Best for:
Those who want to develop a baseline in positive and productive thinking. There are many useful concepts in The Magic of Thinking Big which apply to a wide range of uses – this book provides quite a few positive framing exercises.
Difficulty to digest:
This book is easy to understand. Concepts are outlined in a straightforward, practical and useful way. Many concepts come with illustrative stories.
Key Insights:
The Magic of Thinking Big is a highly practical and productive book. It starts with concepts related to your internal world, then slowly switches into topics regarding the external world. The writing is easy to digest and follow, flushed out with examples.
The primary message in this book as that the size of your thinking dictates the size of your life. What you focus your attention on is what your mind naturally brings into your reality over time. For example, if you focus on how little money you have, you’ll naturally be focused on how to scrimp and save, even if you’re rich.
This book covers many topics. By changing the course of our thinking we can open our minds to new opportunities. We can also reconstruct our experiences to get the most out of them. Additionally, there are certain attitudes toward others that not only create connections but also make it easier to digest certain actions.
On top of this, the magic of thinking big provides concrete examples of how to develop the behaviors it’s talking about. While some examples are a bit narrow in scope, most sections have enough detail to understand the general concept. From there, you can look for other tactics if needed.
There are also nice recaps at the end of each chapter, making it especially easy to refer back to. There is quite a bit of work to be done in this book, but it’s organized nicely. You can jump from chapter to chapter, review the concepts, and keep learning. Overall, a highly recommended book.
Other considerations:
While most of the writing is engaging and to the point, the volume of concepts may be overwhelming. There is quite a bit to digest and you may want to slow down occasionally. While topics don’t shift drastically, the amount of ground covered can be cause for disorientation.
This is one of the better self-improvement books I’ve read. It comes highly recommended, as many of the explanations make sense at face value. While you should always read any material with some skepticism, almost everything in this book passed my BS radar with flying colors. If you have a chance, it’s a worthwhile read.
If, however, you’ve been deep in the personal development field for a long time, you may not get as much out of it. These concepts are fairly ubiquitous and while this is one of the better resources, it doesn’t go too deeply on any particular subject. I like to think of this more as a primer book for those entering the space, though you’ll still get a few gems here and there out of it.
Applicable Content:
- How can you shift your thinking about something to even bigger?
- What is the largest goal or dream you want to accomplish?
- What realm is most likely to hinder your self-belief? Why? How can you overcome it?