The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
—Henry Ford

Is Henry Ford correct? Is his quote relevant? And if it is correct, how can both of these men be right? The answer is simple and comes from within.

Each man is right because his response is a mirror of his perception of reality. Either he believes in himself and what he can accomplish, or he believes that he won’t or can’t.

Most often, those that believe that they can’t do something are purely lacking confidence driven by the fear of failing. Most make low, easy or realistic goals that they know they will achieve because of their fear of failing.

The Mediocrity Syndrome

In life, there are those that hit base hits in order to live in mediocrity and then there are those that hit home runs to live the life of their dreams. Base hits can win games but home runs are fun and much more rewarding. The base hitters play it safe and strive to live decent lives or . This mentality sets you up to live a mediocre life, missing out on living to your fullest potential. The Mediocrity Syndrome is the kiss of death to business success.

How Big Will You Allow Yourself to Imagine?

Do you want to live the life you desire or the life that someone else mapped out for you? If you want to change your current situation, you need to learn how to think differently. When I say differently, I mean BIG. Every choice you have made to this point has gotten you to where you are now—every choice you make from now on will create your future. If you are truly happy with where your life choices have gotten you, then good for you and keep it up. If you aren’t, then you aren’t thinking big enough.

Your choices come from your thoughts and how you perceive your place in this world.

It’s very important that you value and believe in yourself. Most people can’t believe or entertain the thought that they could be making millions or that they could be the utmost authority or guru in their field. When you put a low price tag on yourself, you can’t expect other people to put a higher price tag on you, can you? If you don’t like yourself, how do you expect others to like you? No one will value you if you don’t value yourself.

In order to have something that you have never had, you must do something that you’ve never done. In this case, you must open up your mind to the thought of achieving something big. Let your imagination dream about the life that you want to live. There are no limits as to what you can dream about in your imagination. After all, it’s your imagination.

Live out your imagination and not your history.
—Stephen Covey

Visualize yourself achieving great things in the future and being the person you want to be, not the person that society thinks you should be.

Those that accomplish big things can see them in their mind before anyone else can see them in reality. Visualizing what you want in your daily life will give you accuracy when you aim in order to achieve what you want.

If you want to learn how to think big, ask yourself big questions.

Ask yourself questions that make you think about your situation and how to change certain things.

Don’t ask “why does this have to happen to me?” Instead, ask, “How can I change this?” “What can I Iearn from this?” or “What is the opportunity in this?”

So many of the base hitters in life point the finger and blame others for their lack of success. When asked why they aren’t successful, the finger comes out and puts the blame on others or their circumstances.

Don’t be that person! No excuses. You will be the only one feeling sorry for yourself. If you haven’t made it to where you want to be, it’s because of the decisions that you have made. Take responsibility for your failures and learn from them. It’s OKAY to fail! Never let fear guide your thought processes. When you let fear take precedence in your thoughts, indecision sets in. Indecision fertilizes fear. The only way to put fear to rest is to take action immediately.

Success isn’t getting there; it’s making a decision that you’re going to get there and moving toward it.

The Choice

Thinking big takes many people out of their comfort zone. It’s un-treaded water for them. But everything you do in life requires a choice. That choice is to either think small and close-minded or to think big and open-minded.

You must decide that everything in your life DESERVES big thinking. Thinking BIG is a mentality and should not be limited to only certain avenues in your life. In everything you do and in the choices that you make, you must ask yourself: Could you be doing it bigger or better? When you start to preface everything you do in life like this, your mentality will shift from close-minded decisions to open-minded decisions and you will start to see yourself and the world in an entirely new perspective.

Some ideas to start thinking bigger and changing your thought processes immediately could be a simple choice to dress more professionally for work. This thought process will make you start to actually believe that you deserve that raise or the managerial position. Take a different approach in the evening. Rather than sitting down and watching the football game, your choice could be listening to a podcast on self-development or watching a webinar. As you grow you’ll start to see just how small your thinking used to be.

In what areas of your life do you need to start thinking bigger?