How to Think Big to Win Big in Life

When you think big you start translating that into your every day actions. Once you consistently take big actions to better your life is when you see significant results. It takes a little bit of practice to get out of the mindset that school teaches us. School teaches us that our potential is capped to a 100. That’s incorrect.

Every year, companies give out something like 2% raises, 5% if you’re especially lucky. This is even after companies enjoy 100%+ increases in profit. They love thinking big when it comes to growing their bottom line. They hate thinking big when it comes to raising their employees’ salary.

It’s more crucial than ever for you to think big on your own. You can do that in a variety of ways, the least of which is to start a side hustle. Having one job IS enough to live on with dollars leftover to save and invest your money. However, that’s a slow way to get there.

If you want to accelerate your path to success, you can start by thinking big. When I first started working, the company gave me a 6.7% raise on my base salary after six months. While I thought that was trending in the right direction, it still wasn’t a big enough salary raise for me.

When they threw in an extra 56% raise as a part of the bonus, then that’s when I started to feel good. Even though little wins add up to monumental results when compounded over the long term, don’t forget the power of big wins. The big wins are what’s going to make or break the bank.

By thinking big, you are doing your potential a huge favor.

What Does it Mean to Think Big?

To think big is to think about results that will make a meaningful impact to you life. Big wins matter the most out of any other wins. They are what gives your salary a 50%+ boost. They are what makes your life meaningful by going after that girl who’s out of your league.

Think in terms of large numbers. Small wins give you the motivation to charge ahead and move forward on your goals. Big wins are the things that actually change your life meaningfully. Possibly permanently. For the first year or two, it’s not a bad idea to dip your toes in. See how to move forward and progress.

Then in year 3 is when you can aggressively go after the big goals. One of my coworkers who made $400,000 per year told me his biggest regret was not being aggressive enough early in his career. While a $400,000 salary is phenomenal, imagine how much bigger it could have been if he thought in big numbers from the beginning.

To think big is not to think of goals that are just so outlandish you may never achieve them. It’s to think outside of your comfort zone. Whether it’s by 10% or a 100%, it should be outside of your comfort zone. For example, one of your goals may be to get a house.

You could think “I’ll save an extra 10% per year for the next 3 – 5 years to save up for the down payment”. Or you could think of ways to boost your income by an extra 50% so you can get that house you want in a single year. You are only limited by your imagination.

While time is helpful, what’s even better is if you figure out how to do it quicker.

How to Think Big

To think big is to SLAP that social share button and post to your favorite social media! The articles take a very long time for me to consider and carefully craft so if you could share this article with your friends for me, I would greatly appreciate it. It helps me know which articles are value adding to my readers!

So with that, let’s get into the concrete ways that you can practice big thinking. It might just change your life for the better.

1) Think of Your Goal and Multiply It

I don’t care what kind of multiple you put on it. It could be a 1.5x, 1.1x, 2x, or even 5x. Whatever you set your goal out to be, apply some sort of a multiple to it. I personally try to increase my net worth by $100,000 a year, at a minimum. It all depends on how the markets do.

I’ve successfully increased my net worth by $100,000 per year over the past two years. Therefore, I’m applying a 2x multiple so that my goal is to increase by $200,000 per year starting in 2022. It should only get easier because of the power of compound interest.

However, I’m still weighing the risk that the stock market could turn negative in 2022. As a result, I am refraining from putting in a 2x+ multiple on the goal and rather only putting in a 2x goal. Do I think I can surpass the goal? Yes. However, I’m weighing in scenarios of realism and big thinking together.

It’s already a high bar goal just by itself, anyway. This doesn’t just apply to money. Whatever other goal you want to achieve, quantify it then multiply it by a multiple. That’s your actual target you are going for.

2) Believe the Outcomes are Possible

To think big is to know that you can actually achieve the results. Things are only impossible until it isn’t. Belief isn’t the only thing you need. Things don’t just come to you because you believe things are going to come to you. You still need to put in hard work and the effort in order to get there.

However, no one ever achieved their goals by not believing that they can achieve them. However outlandish that you think your big thinking goal is, believe that it’s possible. Stranger things happened besides that. Then once you believe that you can achieve your goals, make them happen yourself. Take a decision and make it right.

Put in the work, Don’t let yourself fail. It all starts with your motivation, desire, and want. Do you really want it that badly enough? If you don’t, you’re going to put that goal as secondary. You’ll say “if it happens, great, if not, that’s fine too”. If failing is fine for you, then you don’t want it badly enough. Otherwise, you’ll put in the work.

3) Think Big By Looking at the Big Winners

When I first told my friends I’m going to be a millionaire by 30, my friend immediately said “but you’re not going to even make a million dollars by 30”. I ignored him because I knew that it was within the realm of possibility. At the time, I had absolutely zero clue how I was going to get there. But I knew I was going to get there.

Why? I already knew that people already did it. So then I started thinking, “well if they can do it, why can’t I?” And sure enough, I’m on track to be a millionaire by 30. There is a chance that I won’t get there but there’s an even better chance that I will.

When you already see others who already achieved what you want to achieve, think why you can’t get there yourself. There’s no reason why you can’t. To think big is to know that you can do it yourself as well. That the people who achieved big things are your peers and not celebrities who are untouchable.

4) Think About the Last Time You Met Your Goal

Did you handily meet your goal that you set for yourself? Why didn’t you set an even higher goal? Is it because you were afraid? Is it because you didn’t want to leave your comfort zone? Whatever the reason is, put out an even bigger goal this time. Some success might not be entirely up to you.

