How Successful People Think By John C. Maxwell
“Look at the big picture!”, “Get out of your comfort zone!”, “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” Do these sayings sound familiar? You’re probably tired of hearing them, but there’s a reason they’re so popular: they’re true. Embracing growth opens many doors, whether in your career, social relationships, or personal development. Success often comes from changing your mindset. Conversely, a stagnant mind leads nowhere. If you aim to succeed, keep reading.
Cultivate Big-Picture Thinking
Being a good thinker is beneficial in any job and also aids personal growth. A good thinker excels in any task. The best part? Anyone can change their thinking, even you. However, remember that changed thinking isn’t automatic. Like a muscle, you must continually exercise your mind to improve. It requires effort, but it will enhance your life—guaranteed.
One way to become a better thinker is by cultivating big-picture thinking. Jack Welch, the CEO of General Electric, exemplified this approach. He emphasized that customer relationships are more important than individual sales, as strong relationships lead to future purchases. Big-picture thinking involves broadening your perspective to consider potential opportunities beyond the present moment. Spend time with people who think this way; you’ll notice their unique approach to life. Big-picture thinkers share the following traits:
Learn Continually: They are never content with their current knowledge. They eagerly seek new information, meet new people, and explore new places. Apply this excitement for learning to your daily life. Review your calendar and to-do list to identify opportunities for new knowledge. Prepare yourself to pay extra attention, knowing it will contribute to your future success.
Listen Intentionally: Humility is crucial for good thinking. You don’t know everything, but you can change that by listening intentionally. Learn from experts—they are experts for a reason. For example, author John C. Maxwell asked about 900 football coaches about teamwork. The coaches were amused by his eagerness, but they answered his questions. John knew he had much to learn and seized the opportunity to expand his knowledge.
Live Completely: You have the freedom to pursue your desires, but you only live once. Big-picture thinkers seek a fulfilling life and continuously look for growth opportunities. They want to look back with satisfaction at their accomplishments. Big-picture thinking broadens your mind and enhances empathy. Listening to diverse perspectives prevents ignorance and bias. Sticking to narrow views hinders growth.
Big-picture thinking also helps with prioritization. Daily life can be overwhelming, and you might misdirect your energy. Before acting or reacting, ask yourself: Is this worth it in the long run? If yes, proceed. If not, let it go.
Harness Creative Thinking
Creative thinking is another essential component of good thinking. Creativity doesn’t always mean producing entirely original ideas. In fact, many great artists draw inspiration from others. Original ideas are rare, but creative thinking involves taking an existing idea and adding your unique touch. Here are some key values of creative thinkers:
Value Ideas: Like big-picture thinkers, creative thinkers are open-minded and actively seek out new ideas. They understand that valuing ideas is crucial for generating them.
Explore Options: Creative thinkers aren’t intimidated by numerous possibilities; they thrive on them. Exploring different options stimulates their imagination. John, the author, often sought multiple options as a way to find the best answer.
Embrace Ambiguity: Uncertainty doesn’t scare creative thinkers; it excites them. Ambiguity allows them to explore more possibilities and use their imagination to fill gaps in plans or stories.
Don’t Fear Failure: Many fear creative thinking due to the potential for failure. Sticking to old ideas feels safer. However, creative thinkers understand that 99 failed ideas are worth it if one succeeds. They embrace the idea that thinking outside the box often leads to innovative solutions.
To harness your creative thinking:
Remove Creativity Killers: Avoid limiting yourself, especially mentally. Don’t tell yourself you’re not creative or dismiss ideas as ridiculous. Most importantly, don’t fear failure. Believe in your creative potential.
Ask the Right Questions: Creative minds identify the wrong questions, not just the wrong answers. Wrong questions stifle creativity. When facing a problem, ask: Why must it be done this way? Is there another way? What issues caused this problem? Why is this important? What happens if I don’t do it? These questions stimulate creative thinking.
