 What is the power of thinking big? How does your thought process affect your life? There is power in your thoughts. This is one thing I have recently discovered from listening to David J. Schwartz's book titled The Magic of Thinking Big. From this book, I have learned again that how you think determines what you become. In fact, the summary of your life is a result of how you have been thinking. This could never be truer. The Bible even betrays this truth by saying, be careful how you think. Your life is shaped by your thoughts. Therefore, successful people aren't extraordinary people. They are ordinary people who have learned to think differently. I began listening to David J. Schwartz's book recently, and here are 10 lessons I pulled from his book. 1. Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe. Your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution. David Schwartz told the story of a lady who wanted to sell trailer homes. She was poor, and people in her community told her it wasn't possible to successfully sell trailer homes. They also reminded her she didn't have the money, and what it takes to achieve that goal. But all indications told the lady she could do it. She had studied her competitors, and she knew she could sell more homes than them. She got into the business, and that same year, she made over a million dollars selling homes. She set a goal for selling more the following year, and she reached it. Jesus Christ said, If you believe, all things are possible to the ones who believe. To succeed, you must believe very strongly and convincingly that you can succeed, and you will. 2. The mind is what the mind is fed. You become what you feed your mind. The premise of David's book is the power of the mind in achieving success. Success and failure are not first hinged on the principles, but first on the mindset of people. David told the story of a man who joined the army, but lost his arm during a shootout. He returned from the military, and started to play golf professionally. He played so well David asked how it came to be. The man said, Well, I realized long ago that a one-armed man with the right attitude is better than a two-armed man with the wrong attitude. You can never rise above the state of your mind, so your most significant investment isn't looking for business to build first. Your greatest lifelong investment should be investing in your mind. Read books that inspire you to develop yourself. Listen to audiobooks. Watch materials that help you grow. Invest in your mind. 3. Action Cares Fear During World War II, David said new sailors had to know how to swim or were trained to swim. To train them, they would stand on a plank on the edge of the ship, about 12 feet high, and be supposed to dive into the sea about 8 feet deep. Most of those new sailors were often afraid, but some would be pushed down, and they would start to swim. Action Cares Fears. David argues that it is wrong to believe fear doesn't exist, or to live in denial. Fear does exist, but the antidote to fear is action. When you are most afraid, that is a time to act, because the fear you do not control through action will hold you back from achieving the life of your dream. 4. Look at things not as they are, but as they can be. Visualization adds value to everything. A big thinker always visualizes what can be done in the future. He isn't stuck with the present. David told another story of a man who owned a small tie-and-dye business, but was not making much. One day, the man traveled to another city for a project interview, while sitting in the lobby. The man wondered to himself, here I am, lobbying for a project with a ludicrous amount, and somehow, I am more than this. Then the man took a pen and wrote down the names of his friends who were more successful than him. He compared himself with them, and noticed they weren't as smart as him. They weren't as intelligent as him. Still, they had more initiative, and they believed in themselves. That was all he needed. Initiative and believe in himself. The next minute, he walked into the interview room for the job, instead of asking for the low price he had initially planned, with his newfound confidence. He asked for a very high rate and got the project for that price. What you see is what you become. See big things, and you will achieve big things. Don't sell yourself short. Don't underestimate yourself, because you don't have all you need yet. You are more than you think. And where you are now is not where you will always be, but you must choose to see beyond where you are, and start to actively place a demand and life to give it to you. 5. Hope is a start, but hope needs action to win victories. David told the story of a man who complained that he will be fired in his office, because he wasn't doing well. David asked him what he planned to do about it. The man said he hoped something would change. Well, hope is good, but only hope followed by action will change things. David advised the man to make plans on what to change and how to make things better. The man obeyed, things got better. He retained his job and became richer. Things only get better when you move from hoping to actually doing. Nothing changes until we act. What can you do today to make things better tomorrow, or in that dire situation? Identify those things and do them. Nothing changes until you act. 6. The thinking that guides your intelligence. It's much more important than how much intelligence you have. At the beginning of the book, David tells the story of a man who earns five times more than his colleagues in the office, not because he was more intelligent, because his record showed he wasn't, not because he knew more than others, because he didn't, not because he was smarter, or worked harder than the others. In fact, he worked less, but because he always thought big and saw the big picture, you don't have to have all the intelligence in the world to be successful. You don't even need that. As David said, just having enough sense to steep through something until it is done is better than idle intelligence. You have seen people who know more and earn less, and people who know less and make more. What's the difference? Big thinking. Seeing themselves higher than their level and going after it. How you think is what matters most, not your intelligence. 7. Where there is a will, there is a way. A man sat on the plane with David, who had just had a plastic valve placed on his heart during a surgery. The thing kept ticking, and David could hear. Yet, the man joyously told David his plan to return to school in Minnesota, to become a lawyer, no matter what we're going through and have gone through. We don't become what we need to be, because we don't want to. When we want to and are determined to, nothing can stop us. When you decide you will become something great in life, nothing in this world can stop you, except God and yourself. 8. Most of us make two fundamental errors concerning intelligence. 1. We underestimate our own brain power. 2. We overestimate the other fellow's brain power. We think others are better than us, and we believe we are not better than others. But David wrote that, if we start to believe that, as humans, we are all the same, things will get better. A man who used to be very shy and afraid of people, joined the army, and was to attend to people. He saw that all the people who came to him had similarities, even though they were different. That changed his perspective about people. We may be different, but we're all the same. We experience the same challenges, albeit on the different conditions. Nobody is better than you, and you're better than nobody. Always remember that, and you'll put people in the right perspective. 9. Those who believe they can move mountains do. Those who think they can't, cannot. You are what you believe. You will never rise above your belief. I'm learning now to think that, what you earn is even a result of what you believe. Why do you think when a man who used to make $1 million is fired at the place of work, the next time he gets a job, it is for a higher salary, or at least the same salary? Because his mind has been tuned to believe he can earn that much. You are what you think. You are what you believe. 10. Think you are weak. Think you lack what it takes. Think you will lose. Think you're a second class. Think this way, and you're doomed to mediocrity. Finally, I learned a counterintuitive lesson from this book. To think confidently, act confidently. You'll have the result of the emotions you act upon, especially in your thoughts. For example, you can never think of defeating thoughts while smiling genuinely. No, a genuine big smile will lead you to think good thoughts. So act whatever you want to think, and you will soon start to believe it, because how you think is what your life will become. If you are what you believe, then this matter of thinking big is very crucial to your success. In fact, it is the foundation of your success. Think about success and not failure. Think possibility and not impossibility. Think victory and not defeat. Think big. Never think small. You have all it takes to think big without having to pay for it. If your life is shaped by your thoughts, you must check how you're thinking by checking your life result. The result of your life is a reflection of how you have been thinking. To change your life, starting today, change your thoughts. If this video inspired you, subscribe to our channel. We love you.