5 Lifelong Lessons from The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

5 Lifelong Lessons from The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

"Believe you can succeed and you will."

1. Be Human

The other day, I was at a farm picking up some apples and a pumpkin. When I went up to pay, I realized no one was behind me. I had no need to hurry; the farmer, who was acting as the cashier, was staring straight into my eyes and smiling. I bantered with him, and shared a laugh, instead of shoving money and hustling away.

It was a bit of sunshine in my day.

Now, I just have to bring that to everything I do.

Schwartz advises you to treat people as well as you can, whether you’re in a leadership position or all the way at the bottom of the totem pole.

Give everyone the benefit of the doubt, have patience, and remember that most people are good deep down. Give people the beauty of grace.

I always try to remember the Pygmalion Effect: People will rise to your expectations (so set them high!).

Another tip is conversation generosity.

As Schwartz puts it:

“There is no surer way to get people to like you than to encourage them to talk to you.”

You should aim to let your chit-chat partner say more than you do. This works absolute wonders in interviews, with family etc.. People like you more the more they get to talk about themselves. So, ask questions, be curious, and as Schwartz says, be human.

2. Thinking It’s Possible Makes It So

Believing Allows You to See the Routes to Success

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

Schwartz uses a classic example to illustrate this point. He had his students think of all the ways to end the prison system within a certain number of years. Within minutes, the class turned from nitpicking all the downsides to closing prisons, to thinking up creative, innovative solutions. The hardest part of the exercise, Schwartz writes, was calming his students down to end the thought experiment as people fed off each other’s creative energy of solving a hard problem.

Assuming a seemingly impossible objective is possible, is used by many contemporary personal development authors. For example, Tim Ferriss uses it when he describes comfort challenges, where he asks his readers to try to make X amount of money in a certain time frame.

When you change from thinking, this might not be possible, to how do I accomplish it? Your mind immediately goes to work to find a way to accomplish your mission.

3. Ignore the Haters

Super simple advice, but always smart to remind yourself: If someone is a downer, gossiper, naysayer, or just plain mean, ignore them.

Change the subject, walk away, or simply nod and say, “Oh, I see.”

When it’s your family, remember, even the most advanced of us struggle with that. As Ram Dass said:

“If you think you are enlightened, go and spend a week with your family.”

At the end of the day, if you can spend 80% of your time with positive (or even neutral), supportive folks, you’re golden.

4. One Step At a Time

Schwartz illustrates the point that every big endeavor requires a repetition of small, seemingly simple endeavors.

Shwartz says, “progress is made one step at a time. A house is built one brick at a time. Football games are won a play at a time…Every big accomplishment is a series of little accomplishments.”

To make your dreams come true, you must take action, but that action need not be grand.

For me, it’s sitting my butt down and writing as often as I can; or, it’s signing up for a course that will make me better, and actually completing it and participating fully.

For you, it might mean securing the first position in class, setting up your first website or making your vlogging debut. 

Or, perhaps it’s going to the grocery store, buying healthy food for the week, and making one healthy meal. And then another, and another.

Whatever your goal, you can take one forward step toward it, probably right now.

5. Do More, Not Less (But Take Time to Think)

This phrase, written in the book, is a longtime favorite maxim:

If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.

I see this play out everywhere: at work, it’s the person who already wears five hats who is asked to plan the holiday party, order business cards for everyone in the company, fix the landing page, and attend a last-minute conference as well as take care of day-to-day duties, while the person with one role, who works strictly 10–5pm, fails to accomplish the one thing on his plate.

With friends, I notice that I’m able to consistently coordinate time on our calendars to get dinner, drinks, or catch-up, with the people who have the most on their plate: multiple jobs, crazy work hours, blossoming side projects, a consistent exercise routine, and complex family situations.

Being busy forces you to find ruthless efficiency and prioritization.

In my personal life, I’ve found that my capacity to get more things done increases the second I add responsibilities, projects, classes, and hobbies to my plate.

Even Jennifer Lawrence agrees:

“When I’m not working, I am the laziest person. I can literally lie on a couch and watch television for 15 hours.”

Only you know your capacity, but I’d always advise adding more before taking away. At the very least you might stretch and find you’re able to do much more than you thought. Volume also brings the need to quit wasting time on stupid stuff. For me, it’s social media and endlessly reading random articles on the internet. When I have a full plate of work, freelancing, yoga teaching, volunteering, meal prepping, and social activities, I stop dawdling time away on unfulfilling time-sucks.

Follow the Golden Rule (Carnegie’s words) and Be Human (Schwartz’s).

"Treat others how you’d like to be treated.

Everyone craves appreciation, respect, and recognition."

** If you enjoyed this book summary, be sure to check my reviews on other such best-selling, motivational and inspiring books from around the globe! Click here 👉 : https://novakidhs.blogspot.com/p/book-reviews-to-keep-you-motivated.html

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