The Magic of Thinking Big - David J. Schwartz

The Magic of Thinking Big - David J. Schwartz

Learn how to change your life with ideas, principles and practices that will make you master and direct your positive thinking correctly.

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Have you ever dreamed of being successful? To have the gift to thrive in everything you do? To be an inspiration to the surrounding people? "The Magic of Thinking Big" by David J. Schwartz brings you methods and techniques for achieving success.

In the summary of this book you will find concepts for you to apply in your personal and family life, thrive at work and achieve your noblest goals.

Are you ready? Stay tuned to what this book summary has to offer and start changing your life now!

The book "The Magic of Thinking Big"

"The Magic of Thinking Big" is an American self-help book written by David Schwartz, first published in 1959 and translated by Record Publisher in 1994.

In this book, we can discover in 13 chapters methods and practices for developing positive thinking and achieving maximum success in our lives.

Who was David J. Schwartz?

David Joseph Schwartz was an American motivational writer. His most successful work is the book we will talk about in today's summary, "The Magic of Thinking Big".

He was a writer, academic, professor, and president of his own consulting firm.

He died in 1987, leaving this work, among other works, that help people in their search for personal fulfillment.

Why should I read it?

If you want to develop your leadership, practice positive thinking and take it one step closer to success, this is a must read!

The book can benefit anyone seeking a mindset change and adopting the best techniques to become a successful professional.

What are the key points of the book "The Magic of Thinking Big"?

To know what lies ahead, check out the main proposals you find in "The Magic of Thinking Big":

  • The author motivates us to believe in success and the ability to do what we want;
  • The author argues that his thoughts are a chain production;
  • For the author, constantly apologizing is a sign of mediocrity;
  • Exercising your positive thinking is key to achieving effective success.
  • The author encourages us to destroy our fears, reframing them and turning them into trust;
  • You create your life from your thoughts;
  • Your thoughts, as well as your attitudes, shape your environment;
  • Your attitudes are your allies;
  • Creating goals helps turn your dreams into goals;

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[Book Summary] The Magic of Thinking Big - David J. Schwartz

Believe in Success

Belief in yourself and your abilities and skills make you act the way you need to succeed. You can be inspired by pictures and people, but you should not limit yourself to your deeds.

David considers the following definitions as signs of success:

  • Prosperity;
  • Admiration;
  • Leadership;
  • Freedom;
  • Respect.

According to the author, we have within us both triumph and defeat. What we should do is just choose which we want to be present in our life. We have complete control over the calling or dismissal of both aspects.

This is the first step: believing that you are capable.

There are 3 instructions for developing credibility:

  • Your thoughts are a chain production;
  • Value yourself more and more without declining;
  • Always increase the intensity of your belief.

Build a self-development plan with ambitions; your lab is all that surrounds you. Observe and experiment.

Cure Yourself of "I'm Sorry", the Disease of Failure.

To be apologizing all the time is a sign of mediocrity. Apologizing eventually becomes vicious and becomes frequent in the life of the doer.

The four most common types of excuses are related to:

  • Health;
  • Intelligence;
  • Age;
  • Luck.

According to the author, they all have methods to be fought and stopped before they become constant, such as:

  • There is no need to talk about health;
  • Don't underestimate your intelligence;
  • Demonstrate attitudes that transcend age, turning it into something positive;
  • Recognize that luck often means preparation and aptitude.

Gain Confidence and Destroy Fear

Fear is the main enemy of success, David says. This feeling can come in the forms of:

  • Concern;
  • Tension;
  • Embarrassment;
  • Panic etc.

Fear is psychological, so it generates a lack of confidence. However, for every fear, there is a way to master it. For example, if you are unsure of appearance, nothing prevents you from reinventing yourself:

  • Change the hairstyle;
  • Practice charisma in the mirror;
  • Use new accessories;
  • Wear a different outfit.

The general rule is to isolate your fear and exclude it, replacing it with practical and decisive action. Do things objectively, with no chance for remorse or guilt. Understand the other, it enriches the confidence of your actions and your thoughts.