Spend Time with Other Creative People: Creativity is contagious. Engage with people who aren’t afraid to explore possibilities. Participating in brainstorming sessions can inspire you and energize your creative thinking, helping you realize that strict methods aren’t always necessary.
Utilize Strategic Thinking
Strategic thinking might sound daunting, evoking images of military settings or war movies, but it can be applied to everyday life. John C. Maxwell observed that most people plan their lives day by day or week by week. In contrast, he plans his life in forty-day increments, allowing for a more comprehensive view of his schedule and projects. This approach has enabled him to accomplish much.
Strategic thinking makes you more efficient, helping you find the most direct path to your goals and maximizing your strengths. If you’re overwhelmed by a big project, strategic thinking can break it down into manageable pieces, making it less intimidating. Here are six steps to strategic thinking:
Break Down the Issue: Divide the task into bite-sized pieces, focusing on each step to enhance effectiveness. You can divide tasks by purpose, responsibility, or function.
Identify the Real Issues and Be Objective: Don’t rush to solve problems; often, there are underlying issues. Take time to find the root cause and remain objective throughout this stage.
Review Your Resources: Assess your time, money, supplies, and potential liabilities. Answering these questions will help you understand what you have and what you need.
Develop Your Plan: Start with the most obvious step to create momentum. For example, if you’re relocating, begin by identifying the general area. This encourages team engagement and progress.
Put the Right People in the Right Place: Assign tasks based on individuals’ strengths and weaknesses to ensure efficient implementation and avoid frustration and problems.
Keep Repeating the Process: Major issues require ongoing strategic thinking. While it may not be effortless initially, practice will make strategic thinking a natural part of your problem-solving toolkit, enabling you to tackle any obstacle effectively.
Learn from Reflective Thinking
In today's fast-paced society, action is often prioritized over thinking because it yields concrete results. However, John C. Maxwell emphasizes that reflective thinking can lead to even better outcomes. Reflective thinking provides true perspective. For instance, after a vacation, John asks his kids what they liked best and what they learned. This practice encourages reflection on experiences, which helps derive meaningful insights from them.
Reflective thinking also fosters emotional integrity. During emotionally charged situations, our judgment can become clouded by our feelings. Reflecting on these experiences afterward helps gain insights into how we could have handled them better, thus improving our responses in future similar situations. Additionally, reflective thinking increases certainty. If you frequently doubt your decisions, reflecting on them helps clarify your thought process, which eventually sharpens your intuition.
To develop reflective thinking, follow these steps:
Give Yourself Time to Reflect: This may seem obvious, but it's often neglected. Many people find it hard to focus or think it's boring. However, successful individuals make time for reflection because it is crucial for growth.
Remove Distractions: Find a peaceful and quiet place where you won't be disturbed. Avoid gadgets and interruptions. John finds solitude in various places, such as a rock outside his home or a bench at the park.
Use Your Calendar or Journal: Regularly review your calendar or journal. These tools help plan your day and serve as reflective aids. Write down your thoughts and feelings, and create concrete plans based on them. This practice helps you evaluate how you spend your time and whether it aligns with your personal growth, relationships, and career goals.
Cement Your Learning Through Action: Reflection without action is futile. Applying your reflections to your life is crucial for change. For instance, after attending an inspiring conference, put the insights and notes into practice. Reflective thinking should lead to concrete actions that change your life for the better.
Reflective thinking offers three main benefits: it provides perspective, gives direction for your future, and helps you grow as a person.
Question Popular Thinking
It is easy to always agree with what other people say or do. If you keep following what your boss says, there won’t be a problem. Tradition is comfortable and familiar. If a lot of people believe in it, then it must be right. But not necessarily. Do you remember Copernicus? In his day, people thought that the Earth was the center of the universe.
But Copernicus studied the stars and the planets. He proved everyone wrong. The solar system revolved around the sun. Popular thinking encourages lies. People are so afraid of being left out that they just agree with the majority. No one wants to feel excluded in a group. Change is also scary. Routine makes you feel safe. But it is not always the best or effective way.
