The Magic of Thinking Big

by David J. Schwartz

human beings are equally quick to blame someone else for each setback. It’s natural for salesmen to blame customers when sales are lost. It’s natural for executives to blame employees or other executives when things get out of gear. It’s natural for husbands to blame wives and wives to blame husbands for quarrels and family problems. It is true that in this complex world others may trip us. But it is also true that more often than not we trip ourselves. We lose because of personal inadequacy, some personal mistake. Condition yourself for success this way. Remind yourself that you want to be as nearly perfect as is humanly possible. Be objective. Put yourself in a glass tube and look at yourself as a disinterested third party would look at the situation. See if you have a weakness that you’ve never noticed before. If you have, take action to correct it. Many people become so accustomed to themselves that they fail to see ways for improvement.

Being self-critical is constructive. It helps you to build the personal strength and efficiency needed for success. Blaming others is destructive. You gain absolutely nothing from “proving” that someone else is wrong. Be constructively self-critical. Don’t run away from inadequacies. Be like the real professionals. They seek out their faults and weaknesses, then correct them. That’s what makes them professionals.

Instead of blaming luck, research those setbacks. If you lose, learn. Lots of folks go through life explaining their mediocrity with “hard luck,” “tough luck,” “sour luck,” “bad luck.” These people are still like children, immature, searching for sympathy. Without realizing it, they fail to see opportunities to grow bigger, stronger, more self-reliant.

Many ambitious people go through life with admirable persistence and show of ambition, but they fail to succeed because they don’t experiment with new approaches. Stay with your goal. Don’t waver an inch from it. But don’t beat your head against a wall. If you aren’t getting results, try a new approach. People who have bulldog persistence, who can grab something and not let go, have an essential success quality.

Tell yourself, “There IS a way.” All thoughts are magnetic. As soon as you tell yourself, “I’m beaten. There’s no way to conquer this problem,” negative thoughts are attracted, and each of these helps convince you that you are right, that you are whipped.

Back off and start afresh. Often we stay so close to a problem for so long that we can’t see new solutions or new approaches.

Remember, you see in any situation what you expect to see. See the good side and conquer defeat. All things do work together for good if you’ll just develop clear vision.

A goal is an objective, a purpose. A goal is more than a dream; it’s a dream being acted upon. A goal is more than a hazy “Oh, I wish I could.” A goal is a clear “This is what I’m working toward.” Nothing happens, no forward steps are taken, until a goal is established. Without goals individuals just wander through life. They stumble along, never knowing where they are going, so they never get anywhere.

Goals are as essential to success as air is to life. No one ever stumbles into success without a goal. No one ever lives without air. Get a clear fix on where you want to go.

The important thing is not where you were or where you are but where you want to get.

as you visualize your future, don’t be afraid to be blue sky. People these days are measured by the size of their dreams. No one accomplishes more than he sets out to accomplish. So visualize a big future.

Remember this advice of John Wanamaker: “A man is not doing much until the cause he works for possesses all there is of him.” Desire, when harnessed, is power. Failure to follow desire, to do what you want to do most, paves the way to mediocrity.

Remember, the only way to get full power, to develop full go force, is to do what you want to do. Surrender to desire and gain energy, enthusiasm, mental zip, and even better health. And it’s never too late to let desire take over. The overwhelming majority of really successful people work much longer than forty hours a week. And you don’t hear them complain of overwork. Successful people have their eyes focused on a goal, and this provides energy. The point is this: energy increases, multiplies, when you set a desired goal and resolve to work toward that goal. Many people, millions of them, can find new energy by selecting a goal and giving all they’ve got to accomplish that goal. Goals cure boredom. Goals even cure many chronic ailments.

When you surrender yourself to your desires, when you let yourself become obsessed with a goal, you receive the physical power, energy, and enthusiasm needed to accomplish your goal. But you receive something else, something equally valuable. You receive the “automatic instrumentation” needed to keep you going straight to your objective. The most amazing thing about a deeply entrenched goal is that it keeps you on course to reach your target. This isn’t double-talk. What happens is this. When you surrender to your goal, the goal works itself into your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind is always in balance. Your conscious mind is not, unless it is in tune with what your subconscious mind is thinking. Without full cooperation from the subconscious mind, a person is hesitant, confused, indecisive. Now, with your goal absorbed into your subconscious mind you react the right way automatically. The conscious mind is free for clear, straight thinking.

Now, as you press forward to success, set goals: deadlines, target dates, self-imposed quotas. You will accomplish only what you plan to accomplish.

It’s clear. We do not make one big jump to success. We get there one step at a time. An excellent plan is to set monthly quotas for accomplishment.

THIRTY-DAY IMPROVEMENT GUIDE Between now and _____ I will A. Break these habits: (suggestions) 1. Putting off things. 2. Negative language. 3. Watching TV more than 60 minutes per day. 4. Gossip. B. Acquire these habits: (suggestions) 1. A rigid morning examination of my appearance. 2. Plan each day’s work the night before. 3. Compliment people at every possible opportunity. C. Increase my value to my employer in these ways: (suggestions) 1. Do a better job of developing my subordinates. 2. Learn more about my company, what it does, and the customers it serves. 3. Make three specific suggestions to help my company become more efficient. D. Increase my value to my home in these ways: (suggestions) 1. Show more appreciation for the little things my wife does that I’ve been taking for granted. 2. Once each week, do something special with my whole family. 3. Give one hour each day of my undivided attention to my family. E. Sharpen my mind in these ways: (suggestions) 1. Invest two hours each week in reading professional magazines in my field. 2. Read one self-help book. 3. Make four new friends. 4. Spend 30 minutes daily in quiet, undisturbed thinking.

prepare to take detours in stride. If you are driving down a road and you come to a “road closed” situation, you wouldn’t camp there, nor would you go back home. The road closed simply means you can’t go where you want to go on this road. You’d simply find another road to take you where you want to go.

