John Maxwell's most recent book is amazing. "How Successful People Think," is an instruction manual to improve our power of the mind and how can better utilize our brains. Below is just a small sample. How small? This came from the introduction and not the main chapters of the book. This is a great book for coaches to read. It is a small book with 124 pages of outstanding strategy for better thinking.WHY YOU SHOULD CHANGE YOUR THINKING
It’s hard to overstate the value of changing your thinking. Good thinking can do many things for you: generate revenue, solve problems, and create opportunities. It can take you to a whole new level — personally and professionally. It really can change your life.
Consider some things you need to know about changing your thinking:
1. Changed Thinking Is Not Automatic.
Sadly, a change in thinking doesn’t happen on its own. If you want to become a better thinking, you need to work at — and once you begin to become a better thinker, the good ideas keep coming.
2. Changed Thinking Is Difficult
Nobel-Prize winning physicist Albert Einstein, on of the best thinkers who ever lived, asserted, “Thinking is hard work; that’s why so few do it.”
3. Changed Thinking Is Worth the Investment
Author Napoleon Hill observed, “More gold has been mined from the thoughts of man than has ever been taken from the earth.”
HOW TO BECOME A BETTER THINKING
1. Expose Yourself to Good Input
Good thinkers always prime the pump of ideas. They always look for things to get the thinking process started because what you put in always impacts what comes out. Read books, review trade magazines, listen to tapes, and spend time with good thinkers.
2. Expose Yourself to Good Thinkers
Spend time with the right people. As I worked on this section and bounced my ideas off of some key people (so that my thoughts would be stretched), I realized something about myself. All of the people in my life whom I consider to be close friends or colleagues are thinkers.
The writer of Proverbs observed that sharp people sharpen one another, just as iron sharpens iron. If you want to be a sharp thinker, be around sharp people.
3. Choose to Think Good Thoughts
To become a good thinker, you must become intentional about the thinking process. Regularly put yourself in the right place to think, shape, stretch, and land your thoughts. Make it a priority. Remember, thinking is a discipline.
4. Act on Your Good Thoughts
World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker said it all when he remarked, “I can give you six-word formula for success: Think things through — then follow through.”
It’s hard to overstate the value of changing your thinking. Good thinking can do many things for you: generate revenue, solve problems, and create opportunities. It can take you to a whole new level — personally and professionally. It really can change your life.
Consider some things you need to know about changing your thinking:
1. Changed Thinking Is Not Automatic.
Sadly, a change in thinking doesn’t happen on its own. If you want to become a better thinking, you need to work at — and once you begin to become a better thinker, the good ideas keep coming.
2. Changed Thinking Is Difficult
Nobel-Prize winning physicist Albert Einstein, on of the best thinkers who ever lived, asserted, “Thinking is hard work; that’s why so few do it.”
3. Changed Thinking Is Worth the Investment
Author Napoleon Hill observed, “More gold has been mined from the thoughts of man than has ever been taken from the earth.”
HOW TO BECOME A BETTER THINKING
1. Expose Yourself to Good Input
Good thinkers always prime the pump of ideas. They always look for things to get the thinking process started because what you put in always impacts what comes out. Read books, review trade magazines, listen to tapes, and spend time with good thinkers.
2. Expose Yourself to Good Thinkers
Spend time with the right people. As I worked on this section and bounced my ideas off of some key people (so that my thoughts would be stretched), I realized something about myself. All of the people in my life whom I consider to be close friends or colleagues are thinkers.
The writer of Proverbs observed that sharp people sharpen one another, just as iron sharpens iron. If you want to be a sharp thinker, be around sharp people.
3. Choose to Think Good Thoughts
To become a good thinker, you must become intentional about the thinking process. Regularly put yourself in the right place to think, shape, stretch, and land your thoughts. Make it a priority. Remember, thinking is a discipline.
4. Act on Your Good Thoughts
World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker said it all when he remarked, “I can give you six-word formula for success: Think things through — then follow through.”
5. Allow Your Emotions to Create Another Good Thought
To start the thinking process, you cannot rely on your feelings. If you wait until you feel like doing something, you will likely never accomplish it. The same is true for thinking. You cannot wait until you feel like thinking to do it.
6. Repeat the Process
One good thought does not make a good life. The people who have one good thought and try to ride it for an entire career often end up unhappy or destitute. They are the one-hit wonders, the one-book authors, the one-message speakers, the one-time investors who spend their life struggling to project or promote their single idea. Success comes to those who have an entire mountain of gold that they continually mine, not those who find one nugget and try to live on it for fifty years.