Being successful involves challenging tradition. It involves having the courage to tell your boss an inefficient way of working. Unpopular thinking is being a good thinker. To quit popular thinking, you always have to question what you hear. Questioning will come naturally to you eventually.
Here are more things you should do: One, think before you follow. Many people automatically follow others because they are popular. Sometimes, a person follows a belief because it is the easiest thing to do. Take John, for example. After the tragedy of September 11, 2001, many people feared going to New York.
Booked flights went down. Crowds were noticeably smaller. But John and his wife used this opportunity to go to New York anyway. They took the opportunity of low-priced plane tickets and lesser tourists. They were not afraid because, after the tragedy, security was at its highest.
If John followed popular thinking, he and his wife would not have saved a lot on their New York trip. Unpopular thinking helps you get the best option for your situation. Two, appreciate thinking which is different from your own. Being humble is necessary to be successful. Acknowledge the fact that people will think differently from you. In fact, their thinking will often give you the best outcomes.
Do not reject their ways, no matter how contrasting they might be to yours. Expose yourself to people with different backgrounds. Whether it be in terms of education, jobs, interests, etc. This will help you in opening up to more different thinking. Three, continually question your own thinking. So, you finally managed to break free from popular thinking.
You question the norm constantly. And finally, you find a way of thinking that suits you. It is easy to just stick to this way of thinking forever. It often works for you even though it is not popular. But if you refuse to change your thinking, you will not grow. You will stick to what you know is safe and predictable. This will result in you missing endless opportunities.
Challenge yourself constantly. The future is bright for people who adapt to change. Four, try new things and new ways. Make it a habit to try something new every month. New experiences bring out innovative ideas. Doing something new is not necessarily something extreme.
You can slowly introduce change in your routine first. Maybe you can take a new route home. Or when you go to a restaurant, pick something you have not tasted yet. When you do things over and over again, your mind becomes dull. It does not get motivated anymore to come up with new ideas. That is why new experiences are necessary. It refreshes your perspective. It makes you realize that the familiar and old way is not always the best way.
Five, get used to being uncomfortable. Unpopular thinking will always be met with resistance. It is unfamiliar. Unfamiliar will always make other people cautious and hesitant. Base your thinking on what you believe is best. Often, this is not the most popular choice. But go with it anyway. People will question, insult, and ridicule you.
But the greatest people in history went through the exact same thing. Their ideas were so scary to people that they were treated as the enemy. But these great people shaped humankind today. Someday, your unpopular idea will be praised. Just keep on questioning the status quo.
Conclusion
First, you learned that successful people have one thing in common. Aside from being successful, they live differently. They do tasks and face challenges differently from ordinary people. Second, you learned that what makes successful people different is their thinking. They cultivate big-picture thinking. This means that they make decisions based on its future implications.
Before you do something, ask yourself this: will it help you grow as a person? Third, you learned that being creative is another trait that successful people have. Being creative stimulates your mind. It presents not only the right choice, but the best choice. It pushes you out of your comfort zone because that is where success waits for you.
Being creative is being okay with failing a hundred times. Fourth, you learned that strategic thinking is a necessity in every task. Strategic thinking helps you become efficient. It makes sure that every step you take is a step towards your goal. Strategic thinking is breaking down the task into bite-sized pieces so that you do not get overwhelmed.
Fifth, you learned to look back on what you went through. Reflective thinking helps you become better at decision-making. It encourages you to evaluate a past situation and see if you could have reacted in a different way. Successful people always learn from their mistakes.
Sixth, you learned that having an unpopular opinion is necessary. All throughout history, there were people who questioned popular thinking. They went on to become humanity's most influential figures. Dare to think outside the box.
Again, remember big-picture thinking, creative thinking, strategic thinking, reflective thinking, and thinking outside the box. Try to apply them every day. Now you know how successful people think. Practice the steps and succeed just like them. If you change your thinking, you can change your life.
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