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Last updated April 10, 2022

Status:: { Books MOC Author:: Medium:: #literature/books/finished Tags:: Self-Help, Motivation Links: { The Magic of Thinking Big Application

{ The Magic of Thinking Big

Preface

1- BELIEVE YOU CAN SUCCEED AND YOU WILL

It’s a basic step. It can’t be avoided.

Belief in great results is the driving force, the power behind all great books, plays, scientific discoveries. Belief in success is behind every successful business, church, and political organization. Belief in success is the one basic, absolutely essential ingredient of successful people.

The power of thought

Use Mr. Triumph 100 percent of the time. When any thought enters your mind, ask Mr. Triumph to go to work for you. He’ll show you how you can succeed.

Developing Belief

Here are the three guides to acquiring and strengthening the power of belief:

  1. Think success, don’t think failure. At work, in your home, substitute success thinking for failure thinking. When you face a difficult situation, think, “I’ll win,” not “I’ll probably lose.” When you compete with someone else, think, “I’m equal to the best,” not “I’m outclassed.” When opportunity appears, think “I can do it,” never “I can’t.” Let the master thought “I will succeed” dominate your thinking process. Thinking success conditions your mind to create plans that produce success. Thinking failure does the exact opposite. Failure thinking conditions the mind to think other thoughts that produce failure.

  2. Remind yourself regularly that you are better than you think you are. Successful people are not supermen. Success does not require a superintellect. Nor is there anything mystical about success. And success isn’t based on luck. Successful people are just ordinary folks who have developed belief in themselves and what they do. Never—yes, never—sell yourself short.

  3. Believe Big. The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief. Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success. Remember this, too! Big ideas and big plans are often easier—certainly no more difficult—than small ideas and small plans.

2 - Cure Excusitis

Study the lives of successful people and you’ll discover this: all the excuses made by the mediocre fellow could be but aren’t made by the successful person.

4 Common Excuses

Poor Health

How to Live 365 Days a Year. Dr. Schindler shows in this book that three out of every four hospital beds are occupied by people who have EIL—Emotionally Induced Illness. Imagine, three out of four people who are sick right now would be well if they had learned how to handle their emotions. Read Dr. Schindler’s book and develop your program for ‘emotions management.’

Vaccines
  1. Refuse to talk about your health. The more you talk about an ailment, even the common cold, the worse it seems to get.
  2. Refuse to worry about your health.
  3. Be genuinely grateful that your health is as good as it is.
  4. Remind yourself often, “It’s better to wear out than rust out.” Life is yours to enjoy. Don’t waste it. Don’t pass up living by thinking yourself into a hospital bed.

No Smarts

the thinking that guides your intelligence is much more important than how much intelligence you may have.

After the fellow answered a particularly odd question, some thing about a mountain in Argentina, my host looked at me and said, “How much do you think I’d pay that guy to work for me?” “How much?” I asked. “Not a cent over $300—not per week, not per month, but for life. I’ve sized him up. That ‘expert’ can’t think. He can only memorize. He’s just a human encyclopedia, and I figure for $300 I can buy a pretty good set of encyclopedias. In fact, maybe that’s too much. Ninety percent of what that guy knows I can find in a $2 almanac. “What I want around me,” he continued, “are people who can solve problems, who can think up ideas. People who can dream and· then develop the dream into a practical application; an idea man can make money with me; a fact man can’t.”

Curing
  1. Never underestimate your own intelligence, and never overestimate the intelligence of others. Manage your current instead of worry about your lack of.
  2. Remind yourself several times daily, “My attitudes are more important than my intelligence.”
  3. Remember that the ability to think is of much greater value than the ability to memorize facts. Use your mind to create and develop ideas, to find new and better ways to do things. Ask yourself, “Am I using my mental ability to make history, or am I using it merely to record history made by others?”

Too Old/Young

I attract bad luck

3 - Build Confidence, Destroy Fear

action cures fear. Indecision, postponement, on the other hand, fertilize fear.

Types of fear

Process
  1. Isolate your fear. Pin it down. Determine exactly what you are afraid of.
  2. Then take action. There is some kind of action for any kind of fear.

hesitation only enlarges, magnifies the fear. Take action promptly

Building memory bank

  1. Deposit only positive thoughts in your memory bank
    • We can choose what we think
  2. Withdraw only positive thoughts from your memory bank.

