The 7-Day Positive
Thinking Challenge.

This week Mason and Hayden take on a 7-day version of the Ten-Day Mental Challenge from Tony Robbins' 1991 book Awaken the Giant Within. The rule is simple and hard: no dwelling on negative thoughts or emotions. Slip for more than two minutes and you're back to Day 1 the next morning. We get into where the challenge comes from, the tools that make it doable (better questions, better words, and moving your body), a story of the week, a skit about getting caught mid-spiral, and what we've been reading and watching. Grab the tracker, play along, and tell us how you did. We report our results next week.

Suggested flow. These planning times are not episode chapters.

Eric Andre-style: both hosts stand at their mics and stare into the camera. A deadpan 10 to 30 seconds, then a hard cut into the regular intro. This is the standing first beat of every episode from here on.

Format

Both hosts stand at their mics, staring into the camera for an uncomfortably long beat (3 to 5 seconds of silence). Deadpan. No music. One says something flat and absurd. The other reacts minimally, or not at all. Then a hard cut into the theme or the normal intro. Keep it under 30 seconds. Shoot 2-3 takes and keep the best one.

Rules

• Never break character.
• Never explain the joke.
• Silence is the punchline.
• It doesn't need to relate to the episode.

This week's script

Alternate

Hayden

Future cold open ideas

1. One host is already mid-sentence when the camera starts
2. A mic stand that's way too tall
3. Reading an awkward fake listener email in total silence

Hayden's longer open: the karaoke speech

About 1:30 to 2:00. Right after Mason's intro. It's a sketch he's working on, not something that happened. Talk to Mason, don't read at him.

1. Last week's goal for Mason
2. Last week's goal for Hayden
3. Did we hit it? Yes / partly / no
4. What got in the way?
5. What surprised you?
6. Score 1 to 10, and why that number
7. Carry it forward, change it, or drop it?

The book and the original challenge

Awaken the Giant Within came out in 1991. The Ten-Day Mental Challenge is chapter 13, the last chapter of the book's first part, Unleash Your Power. It comes right after the chapters on questions (8), vocabulary (9), metaphors (10) and emotions (11), so it works like a final exam for those tools.

The idea: for ten consecutive days, refuse to indulge in or dwell on unresourceful thoughts or emotions. You'll still have them. The rule is about not staying there. You get a short window to catch it and switch. If you dwell longer, you start over the next morning, even on Day 9.

It isn't about ignoring problems. Robbins' rule of thumb: spend no more than 10 percent of your time on the problem and at least 90 percent on the solution.

Fun tie-in for why seven: the book's own later section is called The Seven Days to Shape Your Life (chapters 19 to 25), one assignment per day.

What's it like to have ten consecutive days without disempowering thought, emotion, or focus?Tony Robbins, describing the challenge on tonyrobbins.com

Why 7 days for this show

• It fits the show. We record weekly, so the challenge runs from this recording to the next and we report on air.
• Seven in a row is hard enough to matter and short enough that people actually start.
• It echoes the book's Seven Days to Shape Your Life section.
• If you nail seven, go for Robbins' full ten.

Our rules

1. Start each morning with questions. Answer at least three Morning Power Questions, two or three answers each. Stuck? Swap in "could": what could I be happy about?
2. No dwelling, all day. A negative thought, emotion, word or complaint will show up. Catch it and switch your focus. Don't beat yourself up for having it.
3. The two-minute rule. You get two minutes to turn it around using the toolkit below.
4. The restart rule. Dwell longer than two minutes and the next morning is Day 1 again, even if you were on Day 6.
5. Problems get solution questions. Face problems with the problem-solving questions instead of venting about them. This is not about ignoring problems.
6. End each night with questions and the tracker. Answer the Evening Power Questions, mark the day, and note whether you reset.
7. Report back next episode. Longest streak, number of resets, the hardest moment, the tool that worked best, and a 1 to 10 score.

The toolkit

Morning Power Questions

1. What am I happy about in my life now?
2. What am I excited about in my life now?
3. What am I proud of in my life now?
4. What am I grateful for in my life now?
5. What am I enjoying most in my life right now?
6. What am I committed to in my life right now?
7. Who do I love? Who loves me?

