How to Think Bigger: Aim Higher, Get More Motivated, and Accomplish Big Things

by Martin Meadows

While thinking bigger and trying to set the bar higher and higher is an admirable quality, being an overachiever can put a lot of pressure on you. Increased stress will affect both your mental and physical health, which will in turn lead to deteriorated performance and burnout.

Gary Keller, co-owner of one of the biggest international real estate franchises, writes in his bestselling book The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results49 about three ways people try to achieve balance between work and life. The first approach is living in the middle – paying equal attention to work and life. This approach won’t work for people who want to achieve big things because you can’t achieve extraordinary results with a balanced approach. Extraordinary happens at the extremes, and if you only pay moderate attention to your work, you won’t achieve big things. The second approach is going to the extremes – spending a lot of time at work for long periods of time and then trying to fix the damage done to your personal life by ignoring your work. This approach is just as bad as the first approach. While you can achieve big goals with this attitude, everything else in your life will suffer.

“Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. And you’re keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls… are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.50

In reality, it’s the other way around. Your brain needs sleep to learn, not just more practice. Studies show that a nap of 45–60 minutes can boost your memory five-fold

Surrounding yourself with the right, positive energy is the key to success. Strive to spend time with people who empower you and motivate you to reach bigger and bigger goals. Read books that will inspire you to change your life. Listen to podcasts that will educate you on how to get even better at what you do.

Achievement can’t happen without proper, powerful intrinsic motivation. If you make your “why” bigger than you and superficial things like money or status, you’ll get even more fired up to work on your goals and make big things happen.

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