It could be based on what others think of you. For example, having a blog or having a Youtube channel. However, you can do the next best thing besides controlling your success. Which is influencing it. You can absolutely influence others to your line of thinking. Whatever you’re thinking, there’s others who are thinking the exact same.

Then when you gather the support of those people whose interests are aligned with yours, you create an army. If you handily met your goal, it’s time to think big and raise the bar by a significant level. If you set a lower standard for yourself because you wanted to take a break this year, then that’s a good reason.

However, if that wasn’t the reason, it’s time to reevaluate and set new goals.

5) Look at the Long Term

Big hairy audacious goals take time to complete. When you think big, it might not even be a year long goal. It could be a decade long goal. Look for the long term. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t meet your big hairy audacious goal in a single year. Look at it over 2, 5, or even 10 years.

People absolutely overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in 10 years. Big thinking may require a long time than you realized, and that’s completely OK. Sometimes, life gets in the way. I wanted to post more blog posts than twice a week.

However, life got in the way, especially work, that I didn’t foresee happening. It takes time to build out an audience and have a plethora of posts for readers to indulge on. That’s OK. I’m looking at it over the long term. I’m not going to get discouraged because I didn’t see results from the effort that I already put in.

I’m looking at the long term.

6) Think Big by Looking at What’s Been Done and Improve It

Whatever the record achievement was or whatever the record is that an earlier person set, improve it. Now, it’s important to realize when you can actually realistically achieve it. If you are an influencer and you’re trying to beat Kylie Jenner, there’s an extremely good chance that you won’t.

However, when you are looking at someone like me and you want to beat my net worth achievement of $400k by 26, then by all means. Go for it. It’s absolutely attainable. Not only is it attainable, there’s a way for you to beat the achievement as well. I gave up on a side hustle first year out of college.

$400k by 26 is without side hustle money. So if someone started their side hustle during college and generates a good income from it afterwards, they are on their way to beating me. It’s not rocket science and it’s more than possible to get there. Many people already did, anyway.

7) It’s OK if You Fail

I actually wanted to match Graham Stephan‘s achievement to be a millionaire by 26. I’m nowhere close to being there. I utterly and completely failed at doing so. But you know what? That’s completely OK. It’s completely OK that I didn’t reach my goals because I’m already proud of what I got to achieve already.

When you think big, you are going to fail more than if you think small. That’s exactly what happened here. As long as I failed after giving big goals a fair shot rather than not try at all, I’m content. I’m happy with it. It’s much better than setting attainable goals and stop working towards even bigger ones because you already got there in just six months.

Failing is a great thing. Expect it to happen. That way, you won’t be disappointed if you actually do fail. Manage your expectations and brace for impact.

8) Be Specific

You can’t think big if you are not specific about what you’re thinking big on in the first place. Whatever you want to accomplish, be specific on what you want to accomplish. Is it to get a promotion by the end of the year? Did you have an honest conversation with your boss on what it takes to get there?

Is it to be comfortable with public speaking? Is it to network and meet a lot of people and create meaningful relationships? Whatever your goal is, be specific on what you want to accomplish. Evaluate if you are making meaningful progress towards that every month or year.

Specific goals allow you to go somewhere. It’s an actual roadmap in that you know exactly where X marks the treasure. My goal to increase my net worth by $200,000 next year is very specific. I know exactly whether I failed or succeeded by the end of next year. It’s specific enough.

9) Give Yourself Time to Think Big

You can’t think big if you don’t allocate time within your day to actually think big. One of my favorite past times is to walk around the house just thinking on what I need to do. Am I on track to get there? What will make me get off my track? Is there additional things that I can do?

I also love taking walks after work. That’s my “me time” and time where I do nothing but think things through. Was it a good day? What could I have done differently? Am I happy with my life and general sense of well being at this current moment? What can I do to increase my happiness or take care of my health?

Give yourself ample time throughout the day and spend time with yourself going forward. It’s one of the most quality time that you can spend with another person. You’ll find out that you enjoy being alone with your thoughts away from others’. It’s when you can think the most clearly, without any outside distractions of the world.

There’s fewer things that can help you than well thought out actions.

Think Big and One Day it Will be Reality

The disclaimer is that it absolutely will not happen if all you do is think big. That’s the first half of the battle. The next half the battle is actually taking action. There’s no point in having useful knowledge if you’re not going to use or apply it to your life. Absolutely zero point.

As long as you are actively taking steps to meet your high expectations of thinking big, then it will become a reality at some point. It will take a very long time to create the life that you want to build. Rome wasn’t built in a day but the Romans laid bricks every hour. How great would it be to one day wake up and find out you are a millionaire?

How great would it be to approach any stranger you want and be able to create an instant connection? Whatever your definition of big thinking is, it will become a reality at some point in your life. As long as you put in the work towards your goals. Almost every single day. Show up. Put in the hours and effort.

I didn’t get to my position just by thinking about it. I will admit that I obsessively thought about getting to where I am today. However, I took meticulous, intentional, and purposeful action in order to get to where I am today. There are a few more things that I have to do until then.

Until then, I’m putting in as much effort as possible. I’m not going to lie down and let others take what I want away from me. That’s the motivation and fire that I want you to have for yourself as well. Do you want to live the big life badly enough?

How to Think Big List:

• 1) Think of your goal and multiply it
• 2) Believe the outcomes are possible
• 3) Think big by looking at past winners
• 4) Think about the last time that you met your goal
• 5) Look at the long term
• 6) Think big by looking at what’s been done and improve it
• 7) It’s oK if you fail
• 8) Be specific
• 9) Give yourself time to think big