The Magic of Thinking Big By David J Schwartz

My Notes

• All of us, more than we recognize, are products of the thinking around us. And much of this thinking is little, not big. All around you is an environment that is trying to tug you, trying to pull you down Second Class Street. You are told almost daily that there are “too many chiefs and not enough Indians.” In other words, that opportunities to lead no longer exist, that there is a surplus of chiefs, so be content to be a little guy.

• “The mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven.”

• 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.

• “Life is too short to be little.”

• Believe, really believe, you can move a mountain, and you can. Not many people believe that they can move mountains. So, as a result, not many people do.

• Disbelief is negative power. When the mind disbelieves or doubts, the mind attracts “reasons” to support the disbelief. Doubt, disbelief, the subconscious will to fail, the not really wanting to succeed, is responsible for most failures.

• Think doubt and fail. Think victory and succeed.

• Your mind is a “thought factory.” It’s a busy factory, producing countless thoughts in one day. Production in your thought factory is under the charge of two foremen, one of whom we will call Mr. Triumph and the other Mr. Defeat. Mr. Triumph is in charge of manufacturing positive thoughts. He specializes in producing reasons why you can, why you’re qualified, why you will. The other foreman, Mr. Defeat, produces negative, deprecating thoughts. He is your expert in developing reasons why you can’t, why you’re weak, why you’re inadequate. His specialty is the “why-you-will-fail” chain of thoughts.

• Think success, don’t think failure. At work, in your home, substitute success thinking for failure thinking. When you face a difficult situation, think, “I’ll win,” not “I’ll probably lose.” When you compete with someone else, think, “I’m equal to the best,” not “I’m outclassed.” When opportunity appears, think “I can do it,” never “I can’t.” Let the master 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. Failure thinking conditions the mind to think other thoughts that produce failure.

• Remind yourself regularly that you are better than you think you are. Successful people are not supermen. Success does not require a superintellect. Nor is there anything mystical about success. And success isn’t based on luck. Successful people are just ordinary folks who have developed belief in themselves and what they do. Never—yes, never—sell yourself short.

• Believe Big. 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.

• Refuse to talk about your health. The more you talk about an ailment, even the common cold, the worse it seems to get.

• Be genuinely grateful that your health is as good as it is. There’s an old saying worth repeating often: “I felt sorry for myself because I had ragged shoes until I met a man who had no feet.” Instead of complaining about “not feeling good,” it’s far better to be glad you are as healthy as you are. Just being grateful for the health you have is powerful vaccination against developing new aches and pains and real illness.

• Remind yourself often, “It’s better to wear out than rust out.” Life is yours to enjoy. Don’t waste it. Don’t pass up living by thinking yourself into a hospital bed.

• Never underestimate your own intelligence, and never overestimate the intelligence of others. Don’t sell yourself short. Concentrate on your assets. Discover your superior talents. Remember, it’s not how many brains you’ve got that matters. Rather, it’s how you use your brains that counts. Manage your brains instead of worrying about how much IQ you’ve got.

• Remind yourself several times daily, “My attitudes are more important than my intelligence.” At work and at home practice positive attitudes. See the reasons why you can do it, not the reasons why you can’t. Develop an “I’m winning” attitude. Put your intelligence to creative positive use. Use it to find ways to win, not to prove you will lose.

• Remember that the ability to think is of much greater value than the ability to memorize facts. Use your mind to create and develop ideas, to find new and better ways to do things. Ask yourself, “Am I using my mental ability to make history, or am I using it merely to record history made by others?”

• Look at your present age positively. Think, “I’m still young,” not “I’m already old.” Practice looking forward to new horizons and gain the enthusiasm and the feel of youth.

• Compute how much productive time you have left. Remember, a person age thirty still has 80 percent of his productive life ahead of him. And the fifty-year-old still has a big 40 percent—the best 40 percent—of his opportunity years left. Life is actually longer than most people think!

• Invest future time in doing what you really want to do. It’s too late only when you let your mind go negative and think it’s too late. Stop thinking “I should have started years ago.” That’s failure thinking. Instead think, “I’m going to start now, my best years are ahead of me.” That’s the way successful people think.

• I’m holding one every morning. I’ve got those people really enthusiastic. I guess once

• Isolate your fear. Pin it down. Determine exactly what you are afraid of. 2. Then take action. There is some kind of action for any kind of fear.

