The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz is a classic self-help book that sets out to show how success is determined by the size of your thinking – and not the size of your brain.  But it does more than introduce the concepts – it demonstrates  how one can get more out of life and enjoy it more.  It teaches one to live big in all areas of life -  career, relationships, business, and finances by expecting more out of life.

David helps one determine which thought patterns are trapping us in a smaller existence.  One way he does that is by illustrating each “primary concept” with real-life examples that we can parallel with our own life and see if we can find a way to think bigger.

The book covers a lot of success principles – but coming in at only 188 pages it only briefly touches on many of those topics.  So if you are expecting to find details on how to implement every one of those principles of success you’re not going to find it in this book.  But if you look at it as a way to inventory the thought patterns you currently use in your life and discover those those thought patterns you could do better at than this book could be of great help to you.

But keep in mind that many books could, and have been, written on the theme of each chapter:

• Believe You Can Succeed and You Will
• Cure Yourself of Excusitis, The Failure Disease
• Build Confidence and Destroy Fear
• How to Think Big
• You Are What You Thin You Are
• Manage Your Environment: Go First Class
• Make Your Attitudes Your Allies
• Think Right Towards People
• Get the Action Habit
• How to Turn Defeat Into Victory
• Use Goals to Help You Grow
• How to Think Like a Leader

Originally published in 1959 there has been lots of material written on all of the topics covered so many people will find their isn’t anything really “new” here. But keep in mind that much of it was  fairly new then as the self-help industry was just starting to grow.

With those words of warning, I do have to say I enjoyed the book when I first read it over twenty years ago and I still enjoy reading it now and again to help me inventory those areas of my life that could be keeping me from achieving a higher level of success.

For example, today I read…

“You will discover that excusitis explains the difference between the person who is going places and the fellow who is barely holding his own.  You will find that the more successful the individual, the less included he is to make excuses.

But the fellow who has gone nowhere and has no plans for getting anywhere always has a bookful of reasons to explain why.  Persons with mediocre accomplishments are quick to explain why they haven’t, why they don’t, why they can’t, and why they aren’t.

Study the lives of successful people and you’ll discover this: all the excuses made by the mediocre fellow could be but aren’t made by the successful person.”

So I used that as an opportunity to inventory my own life and I found one excuse I have been using way to much lately is “lack of time.”  (I need to work on a plan to outsource more).

So what will you get out of this book?

If you are looking for some “new secret” that will catapult you to to success than you won’t find it here.

But if you are looking for some insight into your life and for tips you can use to level up your success than this book can help you do that. No doubt, if you’ll gain a new perspective each time you read it.

Naturally – the Magic of Thinking Big isn’t in the book – but it is within you.  This book will do nothing to improve your life if  you don’t look for the lessons and apply them to your own life.