To profit, to get the extra reward above a “normal” income in the years ahead, we must invest in ourselves. We must invest to achieve our goals.

1. Invest in education. True education is the soundest investment you can make in yourself.

Real education, the kind worth investing in, is that which develops and cultivates your mind. How well educated a person is, is measured by how well his mind is developed—in brief, by how well he thinks. Anything that improves thinking ability is education.

2. Invest in idea starters. Education helps you mold your mind, stretch it, train it to meet new situations and solve problems. Idea starters serve a related purpose. They feed your mind, give you constructive material to think about.

Achieving high-level success requires the support and the cooperation of others.

These four leadership rules or principles are: 1. Trade minds with the people you want to influence. 2. Think: What is the human way to handle this? 3. Think progress, believe in progress, push for progress. 4. Take time out to confer with yourself and develop your supreme thinking power.

To get others to do what you want them to do, you must see things through their eyes. When you trade minds, the secret of how to influence other people effectively shows up. A very successful salesman friend told me he spends a lot of time anticipating how prospects will react to his presentation before he gives it. Trading minds with the audience helps the speaker design a more interesting, harder-hitting talk. Trading minds with employees helps the supervisor provide more effective, better received instructions.

Persons who rise to tremendous leadership heights use a third approach that we call “Being Human.”

“I’ve been betting on people all my life,” Bob says. “And the better I treat them, the more good things happen to me. I honestly don’t plan it that way. That’s just the way it works out.

Here are two ways to use the be-human approach to make you a better leader. First, each time you face a difficult matter involving people, ask yourself, “What is the human way to handle this?”

Avoid sarcasm. Avoid being cynical. Avoid taking people down a peg or two. Avoid putting others in their place. Ask, “What is the human way to deal with people?” It always pays—sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but it always pays.

second way to profit from the be-human rule is to let your action show you put people first. Show interest in your subordinates’ off-the-job accomplishments. Treat everyone with dignity. Remind yourself that the primary purpose in life is to enjoy it. As a general rule, the more interest you show in a person, the more he will produce for you. And his production is what carries you forward to greater and greater success.

There are two special things you can do to develop your progressive outlook: 1. Think improvement in everything you do. 2. Think high standards in everything you do.

Am I a Progressive Thinker? Checklist A. Do I Think Progressively Toward My Work? 1. Do I appraise my work with the “how can we do it better?” attitude? 2. Do I praise my company, the people in it, and the products it sells at every possible opportunity? 3. Are my personal standards with reference to the quantity and quality of my output higher now than three or six months ago? 4. Am I setting an excellent example for my subordinates, associates, and others I work with? B. Do I Think Progressively Toward My Family? 1. Is my family happier today than it was three or six months ago? 2. Am I following a plan to improve my family’s standard of living? 3. Does my family have an ample variety of stimulating activities outside the home? 4. Do I set an example of “a progressive,” a supporter of progress, for my children? C. Do I Think Progressively Toward Myself? 1. Can I honestly say I am a more valuable person today than three or six months ago? 2. Am I following an organized self-improvement program to increase my value to others? 3. Do I have forward-looking goals for at least five years in the future? 4. Am I a booster in every organization or group to which I belong? D. Do I Think Progressively Toward My Community? 1. Have I done anything in the past six months that I honestly feel has improved my community (neighborhood, churches, schools, etc.)? 2. Do I boost worthwhile community projects rather than object, criticize, or complain? 3. Have I ever taken the lead in bringing...

the successful person in any field takes time out to confer with himself or herself. Leaders use solitude to put the pieces of a problem together, to work out solutions, to plan, and, in one phrase, to do their superthinking.

When Little People Try to Drive You Down, THINK BIG To be sure, there are some people who want you to lose, to experience misfortune, to be reprimanded. But these people can’t hurt you if you’ll remember three things: 1. You win when you refuse to fight petty people. Fighting little people reduces you to their size. Stay big. 2. Expect to be sniped at. It’s proof you’re growing. 3. Remind yourself that snipers are psychologically sick. Be Big. Feel sorry for them. Think Big Enough to be immune to the attacks of petty people. B. When That “I-Haven’t-Got-What-It-Takes” Feeling Creeps Up on You, THINK BIG Remember: if you think you are weak, you are. If you think you’re inadequate, you are. If you think you’re second-class, you are. Whip that natural tendency to sell yourself short with these tools: 1. Look important. It helps you think important. How you look on the outside has a lot to do with how you feel on the inside. 2. Concentrate on your assets. Build a sell-yourself-to-yourself commercial and use it. Learn to supercharge yourself. Know your positive self. 3. Put other people in proper perspective. The other person is just another human being, so why be afraid of him? Think Big Enough to see how good you really are! C. When an Argument or Quarrel Seems Inevitable, THINK BIG. Successfully resist the temptation to argue and quarrel by: 1. Asking yourself, “Honestly now, is this thing really important enough to argue about?” 2. Reminding yourself, you never gain anything...