Sometimes, the only thing limiting us our potential is ourselves. Our minds can be our own worst enemies. It is easy to believe that we are not worthy of success. It is easy to fall into the role that society has assigned to us. Tony Robbins often asks:
What’s your story? What do you believe about your lot in life? Are those beliefs empowering you or preventing you from living a happy, fulfilled life?
As human beings, we make decisions about what we believe based on our past experiences. Unfortunately, we might still be stuck in the trauma of painful experiences and pessimistic beliefs we've adopted by others. We let the voices of judgment from our parents, coworkers, or negative peers damage our own internal voice.
In order to think bigger for our future, we need to let go of our own self-limited beliefs. We need to change our internal narrative. By changing our internal voice, we can think big and find successes that allow us to see ourselves in a radical new light. Think about your life as a wonderful movie: it should be exciting and fulfilling. You are on a hero's journey to recognizing the full potential of your life.
I have compiled the most effective strategies to help me think big and unleash my own potential. Ultimately, it has helped me become the owner of my business instead of an operator in someone else's. Here are the seven main keys to help you think bigger and accomplish amazing results:
1. Don't Settle for Comfort and Boredom
You have massive potential for excellence. But at some point in your life, you probably have settled to be comfortable and bored. Unleashing your potential requires you to push your limits. It requires you to go through some uncomfortable life experiences.
Thinking big requires you to stretch beyond your comfort zone. Big goals might be scary at first. It might require you to take calculated risks. What you are going to learn through challenging trials is that you are more capable than you think you are. Only through tough times do we learn and grow as individuals.
2. Set Big Goals and Lay a Roadmap
Ambitious and specific goals help people to reach for more. If you want to change your life story, you need to change what you are aiming for. Set SMART goals to create a framework for tackling ambitious goals. Every goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based.
You don't want to set a goal that is out of touch with reality. That is a recipe for misery. Create a roadmap for how you want to tackle ambitious goals. For example, if you want to start a technology business, you might set goals to learn how to code, learn how to manage finances, and learn how to raise money. Tackling tasks on a roadmap helps you achieve your biggest life goals.
3. Start Enjoying the Journey
Most people are unhappy because their life is different from what they want it to be. They want massive, rapid, and recognizable success. But the focus on their failings causes them to feel anxious and depressed. If you want to live a better life, start falling in love with your progress first. For example, if your goal is to lose weight and your process is to run and eat well, start enjoying your diet and your runs. The weight loss will come as a result.
4. Surround Yourself With People Who Want to Help You
Having a strong, inspiring network of people to turn to will help you to think bigger. In the words of the motivational speaker Jim Rohn:
You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
The people you spend time with shape your thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. You will eventually think, talk, and behave like them.
According to Darren Hardy in The Compound Effect:
According to research by social psychologist Dr. David McClelland of Harvard, [the people you habitually associate with] determine as much as 95 percent of your success or failure in life.
If you want growth, you need to be comfortable asking for feedback to think bigger. You should ask for critiques of your performance. If you have an honest inner group, they will push you to improve.
5. Relentlessly Give Value
The person who gives the most value is the person who wins. No matter what dreams you have, you will need people to advocate for you. In the age of social media, your valuable content causes disproportionate virality to help people. It creates awareness for what you stand for. Think about these examples:
- Michael Jordan entertained millions of people during his basketball career to create a billion-dollar empire.
- Gary Vee leveraged helpful and viral content to create profitable companies for himself.
- Mark Zuckerberg created an empire from a platform that allowed billions of people to connect to each other.
6. Learn By Doing
Knowledge, when properly executed, helps you create amazing results. These results will help you see that you are capable of achieving incredible outcomes. A track record of success will help you break your self-limiting beliefs. Keep learning. But more importantly, keep executing.
7. Read Inspirational Books
Motivational books open a window into an experience you want to learn from. According to John Maxwell:
It's said that a wise person learns from his mistakes. A wiser one learns from others' mistakes. But the wisest person of all learns from others’ successes.
When you read amazing books about how people rise from the bottom and become a role model in the world, it will give you keys to recognizing how to create your own roadmap. It helps you realize that every successful person was a nobody before they became somebody. Everyone starts at zero. What matters is that you have the courage to start.
Final Words
It's scary to think big. If you are stuck in your past failures and trauma, you might not believe that you are capable of success. But once you believe in your unlimited potential, you are able to think big and grow beyond yourself. If you follow the principles in this guide, you will be able to start your journey towards a better you today. The hardest part is finding the courage to take a start today. You are greater than you know and braver than you think. Always invest and believe in yourself. It is the one investment that will pay off in the long-run.