• in these moments when you’re alone with your thoughts—when you’re driving your car or eating alone—recall pleasant, positive experiences. Put good thoughts in your memory bank. This boosts confidence. It gives you that “I-sure-feel-good” feeling. It helps keep your body functioning right, too.

• Just before you go to sleep, deposit good thoughts in your memory bank. Count your blessings. Recall the many good things you have to be thankful for: your wife or husband, your children, your friends, your health. Recall the good things you saw people do today. Recall your little victories and accomplishments. Go over the reasons why you are glad to be alive.

• “You know, there would be no need for my services if people would do just one thing.” “What’s that?” I asked eagerly. “Simply this: destroy their negative thoughts before those thoughts become mental monsters.” “Most individuals I try to help,” he continued, “are operating their own private museum of mental horror.

• Get a balanced view of the other fellow. Keep these two points in mind when dealing with people: first, the other fellow is important. Emphatically, he is important. Every human being is. But remember this, also: You are important, too. So when you meet another person, make it a policy to think, “We’re just two important people sitting down to discuss something of mutual interest and benefit.”

• Develop an understanding attitude. People who want figuratively to bite you, growl at you, pick on you, and otherwise chop you down are not rare. If you’re not prepared for people like that, they can punch big holes in your confidence and make you feel completely defeated. You need a defense against the adult bully, the fellow who likes to throw his meager weight around.

• So, to think confidently, act confidently.

• Be a front seater. Ever notice in meetings—in church, classrooms, and other kinds of assemblies—how the back seats fill up first? Most folks scramble to sit in the back rows so they won’t be “too conspicuous.” And the reason they are afraid to be conspicuous is that they lack confidence.

• Practice making eye contact. How a person uses his eyes tells us a lot about him. Instinctively, you ask yourself questions about the fellow who doesn’t look you in the eye. “What’s he trying to hide? What’s he afraid of? Is he trying to put something over on me? Is he holding something back?”

• Walk 25 percent faster. When I was a youngster, just going to the county seat was a big treat. After all the errands were accomplished and we were back in the car, my mother would often say, “Davey, let’s just sit here a while and watch the people walk by.” Mother was an excellent game player. She’d say, “See that fellow. What do you suppose is troubling him?” Or “What do you think that lady there is going to do?” or “Look at that person. He just seems to be in a fog.”

• Practice speaking up. In working with many kinds of groups of all sizes, I’ve watched many persons with keen perception and much native ability freeze and fail to participate in discussions. It isn’t that these folks don’t want to get in and wade with the rest. Rather, it’s a simple lack of confidence.

• Smile big. Most folks have heard at one time or another that a smile will give them a real boost. They’ve been told that a smile is excellent medicine for confidence deficiency. But lots of people still don’t really believe this because they’ve never tried smiling when they feel fear.

• Action cures fear. Isolate your fear and then take constructive action. Inaction—doing nothing about a situation—strengthens fear and destroys confidence.

• Make a supreme effort to put only positive thoughts in your memory bank. Don’t let negative, self-deprecatory thoughts grow into mental monsters. Simply refuse to recall unpleasant events or situations.

• Be a front seater. Make eye contact. Walk 25 percent faster. Speak up. Smile big.

• Use big, positive, cheerful words and phrases to describe how you feel. When someone asks, “How do you feel today?” and you respond with an “I’m tired (I have a headache, I wish it were Saturday, I don’t feel so good),” you actually make yourself feel worse. Practice this: it’s a very simple point, but it has tremendous power. Every time someone asks you, “How are you?” or “How are you feeling today?” respond with a “Just wonderful thanks, and you?” or say “Great” or

• Use bright, cheerful, favorable words and phrases to describe other people. Make it a rule to have a big, positive word for all your friends and associates. When you and someone else are discussing an absent third party, be sure you compliment him with big words and phrases like “He’s really a fine fellow.” “They tell me he’s working out wonderfully well.” Be extremely careful to avoid the petty cut-him-down language. Sooner or later third parties hear what’s been said, and then such talk only cuts you down.

• Use positive language to encourage others. Compliment people personally at every opportunity, Everyone you know craves praise. Have a special good word for your wife or husband every day. Notice and compliment the people who work with you. Praise, sincerely administered, is a success tool. Use it! Use it again and again and again. Compliment people on their appearance, their work, their achievements, their families.