    “As a psychologist, I can’t change what already is in a person’s memory. But I can, with the patient’s cooperation, help the individual to see his past in a different light. That’s the general treatment I used on this woman. I worked with her to help her to see joy and pleasure in her past instead of total disappointment. After six months she began to show improvement. At that point, I gave her a special assignment. Each day I asked her to think of and write down three specific reasons she has to be happy. Then at her next appointment with me on Thursdays I’d go over her list with her. I continued this sort of treatment for three months. Her improvement was very satisfactory. Today that woman is very well adjusted to her situation. She’s positive and certainly as happy as most people.”

    • Dealing with other’s anger and emotions
      • Have the confidence to know what you actually contributed to so you can tell whether you’re being used as a scapegoat
        • Underneath he’s probably a very nice guy. Most folks are

Guilt

Avoid doing anything that will cause you to ask yourself, “Will I get caught? Will they find out? Will I get away with it?”

Confidence

To think confidently, act confidently

Meeting new people:

Building
  1. Be a front seater. From now on make it a rule to sit as close to the front as you can. Sure, you may be a little more conspicuous in the front, but remember, there is nothing inconspicuous about success.
  2. Practice making eye contact. A lack of hints at hiding something, guilt, inferiority, bleh
  3. Walk 25 percent faster.

    Psychologists link slovenly posture and sluggish walking to unpleasant attitudes towards oneself, work, and the people around us. But psychologists also tell us you can actually change your attitudes by changing your posture and speed of movement. Watch, and you discover that body action is the result of mind action. Their walk tells the world, “I’ve got someplace important to go, something important to do. What’s more, I will succeed at what I will do fifteen minutes from now.” Throw your shoulders back, lift up your head, move ahead just a little faster, and feel self-confidence grow.

  4. Practice speaking up.
  5. Smile big.

    I’ve heard many times, “Yes, but when I fear something, or when I’m angry, I don’t feel like smiling.” Of course you don’t. No one does. The trick is to tell yourself forcefully, “I’m going to smile.” Then smile.

Actionable Summary

Action cures fear. Isolate your fear and then take constructive action. Inaction—doing nothing about a situation—strengthens fear and destroys confidence.

Make a supreme effort to put only positive thoughts in your memory bank. Don’t let negative, self-deprecatory thoughts grow into mental monsters. Simply refuse to recall unpleasant events or situations.

Put people in proper perspective. Remember, people are more alike, much more alike, than they are different. Get a balanced view of the other fellow. He is just another human being. And develop an understanding attitude. Many people will bark, but it’s a rare one who bites.

Practice doing what your conscience tells you is right. This prevents a poisonous guilt complex from developing. Doing what’s right is a very practical rule for success. Make everything about you say, “I’m confident, really confident.” Practice these little techniques in your day-to-day activities:

Be a front seater. Make eye contact. Walk 25 percent faster. Speak up.

Smile big.

4 - How to Think Big

The tendency for so many people to think small means there is much less competition than you think for a very rewarding career.

Lessening the importance of minute details

Now, I do have a speech impairment, but that doesn’t bother me, so why should it bother anybody else?’

Exercise to Understand Abilities

  1. Determine your five chief assets. Invite some objective friend to help—possibly your wife, your superior, a professor—some intelligent person who will give you an honest opinion. (Examples of assets frequently listed are education, experience, technical skills, appearance, well-adjusted home life, attitudes, personality, initiative.)
  2. Next, under each asset, write the names of three persons you know who have achieved large success but who do not have this asset to as great a degree as you.

Words

Big thinkers are specialists in creating positive, forward-looking, optimistic pictures in their own minds and in the minds of others. To think big, we must use words and phrases that produce big, positive mental images.

Practices

Use big, positive, cheerful words and phrases to:

  1. Describe how you feel
    • ex) “I’m feeling wonderful”

  2. Describe other people

  3. Encourage others
  4. Explain goals

SummaryQ

Don’t sell yourself short. Conquer the crime of self-deprecation. Concentrate on your assets. You’re better than you think you are.

Use the big thinker’s vocabulary. Use big, bright, cheerful words. Use words that promise victory, hope, happiness, pleasure; avoid words that create unpleasant images of failure, defeat, grief.

Stretch your vision. See what can be, not just what is. Practice adding value to things, to people, and to yourself.

Get the big view of your job. Think, really think your present job is important. That next promotion depends mostly on how you think toward your present job.

Think above trivial things. Focus your attention on big objectives. Before getting involved in a petty matter, ask yourself, “Is it really important?”

