Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
New Visions
The Magic of Thinking Big

The Magic of Thinking Big

Last updated on: August 29, 2018 at 3:20 pm by Tom Rapsas

The Magic of Thinking Big 2018-08-29T15:20:26-06:00 Tom Rapsas

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Warren Wong via unsplash.com

The headline above is borrowed from a book by the same name, The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz. Though it sold 3 million copies, you’ve probably never heard of it and for good reason. It was published way back in 1959.

The Magic of Thinking Big was part of a wave of self-help books, like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale, that claimed to have found the key to success and happiness in life. The idea went something like this:

Believe You Can Succeed and You Will.

The aphorism above is from Schwartz and it closely mirrors a sentiment expressed by Napoleon Hill: “What the mind can believe, the mind can achieve.” To Schwartz, Peale and Hill, the biggest stumbling block to getting ahead in life is our own doubting mind. If we could just think positively and live confidently, we could be successful, as evidenced by these passages:

Schwartz: Think Big and you’ll live big. You’ll live big in happiness. You’ll live big in accomplishment. Big in income. Big in friends. Big in respect.

Peale: Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.

Hill: There are no limitations in life except those we acknowledge, both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought.

The Four Steps to Thinking Big.

In The Magic of Thinking Big, Schwartz credits belief as “the driving force behind all great books, plays, scientific discoveries.” He says it’s the one ingredient that can be found in all successful men and women and that if you “believe, really believe, you can succeed and you will.” He then lays out a four-point plan to help us achieve success.

Think success, don’t think failure. Let the thought “I will succeed” dominate your thinking process. Thinking success conditions your mind to create plans that produce success. Thinking failure does the exact opposite.
Remind yourself regularly: you are better than you think you are. Successful people are not supermen or superwomen. They’re just ordinary people who have developed belief in themselves and what they do.
Believe Big. The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief. The bigger your dreams, the bigger your accomplishments.
Stop Making Excuses. Schwartz refers to it as “excusitis, the failure disease.” In his words, people with mediocre accomplishments are quick to explain “why they haven’t, why they don’t, why they can’t, and why they aren’t.” Each time someone makes an excuse, it becomes embedded in their subconscious.

Wait a second you say, that sounds too easy. Is that all there is to it?

Here’s my take: I do believe there’s something to the idea of thinking positively and/or thinking big. After all, I can’t think of a single story in our popular culture about a businessperson, an athlete, a musician or actress, who thought they were going to fail miserably, but somehow succeeded. Yet, I also believe success is predicated not just on our beliefs—but on our actions.

Had Schwartz been alive today, he might have known about the writer Malcolm Gladwell and his “10,000-Hour Rule.” Gladwell believes the key to success in any field is simply a matter of practicing a specific task over and over again. While there is debate whether 10,000 hours is the actual number of hours needed, the idea is you have to work at something to be good at it. In turn, once you’re good at it, you’re more likely to succeed.

Writing in the book Mastery, George Leonard tells us the story of the legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus. The man known as The Golden Bear spent years on the golf course before making his mark, but in an interview for Esquire magazine in his later years, he credited one factor for his tremendous success: visualization.

Nicklaus claimed he never hit a golf shot without first visualizing the ball reaching its desired destination, “sitting up there high and white and pretty on the green.” Nicklaus said the perfect shot was: 50% visualization, 40 percent setup, and only 10 percent swing.

Think about how that might apply to any endeavor in life, whether it was applying for a job, looking to complete a project at home or work, winning over a beau, or achieving any milestone in life. We do the preparatory work (40%), we visualize the result (50%) and then make the effort (10%) to achieve success. The net:

Yes, Think Big. But also be sure to put in the necessary work to make big things happen.

Previous Post

August 22, 2018

The Dalai Lama and the incredible power of a smile

Next Post

September 5, 2018 Prayers for the Sick, the Lonely and the Sleepless

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 50+ Spirituality 60 Second Inspiration Activism Adversity Afterlife agape aging Aliens Angels Angels and aliens anger animism Astrology Atheists Attention Attitude Authenticity Awareness Awe Ayahuasca Balance Beginnings Being Present Belief Bhagavad Gita Bible birth of Jesus Blessings Bliss Bono Breathing Buddha Buddhism Calling cats Centered Centering Prayer Chakras Change Character Character and Aging Christ consciousness Christianity Christmas Church Civility commencement speeches commitments compassion Connecting with God Consciousness Contemplation Contemplative Prayer Contentment Conversations with God Coping Coping mechanisms Corinthians Coronavirus Covid creativity Daily practice Dalai Lama David Brooks David Frenette Death Deathbed visions Decisions determinism Discernment disconnecting Donald Shimoda Dreaming of the Dead dreams Drinking Easter Eastern religion Eckhart Tolle ego Elders Emerson Engagement Enlightenment everyday magic Evil Spirits Expectations experience Faith fate Fatima Fear Feel Finding God Fitness Fulfillment Gandhi Gary Zukav Generosity Giving Gnostic gospels Gnostics God God's will Golden Rule Good & Evil Gospel of Thomas Gospels Grace Gratitude Grief Growing Older Guardian Angels gumption Gurus Halloween Happiness health health and happiness Heaven Helping others High Strangeness Hinduism Holiday Season honesty Honor Hope Humility impostor syndrome inner music Inner Work Insights insomnia Inspiration Inspirational intuition Investing Jeff Bridges Jesus Jesus Christ John Templeton joy joy of life Justin Bieber Kaballah Kabbalah Karma Kindness koans Law of Attraction Life Life after Death Life and death Life Balance Life Hacks Life Lessons Life Path Life Philosophy Life Plan life purpose Life Rules Life Tips Life's Big Questions Lindsay Lohan Listening Living Intentionally Loneliness Love Magic Mark Twain Marriage Meaning of Life Meditation mentor Mentors Mid-Life Crisis Mindful Mindfulness Money Monks Multiverse Mysterious World mystical experience Mysticism Mystics Mythology Napoleon Hill Near Death Experience (NDE) New Thought New Year New Year's resolutions Noise Oprah out-of-body experience Parables Peace of mind philosophy Plant Intelligence Pope Francis Positive Thinking Prayer prayers for the spiritual Preachers Premonitions presence Prophecies Prophecy Prophets Psalms Purpose Purpose of Life quietude Quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Trine Reconnect Recovery reincarnation Relaxation Religion resolutions Resurrection Ritual Rituals Rules to Live By sadness Sam Harris Sandy Second Act Seeking self Self Mastery self-help self-improvement Seneca sermon sex shamans Sickness Silence Silence of God sleep small voice Smiling Social Activism solitude Soul Soul and Spirit Soul Awakening Spiritual Awakening spiritual beliefs spiritual guidance spiritual journey spiritual living spiritual path Spiritual philosophy Spiritual Practice Spirituality Spirituality and work Spooky Spirituality Stillness stoicism stoics Storytelling Stress Relief Success Suffering Suicide Surrender tao Thanks Thanksgiving the afterlife the bardo the Bible the Blues The Election the Kingdom the secret the self The Soul Thomas Keating Thomas Merton Thomas Moore Time Tony Robbins tradition UFOs Uncategorized Universe Values visualization Voice of God Wake Up Call Wake Up Call book Walls Walt Whitman Well-being Winter Blues Wisdom words to live by Work work/life balance worry Yogananda Zen

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 July 2012 April 2012 March 2012 January 2012 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 December 2009 November 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who built an ark to survive a great flood?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Moses Joseph Paul Noah

Books by This Author Books by Wake Up Call

See All Titles »