Fact—or a Belief?

This is where Awaken the Giant Within becomes particularly interesting for Healthy Aging® readers.

Robbins writes about two women who reached 70 with very different beliefs about what being 70 meant. One saw it essentially as the beginning of the end. The other kept moving.

That woman was Hulda Crooks.

Crooks took up serious hiking later in life and continued climbing for decades. At 91, she became the oldest woman at the time to climb Japan’s Mount Fuji. Same general age. Very different expectations.

Robbins’ larger point is that events themselves don’t necessarily determine the direction of our lives. Our beliefs about what those events mean can have enormous power.

Turn 70 and believe the interesting part is over? Or turn 70 and wonder what’s next?

The number isn’t necessarily making the decision. You are.

The Stories We Tell Ourselves

Beliefs can be useful. They can also quietly work against us.

Think about the statements that can become part of our personal vocabulary:

“I’d love to travel, but I’m too old to do that kind of trip.”

“I’ve never been athletic.”

“I’m terrible with technology.”

“I’m not creative.”

“It’s too late to start over.”

“I could never run a business.”

Say something often enough and it can stop sounding like an opinion. It starts sounding like a fact.

Robbins challenges readers to examine those beliefs rather than automatically obey them. That’s worth doing at any age, but perhaps particularly in the second half of life, when society supplies us with plenty of beliefs about what we supposedly should—or shouldn’t—be doing.

Ask Better Questions

Robbins also offers a surprisingly simple tool: ask yourself better questions.

What are you happy about in your life now? What are you excited about? What are you proud of? What are you grateful for? What are you enjoying most? What are you committed to?

And if you can’t immediately think of an answer, change the question slightly.

What could you be happy about? What could you be excited about?

That one word opens a door.

At the end of the day, the questions change: What did I give today? What did I learn today? How did today add to the quality of my life—or how can I use what happened today as an investment in my future?

Not every day is going to be wonderful. Some are downright awful. But perhaps even an awful day can teach us something useful for tomorrow.

Keep Learning

Another theme running through Robbins’ book is the importance of continuing to read and learn throughout life.

Keep exposing yourself to ideas. Keep questioning what you think you know. Keep reading people who challenge you—even if you don’t agree with everything they say.

Curiosity, after all, has no age limit.

What do you really want now?

That question—and what happens when we stop telling ourselves “I’m too old to…”—is at the heart of our new Tony Robbins feature in the Fall 2026 issue of Healthy Aging® Magazine.

Read the complete feature, “Tony Robbins: Awaken the Giant Within — Again,” in the Fall 2026 issue of Healthy Aging® Magazine.

Awaken the Giant Within, Updated by Tony Robbins is published by Simon & Schuster.