Grow big by thinking big!

5 - How to think and dream creatively

When you believe something is impossible, your mind goes to work for you to prove why. But when you believe, really believe, something can be done, your mind goes to work for you and helps you find the ways to do it.

Creative people are those who

Successful people, like successful businesses, live with these questions: “How can I improve the quality of my performance? How can I do better?”

Each day before you begin work, devote ten minutes to thinking “How can I do a better job today?” Ask, “What can I do today to encourage my employees?” “What special favor can I do for my customers?” “How can I increase my personal efficiency?”

Mental Stimulation

Helps us think of new ideas

Ideas

Summary

Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution.

Eliminate “impossible,” “won’t work,” “can’t do,” “no use trying” from your thinking and speaking vocabularies.

Don’t let tradition paralyze your mind. Be receptive to new ideas. Be experimental. Try new approaches, Be progressive in everything you do.

Ask yourself daily, “How can I do better?” There is no limit to self-improvement. When you ask yourself, “How can I do better?” sound answers will appear. Try it and see.

Ask yourself, “How can I do more?” Capacity is a state of mind. Asking yourself this question puts your mind to work to find intelligent shortcuts. The success combination in business is: Do what you do better (improve the quality of your output), and: Do more of what you do (increase the quantity of your output).

Practice asking and listening. Ask and listen, and you’ll obtain raw material for reaching sound decisions. Remember: Big people monopolize the listening; small people monopolize the talking.

Stretch your mind. Get stimulated. Associate with people who can help you think of new ideas, new ways of doing things. Mix with people of different occupational and social interests.

6 - You are what you think you are

Here are two suggestions for getting others to do more for you:

  1. Always show positive attitudes toward your job so that your subordinates will “pick up” right thinking.

  2. As you approach your job each day, ask yourself, “Am I worthy in every respect of being imitated? Are all my habits such that I would be glad to see them in my subordinates?”

Summary

Upgrading your thinking upgrades your actions, and this produces success. Here is an easy way to help you make more of yourself by thinking like important people think. Use the form below as a guide.

Cement in your mind the question “Is this the way an important person does it?” Use this question to make you a bigger, more successful person.

In a nutshell, remember: Look important; it helps you think important. Your appearance talks to you. Be sure it lifts your spirits and builds your confidence. Your appearance talks to others. Make certain it says, “Here is an important person: intelligent, prosperous, and dependable.”

Think your work is important. Think this way, and you will receive mental signals on how to do your job better. Think your work is important, and your subordinates will think their work is important too.

Give yourself a pep talk several times daily. Build a “sell-yourself-to-yourself” commercial. Remind yourself at every opportunity that you’re a first-class person.

In all of life’s situations, ask yourself, “Is this the way an important person thinks?” Then obey the answer.

How Am I Thinking? Checklist

 SITUATION ASK YOURSELF

  1. When I worry Would an important person worry about this?
  2. An idea Would the most successful person I know be disturbed about this?
  3. My appearance What would an important person do if she had this idea?
  4. My language Do I look like someone who has maximum self-respect?
  5. What I read Am I using the language of successful people?
  6. Conversation Would an important person read this?
  7. When I lose my temper Would an important person get mad at what I’m mad at?
  8. My jokes Is this the kind of joke an important person would tell?
  9. My job How does an important person describe his job to others?

7 - Manage your Environment

Big men do not laugh at big idea .. People who tell you it cannot be done almost always are unsuccessful people, are strictly average or mediocre at best in terms of accomplishment. The opinions of these people can be poison.

As a rule, it’s the more successful people who are the most humble and ready to help. Since they are sincerely interested in their work and success, they are eager to see that the work lives on and that somebody capable succeeds them when they retire

A first class environment

  1. Circulate in new groups
    • Similarity produces boredom, dullness, dissatisfaction
  2. Make new friends, organizations
  3. Have different-view friends

Conversations

other conversation is more like walking through a poisonous, radioactive cloud. It chokes you. It makes you feel ill. It turns you into a loser.

Summary

MAKE YOUR ENVIRONMENT MAKE YOU SUCCESSFUL

  1. Be environment-conscious. Just as body diet makes the body, mind diet makes the mind.

  2. Make your environment work for you, not against you. Don’t let suppressive forces—the negative, you-can’t-do-it people—make you think defeat.

