The Magic of Thinking Big

# The Magic of Thinking Big

Chapter 1: Believe You Can Succeed and You Will

Your results are capped by the size of your thinking. Schwartz argues that belief, not superior intelligence or good luck, drives achievement. People who expect to succeed set higher goals, work harder, and bounce back from setbacks faster than those who expect to fail.

Schwartz calls the chief obstacle excusitis, a failure disease that feeds on excuses. He groups them into four types: health, intelligence, age, and luck. Each sounds reasonable, but each lets you quit before you test what you can actually do. Excuses rarely feel like failure while you are making them.

The chapter's core lessons come down to three points:

Believe in your ability before you have proof of it.

Spot excuses as they form and name them for what they are.

Think big about goals, because small thinking produces small results.

Try this: Write down the excuse you use most often this month, then state the goal it is blocking and one action you can take today.

Chapter 2: Cure Yourself of Excusitis

Excusitis is David J. Schwartz's term for the failure disease, and its symptom is the excuse. The core idea of this chapter is that excuses, not circumstances, hold people back, and the cure is to stop explaining and start acting.

Schwartz identifies four excuse types: health, intelligence, age, and luck. Each sounds reasonable, and each lets you avoid testing your ideas. Excuses feel like facts, but they are habits of thought. To cure the disease, apply three steps:

Name the excuse plainly, so you see it as a choice rather than a fact.

Ask what risk the excuse protects you from.

Take one action now, following the Get the Action Habit: act on ideas instead of waiting for perfect conditions.

This ties to Schwartz's central claim that the size of your thinking determines the size of your success. An excuse is small thinking dressed up as realism, and every excuse you drop enlarges what you attempt.

Try this: Write down the excuse that has stalled your most important goal, then complete one small action toward that goal today.

Chapter 3: Build Confidence and Destroy Fear

Confidence is not a trait you are born with. It is built, and the main tool for building it is action. Schwartz teaches that fear weakens when you move against it, not when you wait for it to pass.

Schwartz's method rests on three moves:

Act against fear. Do the thing you dread. Each action proves the fear wrong and drains its power.

Think positively. Replace self-doubt with a clear picture of success, because fear feeds on negative thinking.

Build on small wins. Each completed task becomes evidence that you can handle the next one.

Fear often hides behind Excusitis, his term for the excuse habit. Schwartz identifies excuses about health, intelligence, age, and luck, and each one disguises fear as a reasonable explanation. Every excuse you accept keeps the fear alive.

Try this: Write down one thing you have been avoiding out of fear, then take one small step toward it today.

Chapter 4: How to Think Big

Thinking big is a habit you build, not a talent you are born with. Schwartz's core claim is that the size of your thinking determines the size of your success. Belief, not intelligence or luck, drives achievement.

The first step is to eliminate excuses. Schwartz calls the failure disease Excusitis, and its symptoms take the form of excuses about your health, intelligence, age, and luck. Every excuse quietly shrinks the goals you are willing to pursue.

Thinking big requires three practices:

Get the Action Habit: Act on ideas now instead of waiting for perfect conditions, which rarely arrive.

Set ambitious goals: Aim beyond what feels comfortable, then break the goal into concrete steps.

Think like a leader: Approach problems creatively rather than accepting the limits others assume.

Try this: Write down one goal you have been postponing, then take one concrete action toward it today.

Chapter 5: How to Think and Dream Creatively

Creative thinking is the engine of bigger results. Ideas that seem impossible become workable when you generate options instead of ruling them out early. Schwartz's core point is that most people limit themselves by judging an idea before they have examined it.

Schwartz builds the chapter on three habits:

Dream first, judge later. Picture the full-size outcome before listing obstacles.

Generate many options. Quantity comes before quality, since the first idea is rarely the best one.

Get the action habit. Test ideas in small steps instead of waiting for perfect conditions.

These habits support his central claim that the size of your thinking determines the size of your success. A small mind sees small problems and small answers. A creative mind widens the range of possibilities available to you.

Try this: Write down one problem you have been avoiding, then list ten possible solutions before evaluating any of them.

Chapter 6: You Are What You Think You Are

Your self-image sets the ceiling on your results. Schwartz's central claim is that belief, not intelligence or luck, determines how far you go, and the beliefs you hold about yourself carry the most weight. What you think you are, you tend to become.

Schwartz traces the damage to excusitis, his term for the failure disease that hides behind excuses about health, intelligence, age, and luck. Once you accept those excuses as fact, your self-image shrinks to fit them. Breaking the pattern takes three steps:

Name the excuse. Identify the one you use most and ask whether it is a fact or a feeling.

Think positively about yourself. Replace "I can't" with a specific ability you already have.

Act against the fear. Confidence grows from action, not from waiting until you feel ready.

Schwartz's point is that a self-image is rebuilt through action. You don't think your way into a bigger self. You act, and the self-image follows.

Try this: Write down your most frequent excuse, then take one action this week that contradicts it.

Chapter 7: Manage Your Environment: Go First Class

Your surroundings shape the size of your thinking. Schwartz argues that people who live, work, and dress in shabby settings absorb shabby expectations, while those who surround themselves with quality raise their own standards. Going first class is a deliberate decision about your environment, not an act of vanity.