The author tells us five daily exercises to practice confidence:

  1. Sit in the front;
  2. Look people in the eye;
  3. Walk firmer and faster;
  4. Get used to talking;
  5. Smile frankly.

How to Think Positively

The size of one's thoughts set the extent of one's accomplishments. We can enrich and magnify our thoughts:

  • Increasing our value;
  • Determining skills;
  • Approaching people we admire and who have such skills;
  • Replacing depreciative phrases and words with grandiose ones;
  • Developing positive vocabulary;
  • And looking at things as they can be and not just as they are.

For all these cases, David Schwartz gives us tools, examples, and techniques to put them into practice and improve their performance.

Elements that help us in personal and professional progress:

  • Improve speech;
  • Knowing the cause of discussions;
  • Adapt to changes;
  • Knowing that certain details don't inhibit real qualities.

How to Think and Dream Creatively

Any thinking about improving something, about innovation, is creative thinking.

Tools for enhancing creativity:

  • Believe that you can do something you think or dream about;
  • Eliminate limiting thoughts and identify impeding reasons;
  • Escape from traditional thinking methods;
  • Receive new ideas;
  • Try and make progress;
  • Accept that there is no absolute perfection;
  • Always do more and better;
  • Accepting opportunities;
  • Focus;
  • Ask and listen.

Master your environment! Make it first class

The environment shapes and presents facts about who we are, aids our thinking and influences our personality. The author shows us different groups in different spaces, achieving different results.

Ideally, you create an environment that protects you from the negativity of others.

How to improve your environment:

Good Attitudes Generate Good Results

Cultivate attitudes like:

  • Be stimulated;
  • Be important;
  • Serve well first.

Regarding attitudes too, you need people's support for the full accomplishment of what you want to become.

For this you need to follow some rules:

  • Remember people's names;
  • Be nice;
  • Be quiet;
  • Don't be selfish;
  • Be interesting;
  • Polish your personality;
  • Congratulate deeds;
  • Support people spiritually.

This needs to be done even when things are not as we expected.

Your ideas need to be put into execution. You need to act to move your mental mechanism.

How to turn defeat into victory

Defeat must be overcome without mediocrity. Success always bumps into opposition and deprivation. You need to cultivate success every day.

Discover your faults and face your mistakes. You should not see them as reasons for your defeat, but as challenges to overcome.

Keep your goal, but seek to innovate the methods.

Have a goal to help you make progress

You need to visualize before you can make it happen. A dream with an objective becomes a goal, you create steps and paths.

Watch out for events and facts around you that undermine your success. Learn how to prevent them from reaching their goals.

How to Think Like a Leader

There are 4 leadership principles:

  1. Know the thinking of who you want to influence;
  2. Think about how to deal with it humanely;
  3. Believe in progress and make it happen;
  4. Confront yourself.

Always put yourself in other's shoes. Check your actions and thoughts constantly. Use positive thinking.

Books about leadership

In "Everybody Matters", Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia explore how true leaders must continually study to develop and develop those around them so that they can also become excellent leaders who believe and value people.

For John C. Maxwell, author of "Leadership Gold", the best leaders are those who can hear. Listeners know what is happening because they are attentive. They learn better than others because they absorb from many places. Moreover, good listeners have the ability to better see other people's strengths and weaknesses.

Finally, in the book "Dream Big", Cristiane Correa complements the idea of personal strategic planning and stresses the importance of maintaining a continuous improvement process to achieve one's goals. Her ideas were inspired by the visions of the richest entrepreneurs in Brazil.

Okay, but how can I be a positive leader?

The book brings us many practical activities that we can easily apply to our lives. But overall, here are some tips:

  • When you encounter fear, confront it to turn it into confidence. All fear start from somewhere. If you are afraid: go on anyway;
  • Have good thoughts upon waking and cultivate these thoughts throughout the day no matter what happens. At the end of the day you will see how your positive thinking made those thoughts come true in your day;
  • Be a good leader: practice empathy, see that your actions and thoughts reflect the attitude of the people under your leadership.
  • Improve your speeches with speaking techniques;
  • Practice gratitude.

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Book “The Magic of Thinking Big”