The Magic of Thinking Big
The timeless and practical advice in The Magic of Thinking Big clearly demonstrates how you can: Sell more Manage better Lead fearlessly Earn more Enjoy a happier, more fulfilling life With applicable and easy-to-implement insights, you’ll discover: Why believing you can succeed is essential How to quit making excuses The means to overcoming fear and finding confidence How to develop and use creative thinking and dreaming Why making (and getting) the most of your attitudes is critical How to think right towards others The best ways to make “action” a habit How to find victory in defeat Goals for growth, and How to think like a leader "Believe Big,” says Schwartz. “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."
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- "The Magic of Thinking Big", by David J. Schwartz. It contains the secrets to getting the most out of your job and family life.
- I was in the same situation some time back.
"Decided" it was time I must change myself.
Picked up "The Magic of Thinking Big". I get the general hate towards self-hep books, but in many cases they do create a positive future image and that is essential to take the next step.
Get an accountability buddy. Search reddit or discord for that. And go. Use the 5-second rule.
Go out in the morning sun. Take the unknown routes. Spark your creativity. Go out of your comfort zone once in a while.
It will take time but you'll eventually get better.
Spend $100 on a random stock. Learn, improve, adapt.
Make notes.
You do not need to prove anyone else. Make a commitment to yourself and stick to it.
- Read The Magic of Thinking Big. You're not a wantrepreneur - you've tried something and been paid for it, and that's a big step that a lot of people don't get to.
Changing your mindset is the first step. Don't think that because you only have five hours a week to work on your project, that it is forever relegated to "side project" status and capped out at $100/month.
It sounds like you want to focus on web apps, many of which are heavily dependent on organic search traffic. The first thing that I'd do after reading the book is to get a SEMRush free trial - a lot of affiliate sites have 30-day free trials. Look at how many people are searching for your target keywords, the keyword difficulty score, what advertisers are bidding for the keywords, and traffic of comparable sites.
If everything checks out, look at how you can improve on the comparable sites. Everything has potential for improvement - even if your tool works exactly the same way as a competitor, just optimizing the website copy (do a ton of A/B tests and talk to your users) could yield impressive results.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
- Ask yourself: "If I could instantaneously become whoever I want in this world, what would it be?" This may require a lot of reflection. For every answer you come up with, ask yourself "why?" and look for bigger end goals. Think about what you want to do toward yourself, your family and friends, your community, your career, and recreation.
If you're having trouble coming up with anything, reflect upon your idols from real life, alive or dead, and from stories who have inspired and motivated you. Try this exercise: Commit to writing your stream of consciousness for 3 pages a day. Don't judge, erase, or cross out. Just keep writing whatever comes naturally to mind, and if you choose to keep it afterwards, they're for your eyes only.
Once you know who you want to become, ask yourself "What do I think I can reasonably achieve in this lifetime? What goals will help me to become this person?" When the end goal is in mind, it is easy to figure out what to do next. Ask "What are the next three things I can do now to work toward my first goal?" Do them immediately. Then starting the next day and each day forth, take one step of any size toward your goal, little by little. There are no deadlines, and there is no rush. Remember that it takes 21-30 consecutive days to create a habit where it'll become automatic.
Set yourself up for success. Set small, easily achievable goals and work your way up. Commit to a few minutes instead of hours. Let your motivation take its natural course, and allow yourself to stop for the day when you're not in the mood. Focus on 1-3 goals at a time to avoid splitting your attention. For every milestone you achieve, celebrate and congratulate yourself, then immediately look onward toward the next goal. Reward yourself regularly for taking steps and achieving goals because you're boldly taking action to change your life.
Don't count or dwell on the failures. They say nothing about your future. You are in full control of your actions now in order to shape the future. Failures tell you what you will do next time to be successful in that situation. Stay focused on achieving your goal. Decide afterwards if it works for you. Remember and tally the successes. Imagine yourself as having already achieved your end goal vividly each day. It doesn't matter where you've come from or who you were yesterday. It matters more who you want to become and where you are going.
Most importantly, HAVE FUN!
Suggested Reading:
- Psycho Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
- The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz
- I would recommend reading through the entire blog archive, all together it's about the same length as a book. You can skip over articles on things that aren't interesting to you, for example I don't care about real estate.
My personal philosophy is a combination of all the different sources I have been exposed too. My main influences would be the mustachian thought sphere (MMM, The Magic of Thinking Big, Stoicism), secular western buddhism (Buddhism Plain and Simple, In the realm of hungry ghosts, The magic of tidying up) Game theory probabilistic thinking (Poker background).
When I first started reading MMM I was already a very tribal person. The us vs them mentality really appealed to me because I was used to strongly identifying with minority tribes (atheist, vegan). After I started studying buddhism I've been able to let go of some of the tribalism of mustachianism , but the frugality and the powerful self belief have remained. This is an example of my personal philosophy forking from a monolithic belief system.
I also have a couple dieties I worship. MMM is the god of frugality and not being a wimp. RNGesus is the god of accepting random bad stuff. I'll spin up/down dieties to put on my altar depending on my current priorities/ needs.
I know recommending you a bunch of books isn't really a proper response, but a proper definition would be the length of a book and I haven't written that yet.
What I would recommend to everyone is to study different belief systems and roll your own religion. Our brain is designed to consume faith-y belief systems. It's arrogant to believe those mechanisms in your brain won't latch on to something. It should be something your consciously decide on and design.
