The Magic Of Thinking Big
Best Ideas on Thought Management

The Magic Of Thinking Big has been very popular for good reason since 1959. It covers a wide variety of practical success tips based on Dr. David J. Schwartz’s observations as a professor, keynote speaker, and developer of many groups for executives and salespeople.

The primary theme is thought management as can be seen from the following quotes (which include page numbers from the book):

* “Your mind is a ‘thought factory.’ It is a busy factory, producing countless thoughts in one day.” “All you need to do to signal either foreman is to give the slightest mental beck-and-call. If the signal is positive, Mr. Triumph will step forward and go to work. Likewise, a negative signal brings Mr. Defeat forward. ” “Now the more work you give either of these two foremen, the stronger he becomes.” p.18-19

* “To be sure it is thrilling to watch what can happen when men cooperate carefully with nature (e.g., like when growing a garden). But it is not one-tenth as fascinating as watching yourself respond to your own carefully administered thought management program. It’s fun to feel yourself growing more confident, more effective, more successful day-by-day, month-by-month. Nothing — absolutely nothing — in this life gives you more satisfaction than knowing you’re on the road to success and achievement.  And nothing stands as a bigger challenge than making the most of yourself.” p.22

* “1. Deposit only positive thoughts into your memory bank.” “Confident , successful people … ‘don’t give it (i.e., bad thoughts) another thought.” “When you are alone … and … just before you go to sleep, deposit good thoughts in your memory bank.” p.41
* “2. Withdraw only positive thoughts from your memory bank.” “Your mind wants you to forget the unpleasant. If you will just cooperate, unpleasant memories will gradually shrivel …” “In brief, it is really easy to forget the unpleasant if we simply refuse to recall it.” p.42-44
* “Thoughts, positive or negative, grow stronger when fertilized with constant repetition.” p.24

* “But, when you believe, really believe, something can be done, your mind goes to work for you and helps you to find the ways to do it.” p.69
* “Many of us whip and defeat our desires simply because we concentrate on why we can’t when the only thing worthy of our mental concentration is why we can.” p.71
* “Practice adding value to 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.” p.60

* “A leader is a decision-making human machine. Now, to manufacture anything, you’ve got to have raw material. In reaching creative decisions, the raw materials are the ideas and suggestions of others. Don’t, of course, expect other people to give you ready-made solutions. That’s not the primary reason for asking and listening. Ideas of others help to spark your own ideas so your mind is more creative.” “Before a top man makes a decision, he asks, How do you feel about it? What do you recommend? What would you do under these circumstances? How does this sound to you? p.77

* “The main job of the leader is thinking.” p.186
* “Resolve now to set aside some time each day (at least thirty minutes) to be completely by yourself.” “You can use this time to do two types of thinking: directed and undirected.” p.185

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• The Magic of Thinking Big by Dr. David J Schwartz is the source of the quotes and page numbers in this article.
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