I love classic self-help literature. Not the newfangled stuff on display at the local bookstore. No, I’m talking about Dale Carnegie era stuff. Time-tested books that are at least fifty years old.
It feels good to admit that.
My latest read is David Schwartz’s 1959 book, The Magic of Thinking Big. In this book, Schwartz makes the case that we seldom think clearly about how to better ourselves, how to improve. He offers some suggestions.
Here is an exercise inspired by the book.
- Get out paper and pen (or text editor of choice).
- Ask yourself who the most successful person in your life is. “Successful” is whatever you define it be. Maybe it’s someone who records awesome albums, makes lots of money, has a passionate marriage, lots of friends, etc. It’s up to you how you define success.
- Make a list of all the qualities that describe this “successful” person. Write down anything and everything that you notice about them.
- Now think of someone that you view as unsuccessful. Write down as many words as you can that describe them.
- Look over these two lists.
- Ask yourself how these qualities relate to your life? Which of these qualities do you possess? Which qualities don’t you possess?
- Let it sink in.
It’s hard to be objective about ourselves. We can be too hard on ourselves, overly critical. We can also ignore areas that need improvement.
What you do with this info is entirely up to you. I hope you’ve found this exercise useful.
published .
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