We live in a hectic and digital world where we rush from one task to the other and any spare time we faithfully dedicate to our phones and computers. Hence, many personal books focus on how to maximise your free time and minimise your technology usage. We forget that there is so much more to our lives: human nature and simple principles to happiness. This is why I fell in love with the book "The Magic of Thinking Big" by David Schwartz. In this blog, I summarise the eight main points from the book that reframed my attitude and reinforced the power of thinking big.
1. Think everything is possible without any excuses
Quite often people find numerous excuses why they can’t follow their dream - “too old”, “too young” or “not enough money or time”. If you keep thinking that, I can assure you that you won’t achieve any big success. Instead, Dr Schwartz recommends you make a list of actions that would make your dream possible. Give your brain a problem to solve and it will work on ideas to reach your success. It might take time, but you will see that if you put your mind to it, your dream is truly possible.
2. Stop negative thinking & deposit positive thoughts in your bank
Dr Schwartz says that our brain is a factory of thoughts. However, our minds have a tendency to generate more negative thoughts than positive, which in turn can start a cycle of negative thinking and waste our time. If we don’t minimise these, it will reinforce neuronal pathways and become a bad habit. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to recognise your negative thoughts and worries, and try to minimise them. Simply don’t allow them and reinforce this as a positive habit. Furthermore, actively deposit positive thoughts and experiences into your brain, which Dr Schwartz recommends doing just before going to bed. Over time, this builds a new positive habit and healthy mindset.
3. Avoid negative thinkers
Let’s say you now know that your dream is possible, you have a plan and you reframed your mindset into positive thinking. Next thing you know one of your acquaintances makes a negative comment on how absurd your plan is and finds three reasons for you not to do it. It is amazing how some people simply see the world in a negative light. I personally used to take such negative comments to heart. After reading this book, I realised some people just have a negative mindset and see everything in that light. They are not successful themselves and try to make themselves feel better by belittling you. Avoid such people as much as you can and know that great people bring the best in other people. You can choose who you want to be and who you spend your time with.
4. Practice saying “awesome”
Often when asked “how are you?”, we say “fine” or “good”. Dr Schwartz advises to say “I am AWESOME”. Implement this approach and you will bring positive energy to your day and to people around you. The word is truly infectious.
5. Show positive attitude towards your studies or your job
There are always positives and negatives associated with our studies or job. We tend to focus on the negatives and share these with our friends. However, even if you don’t like your job, believe in the importance of what you do and the value you bring to your community. Similarly with education, students often complain about their teachers or lectures, how boring the subjects are and how much work they have to do. Turn this around and treat your studies as a job. Appreciate this is a great opportunity and a stepping stone to your future endeavours, so make the best of it.
6. Make people feel great and important
In his book, Dr Schwartz shares a story of how one bus driver used to wait for one customer if he saw him running down the road, but not for the others. This customer used to complement the driver and highlight the importance of his job: “How do you drive this metal monster”, “people’s jobs depend on you”, “what would we do without you” and so on. No wonder that the driver waited for him an extra minute! Every job is meaningful. I now complement people at every opportunity for what they do.
7. Never accept defeat
Everyone has setbacks during their studies or careers. It is important to never allow the defeat to stop you pursuing your dreams. Treat it as an experience and analyse what you can learn from it. By overcoming the obstacles that come our way, we learn about ourselves and we build our resilience.
8. Dedicate daily time to thinking
We all lead busy lives and have limited time for reflection. Dr Schwartz suggests setting aside at least 30 minutes daily for thinking. I would recommend journaling as writing helps to get our thoughts in order and express our feelings, which usually leads to new ideas. You could even develop a weekly improvement plan, whereby you go over your reflections and notes at the beginning of each week and implement positive changes and habits.
I would highly recommend reading “The Magic of Thinking Big”, which you can purchase using this link.
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