Hello, bookworms of Hive. And everyone else! 😁
It's been a long time since I've written a book review. The last time I posted something like this was back in June 2022 when I shared my learning from reading Jay Shetty's Think Like A Monk.
In this post, I'm going to share with you some of the striking lessons I've come across while reading David Shwartz's The Magic of Thinking Big. The book is quite popular in the self-help world because of its extremely bold promises of succeeding in selling more, knowing how to manage better, leading fearlessly, earning more, enjoying a happier and more fulfilling life.
The book is full of outside-in approaches to how to improve your life. An outside-in approach is when you try make yourself better by doing things to convince yourself that you're better. By doing the work outside, you then make your inner-self better. I can't say that I'm not a fan of this approach, but I have come across other schools of thoughts that describe the inside-in approach (it's opposite) as a better alternative.
THE MAGIC OF THINKING BIG: THE SECRET OF SUCCESS TO SELL MORE, MANAGE BETTER, LEAD FEARLESSLY, EARN MORE, ENJOY A HAPPIER, MORE FULFILLING LIFE
TAKEAWAY #1
Despite not agreeing with all of the things in the book and not being a fan of how some ideas were presented, there were a lot of things that I took to heart. The book glorifies hustle culture such that the best way to advance in life is to rely on your practical thinking and constant action. Up to an extreme, it even disregards the advantage of having an intellectual mind over the go-getter and practical disposition.
Nevertheless, one idea that was quite unique to me was how the author coined and kept using the term "Excusitis." It's a tongue-twister for me, and David Schwartz uses it quite aggressively. It's the failure disease, or the condition that people use as an excuse why their not getting the kind of life that they want.
The four common form of this disease are health excusitis, intelligence excusitis, age excusitis, and luck excusitis.
We hear the following excuses:
- But I'm tired. I'm always tired. I don't have the energy. I have bad health. I'm not fit enough to do those things.
- I'm not smart enough for that. It's too difficult for me to learn that. I've always been bad at this subject.
- I'm too old (or young) for this. It's too late for me. I don't have the years of experience for this. I'll wait until I'm old enough.
- Life is unfair. Other people are just lucky. Bad things always happen to me. Good things don't happen to me.
The author's remedy for these excuses are a series of outside-in approaches such as:
- Refusing to talk about your health because the more you talk about your ailments, the more you identify with and be limited by them.
- Reminding yourself that your attitude is more important than your intelligence because a "winning" attitude will get you more in life than your IQ.
- Counting the many years you still have left in your life because those years can still be used to do the things you want in life.
- Accepting the law of cause and effect because everything happens for a reason, and that preparation and planning will produce success and not luck.
TAKEAWAY #2
The idea that action cures fear really resonates with me, and the book does a good job at presenting it. The author gives you the following verses:
Every day thousands of people bury good ideas because they are afraid to act on them.
Use action to cure fear and gain confidence.
Action feeds and strengthens confidence; inaction in all forms feeds fear. To fight fear act.
For quite some time, I used to struggle with my confidence, and what really helped me was the idea that confidence can only be grown when you see results, and you won't see results unless you take action.
The book's outside-in approach to taking action is delivered through a story of a writer sharing his secret on how he's able to produce written work despite not feeling creative. The writer sits down, picks up his pen, and go through the motions of running his pen on paper. It does not matter if he writes words or if he doodles, but soon, he gets in the zone of writing and is able to produce some work. The satisfaction of some work done fuels the writer to take more action and to continue writing.
TAKEAWAY #3
Perhaps, my favorite thing from this book is the "Sell-Yourself-To-Yourself" Commercial. The most obvious outside-in approach in personal development is giving a pep talk to yourself. By declaring the good things about you vocally, you affect the way you think about yourself. The surest things that will get someone ahead in life is having enthusiasm, seeing the importance in the things they do, and the feeling of being worthy and "big." Because you are what you thing you are.
To reinforce this positive self-thinking, you make a commercial to sell yourself to yourself. The book shows an example that helped me make my own. I wrote mine on a piece of people that put inside my wallet. I forget about it most of the time but when I remember it, I pull it out and it gives me the boost I need to keep going because I know how important I am, and deserving of all the good things in life.
So, here's my commercial to sell myself to myself:
Glebert, meet Glebert—a person worthy of attention, time, and compassion.
Glebert, you're smart, passionate, and dedicated.
Own it!
You've got the skills to plan and organize. Fulfill your intentions each day.
Glebert, you believe in honesty, patience, and peace.
Practice being honest. Practice being patient. And practice being peaceful.
You are reliable and you work fast. Stay productive and fulfilled.
You're likable. Spread good vibes to the people around you.
You're more than capable of enriching your relationships.
You look good. Your face and body look good. Take good care of it.
You're rich with resources and can manage money well.
Be grateful in increasing your wealth.
You are a son of God. And Jesus died to save you.
Honor His sacrifice by living according to His will.
You're doing great, Glebert. You always strive to improve yourself.
You'll be better today and tomorrow.
Go for it, Glebert.
You can do it!
TAKEAWAY #4
It makes sense for me to share the book's main premise on how to think big. There is a very smart exercise in the book on how to measure your "true size."
First, you identify your biggest assets regarding your skills, education, personality, appearance, experiences, etc. It would help if you could ask someone to offer their honest opinion on this matter. Next, for each of those assets, you determine the people you know who have become successful but who you also know do not have the asset to as great a degree as you.
This would reveal that you outrank some successful people on at least one asset, which means that you are bigger than you think! You owe it to yourself to fit your thinking to your "true size."
Think as big as you really are! Never, never, never sell yourself short!
Of course, the author presents some other outside-in approaches to thinking big. The first one is through the use of big thinkers' vocabulary. You must use "big, positive, cheerful" words and phrases in describing how you feel and other people, in encouraging others, and in outlining plans for others. It's an effort for some, but it pays to be the person who always feels great, who knows how to give compliments, who is inspiring, and who's enthusiastic.
Also, one of my favorite exercises in the book is called "Practicing Adding Value." You ask yourself these three questions:
- What can I do to 'add value' to this room or company?
- What can I do to 'add value' to this person or my peers?
- What can I do to make myself more valuable today?
These questions force you to think about how to scale up your endeavors, the best in people, and your own potential.
Thinking big is about growing out of the level of your excuses. It's about having the attitude to always take action. And it's a constant reminder of how 'big' you are, and you can be.
I finished this book thinking it's not one of my favorites, but after doing this book review, I just want to read it again right now! I guess I have been too sold on the idea that the inside-out approach is the only right way. This book turned out to be a treasure of outside-in approaches to personal development.
Anyway, that's it! I hope you got something from this book review and got you interested in reading this book or any other book that's been pending on your reading list. For my future post, I'll share with you the books I read last year and my reading list for this year.
See you at the next one. Keep on reading! Cheers!
Photo from the cover is mine. All illustrations were created using canva.com.