• Use positive words to outline plans to others. When people hear something like this: “Here is some good news. We face a genuine opportunity …” their minds start to sparkle. But when they hear something like “Whether we like it or not, we’ve got a job to do,” the mind movie is dull and boring, and they react accordingly. Promise victory and watch eyes light up. Promise victory and win support. Build castles, don’t dig graves!

• Practice adding value to things. Remember the real estate example. Ask yourself, “What can I do to ‘add value’ to this room or this house or this business?” Look for ideas to make things worth more. A thing—whether it be a vacant lot, a house, or a business—has value in proportion to the ideas for using it.

• Practice adding value to people. As you move higher and higher in the world of success, more and more of your job becomes “people development.” Ask, “What can I do to ‘add value’ to my subordinates? What can I do to help them to become more effective?” Remember, to bring out the best in a person, you must first visualize his best.

• Practice adding value to yourself. Conduct a daily interview with yourself. Ask, “What can I do to make myself more valuable today?” Visualize yourself not as you are but as you can be. Then specific ways for attaining your potential value will suggest themselves. Just try and see.

• Ask “Is it really important?” Before becoming negatively excited, just ask yourself, “Is it important enough for me to get all worked up about?” There is no better way to avoid frustration over petty matters than to use this medicine. At least 90 percent of quarrels and feuds would never take place if we just faced troublesome situations with “Is this really important?”

• Don’t fall into the triviality trap. In making speeches, solving problems, counseling employees, think of those things that really matter, things that make the difference. Don’t become submerged under surface issues.

• Become receptive to ideas. Welcome new ideas. Destroy these thought repellents: “Won’t work,” “Can’t be done,” “It’s useless,” and “It’s stupid.”

• A very successful friend of mine who holds a major position with an insurance company said to me, “I don’t pretend to be the smartest guy in the business. But I think I am the best sponge in the insurance industry. I make it a point to soak up all the good ideas I can.”

• If your work is in distribution, develop an interest in production, accounting, finance, and the other elements of business. This gives you breadth and prepares you for larger responsibilities.

• Test your own views in the form of questions. Let other people help you smooth and polish your ideas. Use the what-do-you-think-of-this-suggestion? approach. Don’t be dogmatic. Don’t announce a fresh idea as if it were handed down on a gold tablet. Do a little informal research first. See how your associates react to it. If you do, chances are you’ll end up with a better idea.

• Concentrate on what the other person says. Listening is more than just keeping your own mouth shut. Listening means letting what’s said penetrate your mind. So often people pretend to listen when they aren’t listening at all. They’re just waiting for the other person to pause so they can take over with the talking. Concentrate on what the other person says. Evaluate it. That’s how you collect mind food.

• Don’t let ideas escape. Write them down. Every day lots of good ideas are born only to die quickly because they aren’t nailed to paper. Memory is a weak slave when it comes to preserving and nurturing brand-new ideas. Carry a note book or some small cards with you. When you get an idea, write it down.

• Next, review your ideas. File these ideas in an active file. The file can be an elaborate cabinet, or it can be a desk drawer, A shoe box will do. But build a file and then examine your storehouse of ideas regularly. As you go over your ideas, some may, for very good reasons, have no value at all. Get rid of them. But so long as the idea has any promise, keep it.

• Cultivate and fertilize your idea. Now make your idea grow. Think about it. Tie the idea to related ideas. Read anything you can find that is in any way akin to your idea. Investigate all angles. Then, when the time is ripe, put it to work for yourself, your job, your future. When an architect gets an idea for a new building, she makes a preliminary drawing. When a creative advertising person gets an idea for a new TV commercial, he puts it into storyboard form, a series of drawings that suggest what the idea will look like in finished form. Writers with ideas prepare a first draft.

• Note: Shape up the idea on paper. There are two excellent reasons for this. When the idea takes tangible form, you can literally look at it, see the loopholes, see what it needs in the way of polish. Then, too, ideas have to be “sold” to someone: customers, employees, the boss, friends, fellow club members, investors. Somebody must “buy” the idea; else it has no value.

• Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution. Eliminate “impossible,” “won’t work,” “can’t do,” “no use trying” from your thinking and speaking vocabularies.

• Don’t let tradition paralyze your mind. Be receptive to new ideas. Be experimental. Try new approaches, Be progressive in everything you do.

