Life Chapter – Think Big

Thinking Big

When you think about where you want to be next year or in five years do you think big?  Do you envision big goals for yourself, I mean really big goals?  Or do you set safe comfortable smaller easy to achieve goals for yourself?  Thinking big opens your world to big opportunities.  When you think big and set big goals you may not reach the big prize but there is a good chance you will get close.  When you think really big and set really big goals you don’t place the limitations on the results as you do when thinking small and setting comfortable easy to achieve goals.

Common Traits

A common trait shared by successful people is the ability to think big and set big goals.  The problem is most people have been conditioned to abide to a certain mindset and thinking outside of that mindset is uncomfortable.  Thinking big and setting big goals challenges limiting mindsets.  Consider the Wright brothers.  The mindset back then was humans could not fly.  If the Wright brothers had not challenged that thinking by setting big goals where would we be today?  Or what if Bill Gates had not challenged the conventional wisdom that great business success could only be achieved through a Harvard education when he dreamed big, dropped out of college, and started Microsoft?  

Go Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Thinking big challenges you to go beyond your comfort zone and pushes you beyond what you believe are your only options.  “Most people think small because most people are afraid of success, afraid of making decisions, afraid of winning. And that gives people like me a great advantage.” – Donald Trump It is easy to focus on the shortcomings and failures making it difficult to see a clear path to achieving big goals.  However, setting big goals challenges you to expand your means; rather than existing below your means.  Living below your means is a small thinker average achiever perception.  People like Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and the like don’t live below their means.  Rather they grow their means to suit a desired lifestyle.  Big thinkers don’t accept average results; they strive for excellence.

Purpose

Thinking big provides a sense of purpose.  It provides something worth pursuing.  President Kennedy was a big thinker.  When he set the goal to put a man on the moon it became the nation’s challenge worth pursuing and provided purpose for many individuals.  The Wright brother’s notion of human flight became their life’s purpose.  We all have a purpose here on earth.  The challenge is to think big to discover yours.

When you picture yourself realizing success what does that picture look like?  Are you the type that bets on the lottery for achieving big success or are you setting your sites on real success by building something bigger than yourself?  Are you counting on yourself and working towards the big goals you set or are you counting on others and working towards their goals and ideas?  Howard Hughes once said, “I intend to be, the richest man in the world.”  Are you a Howard Hughes type person or the type person Donald Trump described above?