How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

by John C. Maxwell

A person who knows how may always have a job, but the person who knows why will always be his boss.

“I can give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through—then follow through.”

you can act your way into feeling long before you can feel your way into action. If you wait until you feel like doing something, you will likely never accomplish it.

The Right Thought plus the Right People in the Right Environment at the Right Time for the Right Reason = the Right Result

Big-picture thinking brings wholeness and maturity to a person’s thinking. It brings perspective. It’s like making the frame of a picture bigger, in the process expanding not only what you can see, but what you are able to do.

Big-picture thinkers are never satisfied with what they already know.

If you desire to keep learning, I want to encourage you to examine your day and look for opportunities to learn.

Listening has taught me a lot more than talking.”

you want to become a better big-picture thinker, then become a good listener.

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne wrote, “The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a man may live long yet live very little.”

Thomas Fuller, chaplain to Charles II of England, observed, “He that is everywhere is nowhere.” To get things done, you need focus.

As Alvin Toffler says, “You’ve got to think about ‘big things’ while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.”

If you want to cultivate the ability to think big picture, then you must get used to embracing and dealing with complex and diverse ideas.

Varied experiences—both positive and negative—help you see the big picture. The greater the variety of experience and success, the more potential to learn you have.

If you want to be a big-picture thinker, you will have to go against the flow of the world.

Focus can bring energy and power to almost anything, whether physical or mental.

Author Harry A. Overstreet observed, “The immature mind hops from one thing to another; the mature mind seeks to follow through.”

Be selective, not exhaustive, in your focused thinking.

There are many ways to determine priorities. If you know yourself well, begin by focusing on your strengths, the things that make best use of your skills and God-given talents. You might also focus on what brings the highest return and reward. Do what you enjoy most and do best. You could use the 80/20 rule. Give 80 percent of your effort to the top 20 percent (most important) activities. Another way is to focus on exceptional opportunities that promise a huge return. It comes down to this: give your attention to the areas that bear fruit.

Once you find your dream, move forward without second-guessing. Take the advice of Satchel Paige: “Don’t look back—something might be gaining on you.”

Removing distractions is no small matter in our current culture, but it’s critical.

maintaining the discipline of practicing your priorities. Don’t do easy things first or hard things first or urgent things first. Do first things first—the activities that give you the highest return.

insulate yourself from di...

place value on and give attention to both. If you naturally withdraw, then make sure to get out among people more often. If you’re always on the go and rarely withdraw for thinking time, then remove yourself periodically so that you can unleash the potential of focused thinking. And wherever you are… be there!

Years ago I realized that my best thinking time occurs in the morning.

The mind will not focus until it has clear objectives. But the purpose of goals is to focus your attention and give you direction, not to identify a final destination.

As you think about your goals, note that they should be Clear enough to be kept in focus Close enough to be achieved Helpful enough to change lives

David Belasco, who says, “If you can’t write your idea on the back of my business card, you don’t have a clear idea.”

Ask yourself, “Am I seeing a return for my investment of focused thinking time? Is what I am doing getting me closer to my goals? Am I headed in a direction that helps me to fulfill my commitments, maintain my priorities, and realize my dreams?”

No one can go to the highest level and remain a generalist.

I practice the 10-80-10 principle with the people to whom I’m delegating a task. I help with the first 10 percent by casting vision, laying down parameters, providing resources, and giving encouragement. Then once they’ve done the middle 80 percent, I come alongside them again and help them take whatever it is the rest of the way, if I can. I call it putting the cherry on top.

“Ninety-nine percent of everything in life I don’t need to know about.” I try to focus on the one percent that gives the highest return.

Being willing to give up some of the things you love in order to focus on what has the greatest impact isn’t an easy lesson to learn.

Creativity is about having ideas—lots of them. You will have ideas only if you value ideas.

Creativity is being able to see what everybody else has seen and think what nobody else has thought so that you can do what nobody else has done.

creative thinking builds on itself and increases the creativity of the thinker.

The status quo and creativity are incompatible.

Creativity is largely a matter of asking the right questions.

“The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a creative mind to spot wrong questions.”

To stimulate creative thinking, ask yourself questions such as… Why must it be done this way? What is the root problem? What are the underlying issues? What does this remind me of? What is the opposite? What metaphor or symbol helps to explain it? Why is it important? What’s the hardest or most expensive way to do it? Who has a different perspective on this? What happens if we don’t do it at all?

At the beginning of every month, I spend half a day working on my calendar for the next forty days.

I review what projects, lessons, and other objectives I want to accomplish during those five to six weeks.

Strategic thinking can also help you simplify the management of everyday life. I do that by using systems, which are nothing more than good strategies repeated.

Strategic thinking is the bridge that links where you are to where you want to be. It gives direction and credibility today and increases your potential for success tomorrow.

The first step in strategic thinking is to break down an issue into smaller, more manageable parts so that you can focus on them more effectively.

When most people begin using strategic thinking to solve a problem or plan a way to meet an objective, they often make the mistake of jumping the gun and trying immediately to figure out how to accomplish it. Instead of asking how, they should first ask why.

If you want to achieve big things, you need to become a possibility thinker.

An experience becomes valuable when it informs or equips us to meet new experiences. Reflective thinking helps to do that.

Calendars and journals remind you of how you’ve spent your time, show you whether your activities match your priorities, and help you see whether you are making progress.

Personal Growth: What have I learned today that will help me grow? How can I apply it to my life? When should I apply it? Adding Value: To whom did I add value today? How do I know I added value to that person? Can I follow up and compound the positive benefit he or she received? Leadership: Did I lead by example today? Did I lift my people and organization to a higher level? What did I do and how did I do it? Personal Faith: Did I represent God well today? Did I practice the Golden Rule? Have I “walked the second mile” with someone? Marriage and Family: Did I communicate love to my family today? How did I show that love? Did they feel it? Did they return it? Inner Circle: Have I spent enough time with my key players? What can I do to help them be more successful? In what areas can I mentor them? Discoveries: What did I encounter today to which I need to give more thinking time? Are there lessons to be learned? Are there things to be done?