• Ask yourself daily, “How can I do better?” There is no limit to self-improvement. When you ask yourself, “How can I do better?” sound answers will appear. Try it and see.

• Ask yourself, “How can I do more?” Capacity is a state of mind. Asking yourself this question puts your mind to work to find intelligent shortcuts. The success combination in business is: Do what you do better (improve the quality of your output), and: Do more of what you do (increase the quantity of your output).

• Practice asking and listening. Ask and listen, and you’ll obtain raw material for reaching sound decisions. Remember: Big people monopolize the listening; small people monopolize the talking.

• Stretch your mind. Get stimulated. Associate with people who can help you think of new ideas, new ways of doing things. Mix with people of different occupational and social interests.

• Rule: Remember, your appearance “talks.” Be sure it says positive things about you. Never leave home without feeling certain you look like the kind of person you want to be.

• It costs so little to be neat. Take the slogan literally. Interpret it to say: Dress right; it always pays. Remember: look important because it helps you to think important. Use clothing as a tool to lift your spirits, build confidence.

• Your appearance talks to you; but it also talks to others. It helps determine what others think of you. In theory, it’s pleasant to hear that people should look at a person’s intellect, not their clothes. But don’t be misled. People do evaluate you on the basis of your appearance. Your appearance is the first basis for evaluation other people have. And first impressions last, out of all proportion to the time it takes to form them.

• Pay twice as much and buy half as many.

• You are what you think you are. If your appearance makes you think you’re inferior, you are inferior. If it makes you think small, you are small. Look your best and you will think and act your best.

• Always show positive attitudes toward your job so that your subordinates will “pick up” right thinking.

• Cement in your mind the question “Is this the way an important person does it?” Use this question to make you a bigger, more successful person. In a nutshell, remember: Look important; it helps you think important. Your appearance talks to you. Be sure it lifts your spirits and builds your confidence. Your appearance talks to others. Make certain it says, “Here is an important person: intelligent, prosperous, and dependable.”

• Think your work is important. Think this way, and you will receive mental signals on how to do your job better. Think your work is important, and your subordinates will think their work is important too.

• In all of life’s situations, ask yourself, “Is this the way an important person thinks?” Then obey the answer.

• The number one obstacle on the road to high-level success is the feeling that major accomplishment is beyond reach. This attitude stems from many, many suppressive forces that direct our thinking toward mediocre levels.

• For often the remarks made in your direction aren’t so personal as you might at first think. They are merely a projection of the speaker’s own feeling of failure and discouragement.

• Don’t let negative thinkers pull you down to their level. Let them slide by, like the water from the proverbial duck’s back. Cling to people who think progressively. Move upward with them.

• Do circulate in new groups. Restricting your social environment to the same small group produces boredom, dullness, dissatisfaction; equally important, remember that your success-building program requires that you become an expert in understanding people. Trying to learn all there is to know about people by studying one small group is like trying to master mathematics by reading one short book.

• Make new friends, join new organizations, enlarge your social orbit. Then too, variety in people, like variety in anything else, adds spice to life and gives it a broader dimension. It’s good mind food.

• Do select friends who have views different from your own. In this modern age, the narrow individual hasn’t much future. Responsibility and positions of importance gravitate to the person who is able to see both sides. If you’re a Republican, make sure you have some friends who are Democrats, and vice versa. Get to know people of different religious faiths. Associate with opposites. But just be sure they are persons with real potential.

• Find friends who breathe encouragement into your plans and ideals. If you don’t, if you select petty thinkers as your close friends, you’ll gradually develop into a petty thinker yourself.

• Be environment-conscious. Just as body diet makes the body, mind diet makes the mind.

• Make your environment work for you, not against you. Don’t let suppressive forces—the negative, you-can’t-do-it people—make you think defeat.

• Don’t let small-thinking people hold you back. Jealous people want to see you stumble. Don’t give them that satisfaction.

• Get your advice from successful people. Your future is important. Never risk it with freelance advisors who are living failures.

• Get plenty of psychological sunshine. Circulate in new groups. Discover new and stimulating things to do.

• Throw thought poison out of your environment. Avoid gossip. Talk about people, but stay on the positive side.

• Go first class in everything you do. You can’t afford to go any other way.

• Grow these three attitudes. Make them your allies in everything you do. 1. Grow the attitude of I’m activated. 2. Grow the attitude of You are important. 3. Grow the attitude of Service first.