  3. Don’t let small-thinking people hold you back. Jealous people want to see you stumble. Don’t give them that satisfaction.

  4. Get your advice from successful people. Your future is important. Never risk it with freelance advisors who are living failures.

  5. Get plenty of psychological sunshine. Circulate in new groups. Discover new and stimulating things to do.

  6. Throw thought poison out of your environment. Avoid gossip. Talk about people, but stay on the positive side.

  7. Go first class in everything you do. You can’t afford to go any other way.

8 - Make Your Attitudes Your Allies

To activate others, to get them to be enthusiastic, you must first be enthusiastic yourself.

Whenever you leave a person, ask yourself, “Does that person honestly feel better because he has talked with me?” This self training device works. Apply it when talking with employees, associates, your family, customers, even with casual acquaintances.

The other person, regardless of his status or his income, is important to you and for two giant, dollars-and-cents reasons. First, people do more for you when you make them feel important.

Helping others feel important

  1. Practice appreciation. Make it a rule to let others know you appreciate what they do for you. Never, never let anyone feel he is taken for granted.
    • Smile
  2. Practice calling people by their names.
  3. Sharing praise invests in the output of other people

Grow the “Service first” attitude, and watch money take care of itself. Make it a rule in everything you do: give people more than they expect to get.

9 - Think Right Toward People

Tips for personal persuasion

  1. Learn to remember names. Inefficiency at this point may indicate that your interest is not sufficiently outgoing.
  2. Be a comfortable person so there is no strain in being with you. Be an old-shoe kind of individual.
  3. Acquire the quality of relaxed easy-going so that things do not ruffle you.
  4. Don’t be egotistical. Guard against the impression that you know it all.
  5. Cultivate the quality of being interesting so people will get something of value from their association with you.
  6. Study to get the “scratchy” elements out of your personality, even those of which you may be unconscious.
  7. Sincerely attempt to heal, on an honest basis, every misunderstanding you have had or now have. Drain off your grievances.
  8. Practice liking people until you learn to do so genuinely.
  9. Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulation upon anyone’s achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment.
  10. Give spiritual strength to people, and they will give genuine affection to you.

Next time you are in a large group, observe something very significant: the most important person present is the one person most active in introducing himself.

Win friends

  1. Introduce yourself to others at every possible opportunity—at parties, meetings, on airplanes, at work, everywhere.
  2. Be sure the other person gets your name straight.
  3. Be sure you can pronounce the other person’s name the way he pronounces it.
  4. Write down the other person’s name, and be mighty sure you have it spelled correctly; understandably people have a thing about the correct spelling of their own names! If possible, get their address and phone number, also.
  5. Drop a personal note or make a phone call to the new friends you feel you want to know better. This is an important point. Most successful people follow through on new friends with a letter or a phone call.
  6. And last but not least, say pleasant things to strangers. It warms you up and gets you ready for the task ahead.

Take the initiative. Be like the successful. Go out of your way to meet people. And don’t be timid. Don’t be afraid to be unusual. Find out who the other person is, and be sure he knows who you are

Summary

Make yourself lighter to lift. Be likable. Practice being the kind of person people like. This wins their support and puts fuel in your success-building program.

Take the initiative in building friendships. Introduce yourself to others at every opportunity. Make sure you get the other person’s name straight, and make certain he gets your name straight too. Drop a personal note to your new friends you want to get to know better.

Accept human differences and limitations. Don’t expect anyone to be perfect, Remember, the other person has a right to be different. And don’t be a reformer.

Tune in Channel P, the Good Thoughts Station. Find qualities to like and admire in a person, not things to dislike. And don’t let others prejudice your thinking about a third person. Think positive thoughts toward people—and get positive results.

Practice conversation generosity. Be like successful people. Encourage others to talk. Let the other person talk to you about his views, his opinions, his accomplishments.

Practice courtesy all the time. It makes other people feel better. It makes you feel better too.

Don’t blame others when you receive a setback. Remember, how you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.

10 - Action Habit

Action feeds and strengthens confidence; inaction in all forms feeds fear. To fight fear, act. To increase fear—wait, put off, postpone.

People who get things done in this world don’t wait for the spirit to move them; they move the spirit.

“Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”

Summary

  1. Be an activationist. Be someone who does things. Be a doer, not a don’t-er.

  2. Don’t wait until conditions are perfect. They never will be. Expect future obstacles and difficulties and solve them as they arise.