Problem-solving questions

1. What is great about this problem?
2. What is not perfect yet?
3. What am I willing to do to make it the way I want it?
4. What am I willing to no longer do in order to make it the way I want it?
5. How can I enjoy the process while I do what is necessary to make it the way I want it?

Evening Power Questions

1. What have I given today? In what ways have I been a giver today?
2. What did I learn today?
3. How has today added to the quality of my life, or how can I use today as an investment in my future?

Personal stakes

• The thought loop Mason most wants to break
• The thought loop Hayden most wants to break
• Where are we most likely to slip? (work stress, traffic, scrolling, late nights)
• Suggested friendly wager: whoever resets more buys breakfast after next week's recording

Reset column: write yes or no each night. A yes means tomorrow is Day 1 again; keep the daily focus going anyway. If you start the day after recording, Day 7 lands the day before next week's episode.

How listeners join along

1. Start tomorrow morning. Day 1 is the morning after you hear this. Do the Morning Power Questions before your phone.
2. Use the tracker. Screenshot or print the tracker below and mark each night.
3. Be honest about resets. A reset isn't failing. It's the whole point. Count them.
4. Send us your results. Streak, resets, and your best tool, before next week's episode.

One real story each tied to negative spirals or turning a mood around.

Prompts

• A time this week a small thing snowballed into a bad day. What was the moment it could have turned?
• A time one question or one word changed how you felt.
• Someone who pulled you out of a spiral. What did they say or do?

Story ideas

• The deadline spiral: a work crunch where venting felt good for five minutes and cost the whole afternoon.
• Brothers growing up: one of you turned a bad situation into a joke and it flipped the whole day.
• The walk that fixed it: you were stuck, went outside, and came back with the answer.

The Reset Referee (about 2 to 3 minutes). Hayden, six days into the challenge. Mason, the Reset Referee, with a whistle and a kitchen timer. Props: coffee, phone, whistle, timer.

Featured item: Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins (1991). Point people to chapter 8 (Questions Are the Answer), chapter 9 (The Vocabulary of Ultimate Success) and chapter 13 (The Ten-Day Mental Challenge). Tony Robbins' site currently offers a free 35th anniversary edition at go.tonyrobbins.com/awaken-the-giant-within.

• What Mason read, watched, or listened to this week, and one takeaway
• What Hayden read, watched, or listened to this week, and one takeaway
• Junk food of the week: what did we consume that we wish we hadn't?
• Does our content diet help or hurt the challenge? What will we cut for seven days?

1. What does "dwelling" actually feel like for each of us? Where's the line between noticing and dwelling?
2. Is this toxic positivity? Robbins says it's not ignoring problems, it's 10 percent problem, 90 percent solution. Do we buy it?
3. Which of the seven morning questions is hardest to answer right now, and why?
4. Callback to The Brain Follows the Body: which works faster for you, changing the question or changing your body?
5. Where do we each expect to break first? Make a prediction on air.
6. Hayden, what's a complaint you say on autopilot every week?
7. If a listener only does one thing from this, what should it be?
8. What would change in our work if we spent 90 percent of the time on solutions?
9. Who in our lives already lives like this? What do they do differently?

Start tomorrow morning. Answer three morning questions before you check your phone, keep the two-minute rule all day, and mark the tracker each night. Then send us your longest streak, your resets and your best tool before next week's episode. We'll read some on air.

• Mason commits to: 7 days in a row on the tracker, reported next episode
• Hayden commits to: 7 days in a row on the tracker, reported next episode

Next week on Accountability: did we make seven days in a row? Longest streak, number of resets, the hardest moment, the tool that worked best, and a 1 to 10 score each. And who's buying breakfast.

• Awaken the Giant Within, table of contentsLibrary of Congress
• Awaken the Giant Within: The Ten-Day Mental ChallengeTony Robbins
• Tony Robbins: Changing Habits to Improve Your LifeShortform
• Awaken the Giant Within summaryShortform
• Awaken the Giant Within summary (questions)52 Books a Year
• Evening Power QuestionsCTS Blog
• Awaken the Giant Within: Book Summary and ReviewReaders Books Club
• The 10 Day Mental ChallengeAsian Efficiency