• To activate others, you must first activate yourself.

• There’s one way to build enthusiasm toward a new location, Simply resolve to dig into the new community. Learn all you can about it. Mix with the people. Make yourself feel and think like a community citizen from the very first day. Do this, and you’ll be enthusiastic about your new environment.

• Transmit good news to your family. Tell them the good that happened today. Recall the amusing, pleasant things you experienced and let the unpleasant things stay buried. Spread good news. It’s pointless to pass on the bad. It only makes your family worry, makes them nervous.

• Make it a habit always to speak favorably about the weather regardless of what the weather actually is. Complaining about the weather makes you more miserable and it spreads misery to others.

• How we feel is, in large part, determined by how we think we feel. Remember, too, that other people want to be around alive, enthusiastic people. Being around complainers and half-dead people is uncomfortable.

• The president of a brush-manufacturing company I visited recently had this maxim neatly framed on his desk facing the visitor’s chair: “Give me a Good Word or none at all.” I complimented him, saying that I thought the maxim was a clever way to encourage people to be optimistic. He smiled and said, “It is an effective reminder. But from where I sit this is even more important.” He turned the frame around so I could see it from his side of the desk. It said, “Give them a Good Word or none at all.”

• “Give me a Good Word or none at all.”

• Practice appreciation. Make it a rule to let others know you appreciate what they do for you. Never, never let anyone feel he is taken for granted. Practice appreciation with a warm, sincere smile. A smile lets others know you notice them and feel kindly toward them.

• Practice calling people by their names. Every year shrewd manufacturers sell more briefcases, pencils, computers, and hundreds of other items just by putting the buyer’s name on the product. People like to be called by name. It gives everyone a boost to be addressed by name.

• Here’s a daily exercise that pays off surprisingly well. Ask yourself every day, “What can I do today to make my partner and family happy?”

• Grow the “I’m activated” attitude. Results come in proportion to the enthusiasm invested. Three things to do to activate yourself are: Dig into it deeper. When you find yourself uninterested in something, dig in and learn more about it. This sets off enthusiasm. Life up everything about you: your smile, your handshake, your talk, even your walk. Act alive. Broadcast good news. No one ever accomplished anything positive telling bad news.

• Grow the “You are important” attitude. People do more for you when you make them feel important. Remember to do these things: Show appreciation at every opportunity. Make people feel important. Call people by name.

• Grow the “Service first” attitude, and watch money take care of itself. Make it a rule in everything you do: give people more than they expect to get.

• Learn to remember names. Inefficiency at this point may indicate that your interest is not sufficiently outgoing.

• Be a comfortable person so there is no strain in being with you. Be an old-shoe kind of individual.

• Acquire the quality of relaxed easy-going so that things do not ruffle you.

• Don’t be egotistical. Guard against the impression that you know it all.

• Cultivate the quality of being interesting so people will get something of value from their association with you.

• Study to get the “scratchy” elements out of your personality, even those of which you may be unconscious.

• Sincerely attempt to heal, on an honest basis, every misunderstanding you have had or now have. Drain off your grievances.

• Practice liking people until you learn to do so genuinely.

• Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulation upon anyone’s achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment.

• Give spiritual strength to people, and they will give genuine affection to you.

• Introduce yourself to others at every possible opportunity—at parties, meetings, on airplanes, at work, everywhere.

• Be sure the other person gets your name straight.

• Recognize the fact that no person is perfect. Some people are more nearly perfect than others, but no man is absolutely perfect. The most human quality about human beings is that they make mistakes, all kinds of them.

• Recognize the fact that the other fellow has a right to be different. Never play God about anything. Never dislike people because their habits are different from your own or because they prefer different clothes, religion, parties, or automobiles. You don’t have to approve of what another fellow does, but you must not dislike him for doing it.

• Don’t be a reformer. Put a little more “live and let live” into your philosophy. Most people intensely dislike being told “you’re wrong.” You have a right to your own opinion, but sometimes it’s better to keep it to yourself.

• Remember this: the average person would rather talk about himself than anything else in this world. When you give him the chance, he likes you for it. Conversation generosity is the easiest, simplest, and surest way there is to win a friend.

• Make yourself lighter to lift. Be likable. Practice being the kind of person people like. This wins their support and puts fuel in your success-building program.