  3. Remember, ideas alone won’t bring success. Ideas have value only when you act upon them.

  4. Use action to cure fear and gain confidence. Do what you fear, and fear disappears. Just try it and see.

  5. Start your mental engine mechanically Don’t wait for the spirit to move you. Take action, dig in, and you move the spirit.

  6. Think in terms of now. Tomorrow, next week, later, and similar words often are synonymous with the failure word, never. Be an “I’m starting right now” kind of person.

  7. Get down to business—pronto. Don’t waste time getting ready to act. Start acting instead.

  8. Seize the initiative. Be a crusader. Pick up the ball and run. Be a volunteer. Show that you have the ability and ambition to do.

  9. Get in gear and go!

11 - Defeat into Victory

  1. Study setbacks to pave your way to success. When you lose, learn, and then go on to win next time.

  2. Have the courage to be your own constructive critic. Seek out your faults and weaknesses and then correct them. This makes you a professional.

  3. Stop blaming luck. Research each setback. Find out what went wrong. Remember, blaming luck never got anyone where they wanted to go.

  4. Blend persistence with experimentation. Stay with your goal but don’t beat your head against a stone wall. Try new approaches. Experiment.

  5. Remember, there is a good side in every situation. Find it. See the good side and whip discouragement.

12 - Goal Setting

THIRTY-DAY IMPROVEMENT GUIDE

Between now and ___ I will Break these habits: (suggestions)

  1. Putting off things.
  2. Negative language.
  3. Watching TV more than 60 minutes per day.
  4. Gossip.

Acquire these habits: (suggestions).

  1. A rigid morning examination of the smartness my appearance.
  2. Plan each day’s work the night before.
  3. Compliment people sincerely at every possible opportunity.

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.

Increase my value to my home in these ways: (suggestions)

  1. Show more appreciation for the little things my partner 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.

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.

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.

Summary

LET’S TAKE ACTION

Now in a quick recap, put these success-building principles to work:

  1. Get a clear fix on where you want to go. Create an image of yourself ten years from now.
  2. Write out your ten-year plan. Your life is too important to be left to chance. Put down on paper what you want to accomplish in your work, your home, and your social departments.
  3. Surrender yourself to your desires. Set goals to get more energy. Set goals to get things done. Set goals and discover the real enjoyment of living.
  4. Let your major goal be your automatic pilot. When you let your goal absorb you, you’ll find yourself making the right decisions to reach your goal.
  5. Achieve your goal one step at a time. Regard each task you perform, regardless of how small it may seem, as a step toward your goal.
  6. Build thirty-day goals. Day-by-day effort pays off.
  7. Take detours in your stride. A detour simply means another route. It should never mean surrendering the goal.
  8. Invest in yourself. Purchase those things that build mental power and efficiency. Invest in education. Invest in idea starters.

13 - How to think like a leader

Rules

To be a more effective leader, put these four leadership principles to work:

  1. Trade minds with the people you want to influence. It’s easy to get others to do what you want them to do if you’ll see things through their eyes. Ask yourself this question before you act: “What would I think of this if I exchanged places with the other person?”

  2. Apply the “Be-Human” rule in your dealings with others. Ask, “What is the human way to handle this?” In everything you do, show that you put other people first. Just give other people the kind of treatment you like to receive. You’ll be rewarded.

  3. Think progress, believe in progress, push for progress. Think improvement in everything you do. Think high standards in everything you do. Over a period of time subordinates tend to become carbon copies of their chief. Be sure the master copy is worth duplicating. Make this a personal resolution: ‘At home, at work, in community life, if it’s progress I’m for it.”

  4. Take time out to confer with yourself and tap your supreme thinking power. Managed solitude pays off. Use it to release your creative power. Use it to find solutions to personal and business problems. So spend some time alone every day just for thinking. Use the thinking technique all great leaders use: confer with yourself.

Thinking Big

When little people try to weigh you down, think big

Self-Insecurity

Argument

Defeated?

Finale

No matter what you do and regardless of your occupation, higher status, higher pay come from one thing: increasing the quality and quantity of your output. Do this:

Think, “I can do better.” The best is not unattainable. There is room for doing everything better. Nothing in this world is being done as well as it could be. And when you think, “I can do better,” ways to do better will appear. Thinking “I can do better” switches on your creative power.

Think Big Enough to see that if you put service first, money takes care of itself.

In the words of Publilius Syrus:

A wise man will be master of his mind, A fool will be its slave.

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