The Power of Thinking Big

We’ve been conditioned to think small, simplify, not to be greedy, and to overall expect less and demand less from life. We’ve been taught that we should be happy and thankful with what we have and that there are many others less fortunate than ourselves.

I read somewhere that, as an experiment, someone put two adverts in a newspaper. They were for the same job, doing the same work with the same hours, but one of them offered to pay a salary many times the other. Guess what? About ten times more people applied for the lower paid job! People think small. And that’s one of the reasons they fail.

Most people are afraid of thinking big, they’re scared to be successful, scared to be rich. For most people, being rich is a pleasant dream, but they’re comfortable with the dream – it’s nice and it makes them feel good. But truly successful and wealthy people take it to the next level – they are committed to being rich, to being successful, and they’re prepared to keep on keeping on until the dream becomes reality.

You can have anything you want – ask for it, choose it, be committed to it. Start thinking big. Ask for MORE. Life is like that – by its very nature it grows, it evolves, it seeks to be more than it is, it acquires. That’s not a bad thing. The bad thing is that we’ve been taught to be small and to accept less. The tragedy of many people’s lives is that they think there’s not enough to go round and they mustn’t take more than their fair share. But there is enough – enough money and enough success and enough of everything – the universe never runs out, it just keeps on making more and more. What a pity we don’t ask for it! The more you get, the more you can inspire others, you more you can share, the more you can contribute to everyone around you, the more you can enrich the world.

There is a quote I love, often misattributed to Nelson Mandela but actually from A Course in Miracles, which summarizes all of this:

Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God; your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone, and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

What a wonderful quotation! You can do and be anything you want. There are no limits. That’s the power of thinking big!

Written on 2/7/2010 by Mark Harrison. Mark Harrison writes about personal growth, communication, and increasing personal wealth. Check out his new book, Thirty Days to Change Your Life.

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