• Accept human differences and limitations. Don’t expect anyone to be perfect, Remember, the other person has a right to be different. And don’t be a reformer.

• Tune in Channel P, the Good Thoughts Station. Find qualities to like and admire in a person, not things to dislike. And don’t let others prejudice your thinking about a third person. Think positive thoughts toward people—and get positive results.

• Practice conversation generosity. Be like successful people. Encourage others to talk. Let the other person talk to you about his views, his opinions, his accomplishments.

• Practice courtesy all the time. It makes other people feel better. It makes you feel better too.

• Don’t blame others when you receive a setback. Remember, how you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.

• Be an activationist. Be someone who does things. Be a doer, not a don’t-er.

• Don’t wait until conditions are perfect. They never will be. Expect future obstacles and difficulties and solve them as they arise.

• Remember, ideas alone won’t bring success. Ideas have value only when you act upon them.

• Use action to cure fear and gain confidence. Do what you fear, and fear disappears. Just try it and see.

• Start your mental engine mechanically Don’t wait for the spirit to move you. Take action, dig in, and you move the spirit.

• Think in terms of now. Tomorrow, next week, later, and similar words often are synonymous with the failure word, never. Be an “I’m starting right now” kind of person.

• Get down to business—pronto. Don’t waste time getting ready to act. Start acting instead.

• Seize the initiative. Be a crusader. Pick up the ball and run. Be a volunteer. Show that you have the ability and ambition to do. 9. Get in gear and go!

• The difference between success and failure is found in one’s attitudes toward setbacks, handicaps, discouragements, and other disappointing situations.

• Study setbacks to pave your way to success. When you lose, learn, and then go on to win next time.

• Have the courage to be your own constructive critic. Seek out your faults and weaknesses and then correct them. This makes you a professional.

• Stop blaming luck. Research each setback. Find out what went wrong. Remember, blaming luck never got anyone where they wanted to go.

• Blend persistence with experimentation. Stay with your goal but don’t beat your head against a stone wall. Try new approaches. Experiment.

• Remember, there is a good side in every situation. Find it. See the good side and whip discouragement.

• The important thing is not where you were or where you are but where you want to get.

• AN IMAGE OF ME, 10 YEARS FROM NOW: 10 YEARS’ PLANNING GUIDE Work Department: 10 years from now: 1. What income level do I want to attain? 2. What level of responsibility do I seek? 3. How much authority do I want to command? 4. What prestige do I expect to gain from my work? Home Department: 10 years from now: 1. What kind of standard of living do I want to provide for my family and myself? 2. What kind of house do I want to live in? 3. What kind of vacations do I want to take? 4. What financial support do I want to give my children in their early adult years? Social Department: 10 years from now: 1. What kinds of friends do I want to have? 2. What social groups do I want to join? 3. What community leadership positions would I like to hold? 4. What worthwhile causes do I want to champion?

• Remember this advice of John Wanamaker: “A man is not doing much until the cause he works for possesses all there is of him.” Desire, when harnessed, is power. Failure to follow desire, to do what you want to do most, paves the way to mediocrity.

• Self-deprecation. You have heard dozens of people say, “I would like to be a doctor (or an executive or a commercial artist or in business for myself) but I can’t do it.” “I lack brains.” “I’d fail if I tried.” “I lack the education and/or experience.” Many young folks destroy desire with the old negative self-deprecation.

• “Security-itis.” Persons who say, “I’ve got security where I am” use the security weapons to murder their dreams.

• Competition. “The field is already overcrowded,” “People in that field are standing on top of each other” are remarks which kill desire fast.

• many things determine how long you will live: weight, heredity, diet, psychic tension, personal habits. But Dr. Burch says, “The quickest way to the end is to retire and do nothing. Every human being must keep an interest in life just to keep living.”

• Start marching toward your ultimate goal by making the next task you perform, regardless of how unimportant it may seem, a step in the right direction. Commit this question to memory and use it to evaluate everything you do: “Will this help take me where I want to go?” If the answer is no, back off; if yes, press ahead.

