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This may seem like a simple concept. It seems obvious that big thinking combined with great effort can equal epic success. However, you’d be surprised by how many people lose sight of this objective truth, especially when they are comfortable with their current lifestyle.
This is actually something I struggle with myself. I make a great wage working for a local energy company. I’m able to live comfortably and easily save and invest for the future. However, I know that unless I dream bigger and go after those dreams, I will never realize the outsized success I know that I can achieve. I have to be willing to think big, take risks, and put my maximum effort into a goal.
Does this sound like you? Do you have big ideas that go in and out of your mind every day, lost to the void? Do you feel unfulfilled at work because you know you could do more, be more, have more? If so, you should seriously consider taking a step back and considering this simple formula.
Table of Contents
What does “Big Thinking” mean?
To start, big thinking is not setting artificial limits on your thoughts. Have you ever had a vision or dream that you decided not to acknowledge because you deemed it unrealistic or extraordinary?
Have you ever thought of a great idea and not taken action because you thought it was silly, only to see someone else act on that idea and have success?
A good example of big thinking that most Americans should be familiar with is John F. Kennedy’s 1961 vision of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. At the time, the United States was in a “space race” with the USSR. He knew that it would take this urgency, this level of thinking, in order to beat the USSR and achieve America’s ambitions. He acknowledged the difficulty and resources required to achieve it but didn’t waiver from his thinking or commitment. The mission was ultimately accomplished even though he didn’t live long enough to see it.
Big thinking is being willing to think outside the accepted norms. It’s not just thinking of changing a few new features for a product but creating an entirely new product.
Big thinkers are not necessarily interested in the here and now, but with the long game. They don’t let anything, including time, constrain their thoughts.
What is “Great Effort”?
“Great effort” is giving the maximum effort one can give.
When people work for a company, they typically have a predefined set of job requirements for their job description. When you’re working for someone else, especially a large company with clear boundaries between job functions, a person’s effort is determined by the work they need to do to be successful in that job.
When you’re working for yourself as an entrepreneur, your success isn’t determined by how well you do predefined job functions. In general, the more effort you put in (assuming the effort is efficient and progresses your goals), the more opportunities for success.
Most people haven’t experienced giving maximum effort because they have either never had the opportunity to or never had the proper incentive. If you find a big idea or goal that interests you, and that you are passionate about, the thought of that idea or goal will fuel you. When you work towards that goal, you will get lost in the work. This is also called entering a flow state which is a state where you work on a goal and time passes by without you realizing it. When you get to the point where you either literally have no more time to work on it or you’re too exhausted to continue, you will know that you have given it your all.
How to Create Epic Success
Oftentimes if you want to achieve great things in life, you have to be willing to pursue them on your own. It all starts with knowing yourself. As you go through life, you’ll be introduced to different people, places, experiences, etc. that will help you better understand who you are, what your values are, and what is most important to you. The more you know about yourself, the easier it is to know and choose what ideas and goals to pursue.
Next, is thinking big, or without limits. Once you’ve freed your mind to just think about what could be, you will inevitably stumble upon novel ideas that pique your interest. If you record these ideas, you’ll have a list of opportunities to pursue. Once you’ve found an idea that aligns with your values, solves a problem or helps other people, has a payoff big enough to incentivize you, and interests you, you should turn that into a goal and begin taking action on achieving it.
Finally, to create epic success you must expend great effort. You’ll need to come up with a plan, which includes creating a roadmap of smaller goals that will ultimately help you achieve the larger goal. Next, and this is the most important part, you’ll need to start taking action. Once you start taking consistent, persistent, and focused action, you’ll get real time feedback into how you are progressing and can course correct, or pivot as needed to achieve your ultimate goal.
While this formula seems simple enough and can create epic success, it’s important to remember that there are certain things that are outside of your control. As the saying goes, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. If you keep at it, over time you’ll learn what it takes to be successful and may find that while your original goal met all the criteria above, you actually pivot to something else that also meets the same criteria, but better fits you either from a values, interest, or skill standpoint.
Epic Success Example
Jack Canfield – Chicken Soup for the Soul Co-Creator
I decided to include a quick story of putting this simple formula into action to show that it does work. Jack Canfield is a successful motivational speaker, coach, and author. He is one of the co-creators of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul Series”. When he and his co-creator, Mark Victor Hansen pitched the original series to over 130 different publishers, none of them were interested.
They knew they had a great idea that would help people by providing them inspiring and uplifting stories of humanity. Throughout the adversity, they never gave up and fortunately found a small publisher in Florida.
Now there are over 250 “Chicken Soup for the Soul Books” and over 500 million copies sold worldwide. They have been translated into 43 languages and have been published in over 100 countries. On top of that, the series made their co-creators very wealthy as a result. I would call that epic success!
What stories do you have where you’ve used big thinking and big effort to achieve epic success?