Apply it in three areas:

Workspace: Keep your desk orderly, well-lit, and equipped for your best work.

Appearance: Dress for the position you want, not the one you hold.

Associates: Spend more time with people who think and act in big terms.

Schwartz calls the opposite habit slum thinking, the belief that second-rate conditions are good enough. Every compromise in your environment sends a message to your mind about what you deserve.

Try this: Replace one cluttered or shabby item in your workspace with a first-class version this week.

Chapter 8: Make Your Attitudes Your Allies

Your attitudes either work for you or against you, and you can choose which. Schwartz's central point in this chapter is that a positive attitude is a trained habit, not a gift you either have or lack. Attitudes shape how you read every situation, so they must be managed deliberately.

Schwartz's approach comes down to three steps:

Spot negative attitudes as habits that generate fear and excuses.

Replace them with positive thinking by picturing success before you act.

Act against fear. Confidence grows from doing, not from waiting to feel ready.

These steps tie directly to the book's larger argument that the size of your thinking sets the size of your results. An attitude that expects failure produces the evidence to prove it. An attitude that expects a workable answer keeps you moving toward one.

Try this: Tonight, write down one negative attitude you hold about a goal, then rewrite it as a positive statement you will act on tomorrow.

Chapter 9: Think Right Toward People

Your success depends on how you think about people. Thinking right toward people means approaching others with respect and goodwill before you expect anything in return. Schwartz's point is that people who assume others are for them, not against them, earn more cooperation and more opportunity.

The chapter's core practices:

Expect the best from others. Negative assumptions produce defensive behavior, which you then cite as proof that people can't be trusted.

Give respect first. Treat everyone, from the clerk to the executive, as someone whose opinion matters.

Drop resentment. Grudges drain the energy you need for big thinking.

The attitude you bring into a room shapes the response you get back. Your thinking about people shows up in every negotiation, deal, and working relationship.

Try this: Before your next meeting, identify one specific strength in the person you find hardest to work with, and tell them about it.

Chapter 10: Get the Action Habit

The core idea of this chapter is that action builds confidence, and waiting for perfect conditions is a form of excusitis, Schwartz's term for the failure disease. Schwartz argues that the size of your thinking determines the size of your success, and action is how thinking becomes results. People who succeed do not wait until they feel fully ready. They act, and the action itself dissolves much of the fear that held them back.

Schwartz's guidance rests on three practices:

Act on ideas now. Decide and move instead of postponing until conditions improve.

Take action against fear. Doing what you dread is the surest way to shrink the dread.

Keep the momentum going. Each completed step makes the next one easier to start.

Action becomes a habit the same way any habit does: through repetition, not willpower alone.

Try this: Choose one task you have been postponing, and complete its first step before the end of today.

Chapter 11: How to Turn Defeat into Victory

Defeat is information, not a verdict. In this chapter, Schwartz argues that a setback becomes valuable only when you study it and act again, instead of letting excusitis turn it into a reason to stop. How you think about a loss shapes what you do next, so winning starts with how you respond to losing.

The process comes down to three steps:

Accept the loss without blaming luck or circumstances. Excuses keep you stuck in the past.

Extract the lesson. Ask what the failure revealed about your plan, timing, or effort.

Act again quickly. Apply the Get the Action Habit: move on the revised plan instead of waiting for perfect conditions.

Each defeat you analyze becomes raw material for your next success. Defeat only defeats you when it ends the effort. Keep the lesson, drop the blame, and keep moving.

Try this: Write down your most recent setback, name one lesson it taught you, and schedule one action on that lesson before tomorrow.

Chapter 12: Use Goals to Help You Grow

Growth happens when you set goals that stretch you. Schwartz argues that goal-setting turns the size of your thinking into action. A clear target shows you what to do next, so you stop waiting for perfect conditions and start working toward something specific.

Schwartz's core points:

Set specific goals. Vague wishes produce vague results. A defined target gives your effort a direction.

Aim above your current level. A worthwhile goal requires you to grow to reach it, not just repeat what you already do.

Break goals into steps. Each step should be a small action you can begin now.

Review progress regularly. Adjust your methods when needed, but keep the goal.

Schwartz also ties goal-setting to thinking like a leader. Leaders decide where they are headed and then build the plan to get there. Your goals reveal how big you are willing to think, and each goal you reach expands the next one you can set.

Try this: Write down one goal that feels slightly beyond your reach, then list the first action you will take on it today.

Chapter 13: How to Think Like a Leader

Leadership starts with how you think. Schwartz holds that the size of your thinking sets the limit on your results, and a leader thinks big, acts quickly, and refuses to hide behind excusitis, his term for the failure disease. Leaders use these habits:

Set ambitious goals. Decide what you want and aim for it, rather than settling for what feels safe.

Get the action habit. Act on ideas now instead of waiting for perfect conditions.

Reject excuses. Health, intelligence, age, and luck are the usual alibis. Leaders do not accept them.

Build confidence through action. Take action against fear, and think positively about what you can do.

Try this: Write down one goal you have been postponing, then take the first concrete step toward it today.

*Editor's note: I could not confirm the exact contents, title, or position of Chapter 13 in the book. This section draws only on the core ideas you verified (the size of your thinking, excusitis, the action habit, goal setting, and building confidence). Check the chapter against the table of contents and the text before publishing.*