• THIRTY-DAY IMPROVEMENT GUIDE Between now and ___ I will Break these habits: (suggestions) 1. Putting off things. 2. Negative language. 3. Watching TV more than 60 minutes per day. 4. Gossip. Acquire these habits: (suggestions). 1. A rigid morning examination of the smartness my appearance. 2. Plan each day’s work the night before. 3. Compliment people sincerely at every possible opportunity. Increase my value to my employer in these ways: (suggestions) 1. Do a better job of developing my subordinates. 2. Learn more about my company, what it does, and the customers it serves. 3. Make three specific suggestions to help my company become more efficient. Increase my value to my home in these ways: (suggestions) 1. Show more appreciation for the little things my partner does that I’ve been taking for granted. 2. Once each week, do something special with my whole family. 3. Give one hour each day of my undivided attention to my family. Sharpen my mind in these ways: (suggestions) 1. Invest two hours each week in reading professional magazines in my field. 2. Read one self-help book. 3. Make four new friends. 4. Spend 30 minutes daily in quiet, undisturbed thinking.

• Next time you see a particularly well-poised, well-groomed, clear-thinking, effective person, remind yourself that he wasn’t born that way. Lots of conscious effort, invested day by day, made the person what he is. Building new positive habits and destroying old negative habits is a day-by-day process.

• Here are two sound self-investments that will pay handsome profits in the years ahead: 1. Invest in education. True education is the soundest investment you can make in yourself. But let’s be sure we understand what education really is. Some folks measure education by the number of years spent in school or the number of diplomas, certificates, and degrees earned.

• Get a clear fix on where you want to go. Create an image of yourself ten years from now. 2. Write out your ten-year plan. Your life is too important to be left to chance. Put down on paper what you want to accomplish in your work, your home, and your social departments. 3. Surrender yourself to your desires. Set goals to get more energy. Set goals to get things done. Set goals and discover the real enjoyment of living. 4. Let your major goal be your automatic pilot. When you let your goal absorb you, you’ll find yourself making the right decisions to reach your goal. 5. Achieve your goal one step at a time. Regard each task you perform, regardless of how small it may seem, as a step toward your goal. 6. Build thirty-day goals. Day-by-day effort pays off. 7. Take detours in your stride. A detour simply means another route. It should never mean surrendering the goal. 8. Invest in yourself. Purchase those things that build mental power and efficiency. Invest in education. Invest in idea starters.

• To be a more effective leader, put these four leadership principles to work: 1. Trade minds with the people you want to influence. It’s easy to get others to do what you want them to do if you’ll see things through their eyes. Ask yourself this question before you act: “What would I think of this if I exchanged places with the other person?” 2. Apply the “Be-Human” rule in your dealings with others. Ask, “What is the human way to handle this?” In everything you do, show that you put other people first. Just give other people the kind of treatment you like to receive. You’ll be rewarded. 3. Think progress, believe in progress, push for progress. Think improvement in everything you do. Think high standards in everything you do. Over a period of time subordinates tend to become carbon copies of their chief. Be sure the master copy is worth duplicating. Make this a personal resolution: ‘At home, at work, in community life, if it’s progress I’m for it.” 4. Take time out to confer with yourself and tap your supreme thinking power. Managed solitude pays off. Use it to release your creative power. Use it to find solutions to personal and business problems. So spend some time alone every day just for thinking. Use the thinking technique all great leaders use: confer with yourself.

• You win when you refuse to fight petty people. Fighting little people reduces you to their size. Stay big. 2. Expect to be sniped at. It’s proof you’re growing. 3. Remind yourself that snipers are psychologically sick. Be Big. Feel sorry for them. 4. Think Big Enough to be immune to the attacks of petty people.

• Look important. It helps you think important. How you look on the outside has a lot to do with how you feel on the inside. 2. Concentrate on your assets. Build a sell-yourself-to-yourself commercial and use it. Learn to supercharge yourself. Know your positive self. 3. Put other people in proper perspective. The other person is just another human being, so why be afraid of him? 4. Think Big Enough to see how good you really are!

• Successfully resist the temptation to argue and quarrel by: 1. Asking yourself, “Honestly now, is this thing really important enough to argue about?” 2. Reminding yourself, you never gain anything from an argument but you always lose something. 3. Think Big Enough to see that quarrels, arguments, feuds, and fusses will never help you get where you want to go.

• Concentrate on the biggest qualities in the person you want to love you. Put little things where they belong—in second place. 2. Do something special for your mate—and do it often. 3. Think Big Enough to find the secret to marital joys.

• A wise man will be master of his mind, A fool will be its slave.