“The greater danger lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” – Michelangelo
“If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves”. – Thomas Edison
Internal and external forces conspire to make us think small. Fear of failure. Fear of social disapproval. Lack of confidence, imagination, inspiration. A world filled with meandering, half-lived lives that shape our beliefs about what life can be. Colleagues, friends and family who discourage our boldness because it makes them look like cowards and failures, or because they don’t want us to change. An environment of abundant distractions where the trivial outnumber and steal our attention away from the significant. Institutions that steer us toward the frivolous and the trifling because big thinking threatens to disrupt and disempower them.
All these forces encourage a constriction of the mind that leads to meager, unfocused action, or even inaction.
This is a shame. Thinking small doesn’t serve you or the world, and it dishonors the gifts you’ve been given. Thinking small leads to living small; thinking big leads to living big. The more you expect out of life, the more you will get from life and give to life.
Thinking big is all about attitude. Believe that you were meant for greatness. Not delusions of grandeur — expectations of grandeur. Set outrageous goals and pursue them with boundless ambition. Banish limiting beliefs. Decide what you want before you decide what’s possible. Ask how, not if. Don’t let reality get in your way.
Don’t just think big, think big about big things: who you are, why you’re here, what you can contribute to the world, how life should be lived. Trivialize the trivial. Strive only for what’s worth striving for. And be sure to turn big thinking into big action. Exist significantly, expansively. Try to achieve something important that no one else has. What could you create that you would be proud to have as the only evidence that you had ever existed? Get started on creating it, today.
*Thoughts of Tom Murcko
