Dream up a need and fill it.
--Richard Russell
How big can you think?
If you free yourself of the doubts that you hold in your mind, of the limitations that experience and circumstance have placed on your self-image, are there any boundaries to the grandiosities of what you can think of?
If your thinking weren’t limited in any way, what kind of need would you dream up for yourself, and how would you go about fulfilling it?
Last week
When I came across the above quote by Richard Russell, something about it really leapt out at me. It seemed to synthesize a lot of the advice I have been hearing recently: advice about having clear goals and definiteness of purpose, advice about the necessity of giving before receiving, advice about how important providing a useful service to people is when seeking monetary returns. Here, in this simple little quote, was all of that.
Dream up a need could also be written as dream up a service, dream up a way to be useful to people, dream up a way to make others happy, dream up a way to use that which excites you for the benefit of others, and then do it.
When I read this quote, I think Aha! That’s it! It couldn’t be any easier. But when I sit down and put my brain to the task of dreaming, I find myself struggling to take the lid off of my thinking. I find myself feeling confined by things that I can’t quite see or grasp.
My question to you: What have you done to develop the habit of thinking big?
My wife would like this, because it's something she tried to foster in our kids through conversation and post-it notes. Recently the whiteboard on our fridge said "Dream big and then go out an do it." Today it says "Yes I can," above which my son wrote がんばって (he's studying Japanese).
I find this funny because, in a screenplay that I'll likely never finish, there is a character who has terrible things happen in her dreams. Not knowing this, her mother keeps sending her inspirational quotes like "May All Your Dreams Come True."
I don't believe I've ever "thought big." There is a character in the book House of God who follows the instructions on postcards he receives in the mail to end up in medical school and then residency. I've always thought that I just drifted along into my current life in much the same way, letting others nudge me along.
That’s interesting. I’ve been wondering how to go about developing this with my children. Recently, I was listening to Jeff Bezos talk about having heroes and role models, which I’ve never really had, and it finally dawned on me how important they are to inspiring and developing one’s potential, etc.
I’ve pretty much fumbled through my life too, just following the path of least resistance in a lot of ways. Of course, I’ve made a lot of decisions along the way, but they’ve always been open ended. I think it might be accurate to say I’ve just made a decision to jump in the various rivers that presented themselves to me and then floated down them to wherever they took me.
Putting quotes on the refrigerator sounds like a good idea. I may try doing that.
Why don’t you share your screenplay on Steemit in installments? You might get some feedback on it while also finding the motivation to finish it. It sounds like you have a good idea developing.
My “screenplay” is more an idea and some characters at this point. Looking at Google Drive this morning, it looks like it was last modified in Feb 2015.
That’s a while ago, isn’t it? There are a few film makers on here, maybe you could write here and bring it to life. How cool would that be?
I’ll give it some thought. Thanks for the encouragement.
Any time😁
To your question i havent done anything even after reading THINK BIG by ben carson. so pls how can i go about it?....its not that simple sometimes i write down my goals or dreams but are usually far from them.
I haven’t read that book yet, I’ve only heard of it. A lot of people say you have to fundamentally change your thinking to think big. You have to let go of the limiting thoughts that you have. I think it probably helps to spend time with people who think bigger than you, know more than you, live differently than you do, and get the results you want to replicate.
I can say all of that, but I’m finding myself struggling to break free of my boundaries and think bigger. That’s why I posed the question.
As for your goals and dreams, do you write detailed plans to reach them? Are you taking small steps that lead you in the right direction?
thanks for the advice ...i will try to break my boundry and reach out to people who think big. yea concerning my dreams i do take small steps in achieving them. thanks for your time and reply
I’ll try to do so too;) Good luck with your goals. As little as ten minutes a day of concentrated effort can make a big difference over the course of a year.
To think on this quote a bit more, for me it’s never been about thinking ‘big’, it’s about thinking ‘what would last’, what will stand the test of time and difficult conditions. I’m happy with my lot in life so far, but maybe it’s time I think a little bigger. :)
I’m not sure if think big is the best way to word what I was trying to address here. Nevertheless, thinking about things that will last and stand the test of time sounds like you’re thinking pretty big to me.
Maybe thinking without limits is a better way of wording it, or thinking with less limits, or maybe even thinking with broader perspectives. When I listened to an interview with Jeff Bezos recently, he talked about basically living two or three years in the future all the time, and about a time in the future where a trillion human beings could live across the universe.
When I heard that, I thought to myself, Wow! This guy is thinking on a totally different level than I am. And then I thought back to a Bob Proctor talk I once heard where he said he invited a prospective partner to spend a few days in his house so that she could see how the super wealthy live because he knew that if she didn’t see it, she wouldn’t understand it. Everything in his life was focused on giving him more time to focus on his purpose. He used his money to hire help so that he could triple or even quadruple the amount of time he had to use. And, according to him, he knew that, though his prospective partner was quite rich, she wouldn’t understand the level he was living on without seeing and experiencing it.
When I say thinking big, I’m referring to seeing and thinking beyond what we know and are accustomed to; seeing over the walls in a sense.
Thank you for your extended reply, it made me chuckle even though I am taking it in seriously. I know what you meant, and I was just expressing a different approach. I think even if I wasn’t limited by time or money, I’d still think about durability and maintenance. It comes from being innately lazy and non-commital. I love to know I have free time and nothing planned. It would be safe to say I’ve built my life to afford this luxury. To just be able to roll up in bed, read a good book or dream, to let someone else save the world or execute plans of grandiosity. Thinking ‘big’ wasn’t on my agenda, finding inner peace was. I’m not a tranquil person, I’m highly strung and a stresshead, so I’m constantly at battle with myself. So if I was to hire people to do stuff for me so I have more time, I’d probably just want them to go away, because their presence is invading my space. I equate thinking big with more work. You have to love these big ideas to want to make the effort and sacrifices. Because there would be sacrifice.
With all that said, which probably makes no sense, wealth to me is wealth in time. I think as I get older, this has become more and more clear. So if I was to think bigger, I need to think, how can I find more time to do nothing? I’m possibly misguided, but really, I’m just disorganised. So, I need to start thinking how to better organise my time in my bigger thinking...
If you’re confused by my reply, know that I am too. I don’t know what my point was!🤣
Ahhh ... time to roll up in bed and read a book, or just let nothing happen for a day or two. I do miss being able to do that.
You’re right, big ideas often mean big sacrifices. A lot of things I have been listening to and reading have sounded intriguing to me, but a lot of them have made me feel like, This is a great idea, but I don’t think it’s for me.
I think that thinking big can also be equated to thinking long term, or thinking about more people. As with everything, how something fits into one’s life depends on the person.