"We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish"
About this Quote
Robbins sells a clean, caffeinated promise: your life is malleable, and the only real barrier is your own reluctance to grab the steering wheel. The line is built like a chant, not a thesis. The repetition of "We can" turns self-help into a collective rally cry, borrowing the cadence of political speech while sidestepping politics entirely. It makes agency feel not just possible but overdue.
The specific intent is obvious: motivate action by collapsing distance between desire and reality. "Do, have, and be" is a neat triad that covers behavior, outcomes, and identity, suggesting total control over the whole human stack. That breadth is the sales pitch. If the claim were narrower - change a habit, learn a skill - it would sound like advice. By going maximal, it becomes empowerment theater: a slogan you can wear like armor.
The subtext, though, is more complicated. "Exactly what we wish" flatters the fantasy of an unregulated self, free from luck, class, trauma, disability, discrimination, obligations - all the messy forces that shape actual lives. It subtly moves responsibility for pain and failure inward. If you can become anything, then not becoming it starts to look like a choice, not a constraint. That can be energizing for someone stuck; it can also feel like blame dressed as optimism.
Context matters: Robbins rose in the late-20th-century boom of entrepreneurial self-making, when therapy language blended with corporate hustle and American individualism. The quote works because it compresses that worldview into two sentences you can repeat when your motivation dips - and when you might prefer a mantra over a map.
The specific intent is obvious: motivate action by collapsing distance between desire and reality. "Do, have, and be" is a neat triad that covers behavior, outcomes, and identity, suggesting total control over the whole human stack. That breadth is the sales pitch. If the claim were narrower - change a habit, learn a skill - it would sound like advice. By going maximal, it becomes empowerment theater: a slogan you can wear like armor.
The subtext, though, is more complicated. "Exactly what we wish" flatters the fantasy of an unregulated self, free from luck, class, trauma, disability, discrimination, obligations - all the messy forces that shape actual lives. It subtly moves responsibility for pain and failure inward. If you can become anything, then not becoming it starts to look like a choice, not a constraint. That can be energizing for someone stuck; it can also feel like blame dressed as optimism.
Context matters: Robbins rose in the late-20th-century boom of entrepreneurial self-making, when therapy language blended with corporate hustle and American individualism. The quote works because it compresses that worldview into two sentences you can repeat when your motivation dips - and when you might prefer a mantra over a map.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
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