Can " Thinking Big " Lead to Success ?

Ever since I read David J. Schwartz's " The Magic of Thinking Big ", i wanted to write on this topic. It's one of the best books I have come across which tells us ' how to set our goals high and then to exceed them ', in a nut shell, ' The Power of Thinking Big '.

The question is if Thinking Big accomplishes so much, why doesn't everyone think that way? The answer is simple, all of us, more than we recognize, are in the mid of lot of negative influence every day everywhere. And no wonder, our thinking is small, not big ! All around us is an environment that is trying to tug us, trying to pull us down. It has often been said that ' bigger is not always better '. Some might say it's true when considering the current economic situation, but I feel it is never true when it comes to new ideas or personal dreams where thinking big is always better. We can achieve success only by believing we can succeed.

I have seen several young executives joining for new jobs. Each of them "wishes", someday he will achieve success by reaching the top. But majority of these young people simply don't have the belief that they can reach the top and they don't reach the top. But a small number of these young people really believe they will succeed. They approach their work with the " I am going to the top " attitude, and they reach the top. What differentiate these two sets of people is their attitude.

I read a survey recently on the the power of thinking big. It says Seventy-five percent of respondents whom they approached agreed that they don't think big enough about their work or business, and of those that do have big dreams, 75% of respondents indicated that they lack the follow-through in order to make them happen. Further, over 85% of respondents noted that they don't know where to start or what steps to take to make them happen.

Let me share with you what David J. Schwartz's point of view on ' How to use the Magic of Thinking Big in Life's Most Crucial Situations '. It's for sure that, there is some magic in thinking big. But it's equally true that, we forget it easily. When we hit some rough spots there is a danger that, our thinking will shrink in size. And when it does, we lose! Below are some brief guides for staying big when we are tempted to use the small approach :

1) When People Try to Drive us Down, THINK BIG. Be sure, there are some people who want us to lose, but these people can't hurt us if we refuse to fight petty people. Fighting with them reduces us to their size. Feel sorry for them. Let's Stay Big.

2) When That " We- Haven't- Got -What -It -Takes " Feeling Creeps Up On Us, THINK BIG. Remember, if we think we are weak, we are. If we think we are inadequate, we are. Avoid that natural tendency to see ourselves as small. Iet's feel that, we are important.

3) When an Argument or Quarrel Seems Inevitable, THINK BIG. We need to successfully resist the temptation to argue and quarrel. Think Big Enough to see that quarrels and arguments, will never help us to get where we want to go.

4) When we Feel Defeated, THINK BIG. It is not possible to achieve large success without hardships and setbacks. But it is possible to live the rest of our lives without defeat. Think Big Enough to see that defeat is a state of mind, nothing more.

5) When we Feel Our Progress on the Job is Slowing Down, THINK BIG. No matter what we do and regardless of our occupation, higher status and higher pay comes from one thing: Increasing the quality and quantity of our output. Think, " We can do better ". Nothing in this world is being done as well as it could be. And when we think, " We can do better ", ways to do better will appear.

So friends, let's have big ideas / dreams and say them out loud. Let's visualize ourselves successfully bringing our idea or dream to life. Think, What will we look like? How will we feel? Where we will be? Let's establish goals for how we will go about achieving them and determine what action steps will help us to move forward. And above all, let's select one action step and do it today!

When it comes to thinking big, remember the words of Mother Theresa, "The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest person with the smallest mind. Think big anyway." So, what are we waiting for?

Joining you in THINKING BIG,

Shamim